*** Contract to Hire - This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship, either now or in the future. ***

** Hybrid work model, mostly remote; on-site in Phoenix, AZ for design/whiteboard session as needed.

Candidate must currently reside in Arizona – no relocation allowed. Candidate must attend an in-person interview. Candidate must provide AZ Driver’s License as proof of residency.

Candidate must use their own personal laptop with a Windows workstation for remote access.

Candidate must work AZ time zone business hours. All work must be completed in the United States. **

Our direct client has an opening for a Software QA Automation Lead # 8377. This position is for 6 months contract to hire and will be worked in a hybrid schedule on-site in Phoenix, AZ as needed – however mostly remote. All work must be completed in the United States.

If you are interested, please submit the following:

YOUR CURRENT RESUME

YOUR HOURLY RATE Rate Range is $50-63/hr W2 or $55-67/hr Corp to Corp – Direct with candidate ONLY – No Subcontractors Allowed

Below is the job description – Resumes due ASAP – Resumes Due by Monday, October 13

Required Skills:

3+ years in a technical leadership or lead automation engineer role. MUST have Leadership experience

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) using Gherkin or Cucumber

JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or Ruby experience

Experience with Spring Framework

Preferred Skills:

Grafana experience

Container Architecture: Docker or Kubernetes

Experience with Azure, AWS, or GCP

Maven

AI experience

Jira

Confluence

Description:

Lead the quality platform behind mission-critical software at ASRS. Partner directly with architects to fix today’s framework pain, modernize our stack, and hard-wire a true shift-left culture—while piloting AI-assisted testing to boost coverage, speed, and confidence.

What You’ll Do

• Own the quality platform: Set strategy, architecture, and standards for automation—Java today, with pragmatic evolution to modern UI/API automation where it improves reliability.

• Embed quality early: Drive PR-level tests, contract/API checks, and CI/CD quality gates for rapid, trusted developer feedback.

• Apply AI where it counts: Use AI/LLM-assisted test generation, self-healing locators, flake triage, and test-impact analysis to reduce toil and raise signal.

• Simplify the SDLC: With DevOps, streamline pipelines, test data management, environment provisioning, and release guardrails for faster flow.

• Solve hard problems with architects: Tackle cross-cutting issues (auth, data, performance, flakiness) and retire tech debt with durable solutions.

• Build the right tests: Expand reliable web/UI, API, and integration coverage; harden environments and test data.

• Coach and elevate: Mentor QA engineers, review automation code, and set standards for readability, reliability, and maintainability.

• Measure what matters: Stand up live dashboards (coverage, pass/fail, flakiness, MTTR) to inform decisions and continuously raise the bar.

• Own root cause: Lead deep-dive debugging across test and prod, driving prevention—not just fixes.

Your Toolbox (What We Use & Value)

• Languages/Frameworks: Java, JUnit, Maven; BDD with Cucumber/Gherkin.

• Automation: Selenium WebDriver (today); informed experience with Playwright (Java/TypeScript) a plus.

• CI/CD & SCM: Jenkins, GitHub Actions; GitHub for collaboration.

• Observability & Metrics: Grafana (quality and performance dashboards).

• Backend/Platform context: Spring Boot/Spring Security; Oracle DB; FileNet/content systems.

• Scripting: PowerShell or similar for utilities.

• Quality practices: Testing pyramid, risk-based design, code reviews, and environment parity.

Where We’re Headed (And Where You’ll Lead)

• GitHub-native CI/CD: Standardize on GitHub pipelines for frequent, automated deployments—define branch strategy, environment promotions, and reusable workflows that make shipping safe by default.

• Reliable testing for high velocity: Build a strategy that scales with cadence—PR checks, contract/API tests, fast UI smoke suites, test-impact analysis, deterministic data & ephemeral envs, parallelization, and rigorous flake control.

• AI-assisted, data-driven quality: Apply LLM-assisted test generation/self-healing and enforce quality gates backed by live dashboards (coverage, flakiness, MTTR, DORA) to boost signal and confidence.

• Framework evolution (tool-agnostic): Evaluate and pilot modern UI/API automation options against clear criteria (reliability, speed, parity, maintainability, ROI) and recommend phased adoption that protects delivery.

What You Bring

• 10+ years in QA/automation with 5+ years leading/architecting frameworks.

• Proven success embedding automated quality gates into CI/CD for high-velocity releases.

• Track record mentoring engineers and raising the bar on code quality and test design.

• Comfort collaborating with architects and senior engineers on systemic quality problems.

Nice-To-Have

• Experience introducing AI tooling (e.g., Copilot, test-gen, self-healing) into real teams.

• Performance, security, or contract-testing exposure.

Work Setup & Logistics

• Hybrid: Mostly remote; design/whiteboard sessions in Phoenix as needed.

• Equipment: Personal laptop required; Windows workstation provided for remote access.

• Eligibility: Must be AZ-local and able to work for any U.S. employer (no sponsorship).