Test Engineer

American Association of Motor Vehicles•Arlington, VA

5d•$99,606 - $147,849

About The Position

The Test Engineer is a member of the AAMVA Quality Assurance Department within the IT Division, responsible for testing AAMVA applications and the REST services and microservices that compose them, and for supporting testing efforts with state and federal jurisdictions and commercial/third-party data consumers on motor vehicle administration and driver licensing systems. This role executes and contributes to test plans, runs functional and automated tests, and participates in testing sessions with external customers, working with a degree of independence and seeking guidance from senior team members on complex initiatives. It is a strong foundation for building modern quality engineering skills and growing toward senior technical roles. The IT Division develops and operates information systems for state and federal agencies conducting business related to motor vehicle and driver license administration. Our systems support critical government functions across multiple jurisdictions. Our systems run on a cloud-native, microservices architecture on Azure with REST interfaces across all internal and external integrations, and we invest in automation-first, AI-assisted test engineering. Our in-house test platform abstracts much of the underlying infrastructure, so we value strong test-design judgment, data and integration testing depth, and learning agility over pre-existing mastery of any single platform technology.

Requirements

Four-year degree from an accredited college or university; equivalent work experience may be substituted for the degree.
3–5 years of software quality assurance and testing experience with a solid understanding of the software development lifecycle.
Solid test-design ability — creating and executing test cases and contributing to test plans, including basic edge and negative cases.
Strong analytical skills and learning agility — able to reason about system behavior and quickly become proficient in new tools and proprietary applications. (Non-negotiable.)
Working knowledge of functional, system, integration, regression, and REST/API testing.
Working, hands-on knowledge of databases and SQL, including validating data across relational and NoSQL stores (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB).
Hands-on experience with test management and defect tracking tools (Jira, Azure DevOps/ALM, or similar).
Familiarity with automated testing frameworks and tools (Selenium, Postman, Playwright, or similar).
Familiarity with using service virtualization / mocks and managing test data for isolated, repeatable tests.
Awareness of the Azure request-path components (API Management, Application Gateway, Web Application Firewall) — enough to recognize when a failure may originate outside the application.
Conceptual understanding of cloud-hosted, microservices environments; platform expertise is not required.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, and exposure to AI-assisted testing.
Ability to troubleshoot technical issues, escalating complex problems to senior team members.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality customer service to internal teams and external jurisdictions and partners.
Experience facilitating meetings and testing sessions with stakeholders.
Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
Self-motivated, able to work with a degree of independence while seeking guidance on complex issues.
Exceptional attention to detail and analytical thinking.
Proactive problem-solver with critical-thinking ability.
Eager to learn and grow toward senior technical roles.

Nice To Haves

Knowledge of AAMVA applications, systems, and standards.
Experience with government or public-sector IT systems in motor vehicle administration or driver licensing.
Exposure to data analytics and BI pipelines (e.g. Synapse, Power BI).
Understanding of or exposure to white box testing.
Familiarity with scripting languages (JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, or similar).
ISTQB Foundation Level or working toward relevant QA certifications.

Responsibilities

Create, execute, and maintain test cases, and contribute to test plans for AAMVA applications and their underlying REST services and microservices.
Conduct functional, system, integration, and regression testing based on AAMVA's business and technical specifications.
Build and maintain automated test scripts across UI, API/REST, and service layers, and run them within CI/CD pipelines.
Perform API testing of RESTful services — request/response and schema validation, status codes, and authentication.
Use existing service-virtualization and mocks to test components in isolation and manage test data (create/modify/reset) so tests are atomic and repeatable.
Validate data across relational and NoSQL data stores (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB).
Participate in testing for jurisdictions and partners making system or platform changes, ensuring quality standards are maintained.
Apply AI-assisted testing tools to speed up test creation, debugging, and reporting.
Log, track, and manage defects through resolution using established tracking systems (e.g. Jira, Azure DevOps).
Communicate issues clearly to technical teams and stakeholders, with steps to reproduce and supporting detail.
Help determine whether a failure originates in the application, the test data, or a mocked dependency, escalating complex cases to senior team members.
Facilitate and conduct testing sessions with jurisdictions and commercial/third-party consumers (e.g. DLDV, consumer-access, and CDLIS third-party customers) implementing new or enhanced applications.
Conduct customer outreach including surveys, scheduling, and consultations.
Build and maintain strong, positive relationships with internal and external customers.
Attend meetings on testing schedules, concerns, reviews, and documentation changes, and participate actively in work groups.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams including developers, business analysts, and project managers.
Participate in the review of testing and procedural documentation.
Build and maintain proficiency in AAMVA applications and the team's testing tools through ongoing training and hands-on experience.
Provide input and recommendations to improve testing processes, efficiency, and the customer experience.