The Principal IT Quality Engineer is a high-level technical visionary responsible for the overarching quality engineering strategy across the organization. This role focuses on architecting enterprise-wide automation frameworks, defining quality standards, and driving technical excellence in both manual and automated testing. The Principal Engineer bridges the gap between Quality, Development, and DevOps, ensuring that quality is integrated into the entire software development life cycle (SDLC). They serve as a subject matter expert in automation (Playwright) and test management (X-ray), providing technical leadership and mentorship to ensure the delivery of high-performance, secure, and scalable applications.

Essential Duties

Architect and evolve the enterprise-wide automation strategy and framework using Playwright, ensuring cross-platform compatibility and high maintainability.
Define organizational QA standards, policies, and best practices for both manual exploratory testing and automated regression suites.
Lead the integration of Quality Engineering into CI/CD pipelines, promoting 'Shift-Left' testing and automated quality gates.
Standardize test management processes within Jira and X-ray across multiple product lines to ensure consistent reporting and traceability.
Provide high-level technical consultancy to development and QA leads on complex testing scenarios, including performance, security, and data integrity.
Conduct architectural reviews of new features to identify quality risks early in the design phase.
Mentor and coach senior engineers and leads, fostering a culture of technical growth and continuous innovation within the QA community.
Evaluate and implement emerging testing tools and technologies to improve organizational efficiency and testing ROI.
Maintain technical documentation in Confluence and represent Quality Engineering in cross-functional leadership meetings.

Competencies

• Strategic thinking and enterprise-level technical vision.
• Expertise in Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD).
• Ability to influence senior leadership and stakeholders without direct authority.
• Exceptional architect-level coding skills (TypeScript/JavaScript/Python).
• Deep knowledge of Performance, Load, and Security testing principles.
• Passion for mentorship and building a technical community of practice.

Qualifications

Education Qualifications and Certifications Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
Previous Work Experience, including Leadership Experience 5–8 years of experience in Software Quality Engineering, with at least 4+ years in a Principal or Architect level role.
Technical / Domain Specific / Functional Experience and Knowledge • Mastery of Playwright for complex automation architecture.
• Advanced administration/usage of Jira, X-ray, and Confluence.
• Understanding of CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and Cloud environments.
• Strong background in manual testing strategies for complex, non-standard systems.
GIA or G&J Industry Specific Experience and Knowledge Familiarity with laboratory, grading, or operational technology environments is preferred but not required.
Critical Experiences (including challenges that were overcome, proven skills, demonstrated outcomes, etc.) Demonstrated success in building automation frameworks from scratch and leading organizational-wide quality process transformations.

Disclaimer: This job description indicates in general terms, the type and level of work performed as well as the typical responsibilities of employees in this classification and it may be changed by management at any time. Other duties may also apply. Nothing in this job description changes the at-will employment relationship existing between the Company and its employees.