Lead Software Test Engineer

Lead Software Test Engineer

Company: Cox Automotive - USA

Job Family Group: Engineering / Product Development

Job Profile: Lead Software Test Engineer

Management Level: Manager - Non People Leader

Flexible Work Option: Hybrid - Ability to work remotely part of the week

Travel %

No

Work Shift: Day

Compensation: Compensation includes a base salary in the range of $122,700.00 - $204,500.00. The base salary may vary within the anticipated base pay range based on factors such as the ultimate location of the position and the selected candidate's knowledge, skills, and abilities. Position may be eligible for additional compensation that may include an incentive program.

Job Description

The Lead Software Test Engineer applies advanced knowledge of testing principles, methodologies, and techniques to ensure the quality and reliability of complex, distributed software platforms. Serving as an influential participant in design reviews, this role develops and executes functional, integration, system, load, and performance tests; defines system-wide standards for test automation; and coordinates cross-organizational UAT environments in partnership with integrating teams. This role applies effective influence and collaboration—without formal management authority—across Engineering, Product, Architecture, and SRE to embed quality throughout the software delivery lifecycle.

The Lead STE takes the lead on difficult defect detection and troubleshooting, predicts and documents potential risks and constraints, and leverages AI tooling to drive consistency in test automation across the engineering organization. As engineering teams increasingly rely on AI-generated code, the Lead STE serves as a thought leader in evolving quality practices to meet this shift — defining how TDD requirements, code complexity standards, and test coverage thresholds are embedded directly into AI coding agent configurations, ensuring quality is enforced at the point of generation rather than discovered after the fact.

Primary Duties and Key Responsibilities:

• Governs system-level test case libraries end-to-end: sets coverage standards, identifies gaps, and drives closure with engineering and product teams.
• Defines technical standards and reference implementations for test automation at the API, integration, and system end-to-end layers.
• Coordinates with integrating customers to establish and maintain cross-organization test cases and automation in UAT network of environments.
• Identifies teams with test coverage or automation gaps and embeds to lead remediation — coaching on patterns, driving script development, and verifying quality gate criteria are met before release.
• Drives adoption of quality standards within AI agent configurations across engineering teams, ensuring TDD practices, code complexity standards, and test coverage requirements are codified in team project files rather than applied as post-generation checks. Defines system-wide scenarios for load, stress and soak testing.
• Designs and operates shared test execution infrastructure that enables functional and non-functional test suites to run consistently across CI/CD pipelines, scheduled cadences, and multiple environments — reducing manual effort and accelerating quality feedback loops.
• Partners with SRE to design Game Day scenarios that validate system resilience under failure conditions, translating reliability risks and SLO targets into executable test cases.

Required Experience, Knowledge, and Skills:

• Bachelor's degree in a related discipline and 6 years of experience in a related field, or equivalent combinations such as a master's degree and up to 4 years of experience, or 10 years of experience with no degree.
• Hands-on experience developing test automation with modern frameworks such as Playwright, RestSharp, Pact.NET, and xUnit.
• Hands-on experience creating performance test automation with tools such as JMeter or k6.
• Experience with test management and orchestration (test reporting frameworks, TestContainers, etc.).
• Reviews product requirements and system designs with a testability lens, contributing test strategy input during architecture reviews and driving implementation patterns that support maintainable, scalable automation.
• Skilled at building partnership with Product, Architecture, and Engineering teams both inside and outside of the organization.
• Remains current on test automation tooling and methodologies, recommending and driving adoption of advanced approaches that measurably improve coverage, defect detection, or CI/CD feedback cycle times.
• Demonstrated experience working with AI coding tools (such as Claude, GitHub Copilot, or equivalent) and the ability to define and implement quality guardrails within agent configurations, constitutions, or briefings

Drug Testing: To be employed in this role, you'll need to clear a pre-employment drug test. Cox Automotive does not currently administer a pre-employment drug test for marijuana for this position. However, we are a drug-free workplace, so the possession, use or being under the influence of drugs illegal under federal or state law during work hours, on company property and/or in company vehicles is prohibited.

Benefits: The Company offers eligible employees the flexibility to take as much vacation with pay as they deem consistent with their duties, the company's needs, and its obligations; seven paid holidays throughout the calendar year; and up to 160 hours of paid wellness annually for their own wellness or that of family members. Employees are also eligible for additional paid time off in the form of bereavement leave, time off to vote, jury duty leave, volunteer time off, military leave, and parental leave.

About Us: Through groundbreaking technology and a commitment to stellar experiences for drivers and dealers alike, Cox Automotive employees are transforming the way the world buys, owns, sells – or simply uses – cars. Cox Automotive employees get to work on iconic consumer brands like Autotrader and Kelley Blue Book and industry-leading dealer-facing companies like vAuto and Manheim, all while enjoying the people-centered atmosphere that is central to our life at Cox. Benefits of working at Cox may include health care insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement planning (401(k)), and paid days off (sick leave, parental leave, flexible vacation/wellness days, and/or PTO). For more details on what benefits you may be offered, visit our benefits page. Cox is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer – All qualified applicants/employees will receive consideration for employment without regard to that individual's age, race, color, religion or creed, national origin or ancestry, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic information, ethnicity, citizenship, or any other characteristic protected by law. Cox provides reasonable accommodations when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with disability, unless such accommodations would cause an undue hardship. EOE, including disability/vets