Principal Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Key Responsibilities

• Set the overall test and automation strategy across the entire software portfolio, ensuring alignment with business objectives and quality goals.
• Own the highest-risk specifications, taking end-to-end responsibility for quality planning, execution, and sign-off on complex features.
• Raise the quality standard across all delivery streams by defining best practices, guidelines, and reusable test patterns.
• Shape the shared automation approach in collaboration with the Test Automation team, designing frameworks that are maintainable, scalable, and efficient.
• Validate the data and integration layers, including relational databases, APIs, and third-party extensions, ensuring data integrity and seamless interoperability.
• Lead escaped-defect analysis, performing root cause analysis on production issues and implementing corrective actions to continuously reduce defect rates.
• Strengthen the release-readiness decision process by providing clear, data-driven quality assessments to engineering and product leadership.
• Mentor senior and junior quality engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning, technical excellence, and knowledge sharing.
• Champion a shift-left testing culture, advocating for early involvement of quality assurance in the development lifecycle to prevent defects rather than detect them late.
• Perform other job-related duties and responsibilities as may be assigned from time to time.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

• BS/BA in a relevant field or equivalent practical experience; an advanced degree is a plus.
• 10+ years of experience in software quality assurance or quality engineering, preferably on enterprise-level applications.
• At least 3 years of experience at a principal or lead level, with a proven track record of setting quality or automation strategy.
• Mastery of modern web automation tools such as Playwright, Selenium, or Cypress.
• Strong scripting skills sufficient to build complex end-to-end coverage and set framework patterns that others can follow.
• Experience architecting or directing a shared automation framework across multiple teams or products.
• Strong experience with API testing tools such as Postman or REST Assured, including contract testing paradigms.
• Advanced SQL proficiency, including debugging complex relational data pipelines and validating transactional and reporting layers, preferably on Azure SQL.
• Practical working knowledge of Microsoft Azure components such as app services and cloud monitoring.
• Deep familiarity building and maintaining build and release pipelines in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions.
• Expert manual and exploratory testing judgment for the highest-risk changes.
• Experience with Visual Studio, Azure DevOps, and Git.
• Practical experience in an Agile environment using team-level Scrum, comfortable with a player/coach engineering manager model.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills, able to explain quality risk to engineers, product leaders, and executives.

Skills Inventory

• Expert proficiency in test automation tools: Playwright, Selenium, or Cypress.
• Advanced SQL and database validation skills, particularly with Azure SQL.
• Strong API testing experience using Postman, REST Assured, or similar tools, including contract testing.
• Deep knowledge of Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions for CI/CD pipeline creation and management.
• Solid understanding of Microsoft Azure platform components, including app services and monitoring.
• Proven ability to design and implement scalable automation frameworks.
• Excellent root cause analysis and defect management skills.
• Strong mentoring and leadership abilities without formal people management.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for cross-functional collaboration.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies, specifically Scrum.
• Experience with version control using Git.
• Working knowledge of Visual Studio for development and debugging.