Principal- Quality Engineering

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About the role

United's Digital Technology team designs, develops, and maintains massively scaling technology solutions using innovative architectures, data analytics, and digital solutions. As a Principal Quality Engineer, this role will serve as the technical leader and subject matter expert for Quality Engineering, Test Automation, and Agentic Testing across the enterprise.

The position will define the technical vision, architecture, standards, and roadmap for next-generation quality platforms that leverage intelligent automation, Generative AI, observability, and autonomous testing capabilities to improve software quality, engineering productivity, and delivery speed.

The Principal Quality Engineer is responsible for designing and implementing enterprise-scale automation frameworks, AI-powered testing solutions, and quality intelligence platforms that enable teams to proactively predict, prevent, detect, and resolve quality issues throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). This role will partner closely with Engineering, Product, Platform, DevOps, Security, and Data teams to ensure quality is embedded into every stage of software delivery.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the enterprise technical strategy, architecture, standards, and roadmap for Quality Engineering, Automation, and Agentic Testing capabilities.
• Design and implement scalable automation frameworks and AI-powered quality platforms that improve software quality, engineering productivity, and delivery efficiency.
• Drive the adoption of Agentic Quality Engineering practices, including autonomous test generation, intelligent test execution, self-healing automation, and AI-assisted defect analysis to improve efficiency, coverage, and delivery speed.
• Establish governance, engineering standards, and best practices for automation, AI-enabled testing, quality intelligence, and continuous testing solutions.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, Platform, Security, DevOps, and Data teams to embed quality, automation, and observability throughout the SDLC, defining modern quality gates with high standards for engineering excellence.
• Leverage quality analytics, observability, production telemetry, and predictive models to identify risks, optimize testing strategies, and continuously improve software reliability and engineering efficiency.
• Lead innovation initiatives, evaluate emerging technologies, mentor engineering teams, and influence enterprise-wide quality transformation and automation maturity to build a state-of-the-art AI-enhanced quality engineering culture.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration, or related field.
• 5+ years of management experience in Quality Engineering or IT leadership related role.
• 5+ years of experience implementing Test Automation frameworks.
• 5+ years of experience in supporting release automation (CI/CD) and application performance testing.
• Strong project organization skills, including prioritization, planning, and execution.
• Experience with cloud, distributed, microservice, mainframe, and desktop-based technology.
• Understanding of AI-driven innovation and deployment of Agentic AI solutions for autonomous test execution, intelligent defect triage, risk prediction, and test prioritization.
• Experience in application development and testing, delivering multiple major projects of medium to large scale.
• Strong programming skills in Java, Selenium, Python, or SQL.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer without sponsorship.
• Reliable, punctual attendance is an essential function of the position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree.
• TMMI (Test Maturity Model Integration) Certification and/or knowledge.
• CSTE or other Test Automation related certifications.
• 5–10 years of experience in a Quality Engineering technical leadership role.
• Experience in architecting AI automation frameworks for UI, system interactions, agent flows, and multimodal input/output validation.
• Experience working with telemetry, logs, and debugging across large-scale systems.
• Experience with AWS.
• Experience in the travel industry, especially airline-related, is a significant plus.
• Strong experience in software quality engineering and designing automated solutions to validate software builds across various technologies.
• Experience with AI-driven innovation and deployment of Agentic AI solutions for autonomous test execution, intelligent defect triage, risk prediction, and test prioritization.
• Experience designing scalable automation frameworks and robust test data architectures with enterprise-grade software production code.
• Experience in multiple technical platforms, operating systems, databases, and development languages including web, mobile, mainframe, and cloud.
• Experience working within a multi-disciplined, cross-functional technical organization with matrixed reporting relationships.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life, accident & disability insurance.
• Parental leave.
• Employee assistance program.
• Commuter benefits.
• Paid holidays and paid time off.
• 401(k).
• Flight privileges.

Pay

The base pay range for this role is $140,600.00 to $191,620.00. The base salary range is dependent on job-related factors such as experience, education, and skills. This position is also eligible for bonus and/or long-term incentive compensation awards.