Senior SDET / QA Automation Engineer
On-siteHanover, Maryland, United States
Job Summary
Design and maintain end-to-end UI automation frameworks using Playwright and Cypress across web applications supporting DoD and enterprise programs. Develop API and backend test suites with Postman and REST Assured to validate authentication flows and service contracts. Integrate automated test suites into GitLab CI/CD pipelines to enforce quality gates on every pull request and deployment. Configure synthetic monitoring scripts for production uptime checks and triage false positives. Build reusable test utilities and data factories to reduce setup overhead while enforcing consistent coding standards through code reviews. Partner with DevOps and engineering teams to embed testing earlier in the development lifecycle and contribute to definition-of-done criteria. Serve as the quality subject matter expert, mentoring engineers on automation patterns and maintaining documentation that satisfies compliance audit and ATO evidence requirements.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field—or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years of experience in software development engineering in test (SDET), QA automation, or a related discipline.
- Hands-on proficiency with Playwright and/or Cypress for end-to-end UI test automation.
- Strong API testing skills using Postman (including collections, environments, and Newman for CI execution) and/or REST Assured.
- Solid programming skills in JavaScript/TypeScript and/or Python; ability to write production-quality test code, not just record-and-replay scripts.
- Experience integrating test automation into CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI/CD, or Jenkins).
- Familiarity with AWS services (Cognito, RDS, DynamoDB, CloudWatch) and how they factor into end-to-end test design.
- Experience testing authentication and authorization flows (OAuth2, SAML, OIDC, MFA).
- Strong understanding of HTTP, REST, JSON, and web application architecture.
- Ability to work independently, prioritize across multiple projects, and communicate quality risk clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience with synthetic monitoring and uptime automation (e.g., Playwright-based health checks, Pingdom scripting).
- Familiarity with NIST 800-171, CMMC, or FedRAMP testing and traceability requirements.
- Experience testing applications hosted on Azure GCC High or AWS GovCloud environments.
- Background in performance or load testing (k6, JMeter, or Locust).
- Experience with accessibility testing (WCAG 2.1, 508 compliance) and security-focused test cases (OWASP Top 10 validation).
- ISTQB certification or equivalent QA/testing credential.
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