Lead Quality Engineer

At the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, employees come first — we offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees.

Benefits

• Retirement program (401k and Pension)
• Medical, dental and vision insurance
• Lifestyle Spending Account
• Competitive PTO plan
• 11 paid holidays per year

Responsibilities

• Advance the Bank’s quality engineering capabilities by shifting from traditional test execution toward an automation-first, engineering-led quality model driving built-in quality end to end.
• Combine hands-on technical delivery with team leadership, quality governance, and mentoring across agile delivery teams.
• Design, develop, and maintain End to End Test Plans and scalable automated test frameworks; integrate continuous testing into CI/CD pipelines.
• Partner with developers, product owners, business analysts, security, architecture, operations, and risk stakeholders to ensure quality is built into every phase of the SDLC.
• Enable AI-assisted delivery, secure pipeline controls, DORA-aligned metrics, and quality ownership across product teams.
• Directly contribute to Test plans, automation frameworks, test strategy, code review, CI/CD quality gates, and technical problem-solving while coaching Quality Engineers/SDETs.
• Elevate Summit quality and release confidence by designing and executing robust manual and automated test strategies for Summit and its complex integrations.
• Accelerate delivery through automation and data excellence by strengthening Selenium/Playwright and API automation frameworks while implementing reliable test data creation, masking, and refresh strategies.
• Learn and use the Test Management System (TMS), a Summit proprietary test automation tool.
• Reduce production risk and defects by validating accounting data, payment flows, end-to-end workflows, integrations, and data integrity using SQL and API testing.
• Strengthen QA maturity and team capability by mentoring junior QA engineers, driving best practices in quality engineering, and continuously improving QA processes, standards, and reporting through Azure DevOps.
• Lead the Quality Engineering strategy cross-team and end-to-end, including Test Management for all test engineering approaches (Functional, Regression, SIT, E2E, UAT, Performance/Load, Test Data, Test Environment).
• Architect, design, develop, and maintain scalable Test plans and automated test frameworks supporting functional, API, integration, end-to-end, performance, and non-functional testing.
• Define and implement quality engineering strategies and best practices across agile teams, including system architecture review, test pyramid alignment, risk-based automation, test data strategy, environment readiness, traceability, and release quality criteria.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams to drive shared ownership of quality, defect prevention, testability, non-functional requirements, and production readiness.
• Build, integrate, and maintain automated tests using strong coding practices, quality gates, reusable libraries, page/object models, service-level test patterns, test data utilities, and CI/CD-ready execution models.
• Support DevSecOps transformation by embedding security and quality controls into the SDLC.
• Collaborate with developers, architects, product owners, business analysts, security, infrastructure, operations, and risk/compliance stakeholders to validate requirements, acceptance criteria, design quality, and production readiness.
• Review user stories, acceptance criteria, architecture designs, API contracts, data flows, and technical specifications to identify test scenarios, risks, and improve testability.
• Establish, measure, monitor, and communicate quality metrics such as automation coverage, escaped defects, defect trends, test effectiveness, pipeline quality gate results, deployment readiness, and DORA-aligned delivery outcomes.
• Lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement initiatives, driving systemic solutions that reduce risk, improve reliability, and strengthen engineering outcomes.
• Support audit readiness and regulatory expectations by ensuring quality processes produce traceable evidence, controlled approvals, policy-aligned gates, and measurable risk reduction.
• Mentor, coach, and provide supervisory support and technical leadership to Quality Engineers, SDETs, and other engineering team members.
• Champion and promote modern engineering capabilities including AI-assisted testing, GitHub Copilot adoption, reusable automation assets, human-in-the-loop quality controls, and enterprise quality engineering transformation initiatives.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent experience may be considered.
• 10+ years of experience in Quality Engineering, Test planning, Software Development Engineering in Test (SDET), Test Automation, Software Engineering, Test Management end to end, or related technology disciplines.
• 5+ years of experience mentoring, coaching, or supervisory oversight to Quality Engineers, SDETs, or software delivery teams.
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-scale automated test frameworks and quality engineering solutions for API/Web/ERP/Mobile/CRM/Salesforce/SaaS/Summit/Data/EDW/Batch processes/Financial systems or similar.
• Strong hands-on programming experience using object-oriented languages such as C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or equivalent.
• Experience with modern test automation frameworks including Playwright, Selenium, Appium, SpecFlow/Cucumber, API automation frameworks, BDD, and service virtualization tools.
• Experience integrating automated testing and quality controls into CI/CD pipelines using platforms such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar technologies.
• Strong experience testing APIs, web applications, cloud-native solutions, databases, and integrated enterprise platforms.
• Experience with performance/load test, test environment/data management, security, and non-functional testing practices.
• Experience with source control, code review, branching strategies, and modern engineering workflows using GitHub and/or Azure DevOps.
• Working knowledge of relational databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, or similar technologies.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or comparable environments, microservices, and event-based architectures, domain model understanding.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps tooling and practices, including code quality, security scanning, software supply chain controls, and automated quality gates.
• Professional certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, CSQA, Certified Agile Tester, AWS, Azure, or equivalent certifications are a plus.
• Experience within a banking, financial services, or other regulated industry is preferred.

Skills

• Required Technical Experience: C#, TypeScript, Python (optional – JavaScript/Python), Playwright, Selenium, SpecFlow, API Automation & Testing (Postman, Swagger/OpenAPI), GitHub, Azure DevOps, CI/CD Pipelines, GitHub Actions, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, AWS and/or comparable cloud solutions & architectures, Performance Testing (Artillery, Gatling, JMeter), Test Environment/Data Management (Tonic.ai or equivalent), Security Testing and DevSecOps Tooling, GitHub Copilot and AI-assisted engineering tools.
• Deep understanding of modern Quality Engineering, automation-first testing, continuous testing, shift-left practices, and defect prevention.
• Strategic thinking beyond day-to-day test delivery; ability to do hands-on coding, scripting, and automation framework design.
• Working knowledge of SDLC, Agile or Hybrid, DevOps, TDD, BDD, DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering delivery practices.
• Ability to embed automated quality checks, test coverage, release readiness controls, and quality gates into delivery pipelines.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, SQL/data validation, and root-cause analysis skills.
• Ability to communicate quality risks, technical issues, and delivery impacts clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.
• Strong collaboration skills across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, Operations, Risk, and Compliance teams.
• Ability to plan, prioritize, estimate, and execute work effectively in a fast-paced delivery environment.
• Knowledge of banking, financial services, audit, regulatory, and risk-control expectations is preferred.
• Demonstrated leadership, project management, mentoring, coaching, problem-solving, and team enablement capabilities.
• Expert/Advanced Competencies: Quality Engineering Practices, Quality Engineering Strategy / KPIs / DORA, Test Strategy Development & Test Planning, Test Management in ADO, Functional Testing, API Testing, System Integration Testing / SIT, End-to-End Testing, UAT / Business Validation Support, Test Automation of Functional, Regression, Integration, E2E, Regression Test Automation Optimization & Integrated in pipelines, Test Framework development & Maintenance / Harness Development, Test Data Management, Test Environment Readiness & Validation, TDEM, Ephemeral Test Environments / IaC, Cloud Fundamentals / Containers, Service Mocking / Service Virtualization, SQL & Backend Data Validation, CI/CD Pipeline Testing & Quality Gates, Release Management / Deployment Readiness, Performance, Load & Reliability Testing, Software Monitoring / Event Management / Operational Validation, Incident / Problem Management / RCA, Defect Management, Defect Prevention & Detection, Shift-Left / Shift-Right Testing, Agile / Secure SDLC Practices, DevOps / DevSecOps Practices, TDD / BDD, Architecture & Technical Specifications Review, Testability Analysis, Work Planning / Estimation / Prioritization, Stakeholder Communication / Cross-Functional Collaboration, Mentoring / Technical Guidance, Technical Leadership / Coaching.
• Intermediate Competencies: Software Development / Unit Testing Awareness, Project Management / Requirements Management, Security Testing and Analysis, AI-Assisted Engineering and Testing.

Pay

Salary Range: $108,450.00 - $180,825.00