Principal Quality Engineer

Principal Quality Engineer

Build a brilliant future with Hiscox

We are seeking an innovative Principal Quality Engineer who will advance our testing capabilities through modern automation and AI-driven methodologies. This position is responsible for establishing an automation-centric approach, designing sophisticated test frameworks, and ensuring quality is integrated throughout the software development lifecycle by utilizing artificial intelligence for efficient test generation, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics. Reporting directly to the Director of Quality Engineering, the successful candidate will support and guide scrum teams, exemplify best practices, and champion ongoing improvement initiatives. The ideal applicant will demonstrate a strong commitment to scalable automation, effective cross-functional collaboration, leveraging AI in testing strategies, and addressing complex testing scenarios.

Key Responsibility Areas:

• Quality Engineering Leadership & Execution
• Framework & Tooling Ownership
• Process Engineering & Quality Governance
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Enablement

Quality Engineering Leadership & Execution

• Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of automation frameworks using Playwright, and Cucumber.
• Drive an automation-first mindset, ensuring new features are supported by robust automated tests across UI, API, integration, and regression layers.
• Partner with developers to improve code quality through testability reviews, shift-left practices, and continuous testing.
• Own test strategy for assigned value streams, ensuring coverage, reliability, and alignment with CI/CD pipelines.

Framework & Tooling Ownership

• Build and maintain scalable, reusable automation frameworks that support multiple teams and applications.
• Integrate automated tests into modern CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, or similar).
• Establish standards for test data management, mocking, and service virtualization.
• Evaluate and introduce new tools that improve speed, stability, and observability of automated tests.

Process Engineering & Quality Governance

• Define and enforce best practices for test automation, defect triage, root-cause analysis, and quality gates.
• Partner with QE leadership to standardize tooling, reporting, and quality metrics across teams.
• Track and communicate key quality indicators such as automation coverage, flakiness, performance trends, and release readiness.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Enablement

• Work closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, and Security to embed testing early in the development lifecycle.
• Lead enablement sessions on Playwright, Cucumber, TypeScript best practices, and continuous testing.
• Support performance testing, security testing, and observability initiatives as needed.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software test automation or software engineering, with at least 5+ years in a principal or lead role.
• Deep hands-on expertise with TypeScript, Playwright, Cucumber, and modern automation frameworks.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines, cloud-native application testing, and DevOps-aligned QA workflows.
• Experience designing automation frameworks from scratch and scaling them across teams.
• Solid understanding of performance testing, API testing, and test observability tools.
• Familiarity with Agile/SAFe practices; insurance or financial services domain experience is a plus.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and technical leadership skills.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and bonus (based on personal & company performance)
• 401(k) with competitive company matching
• Comprehensive health insurance, vision, dental and FSA plans (medical, limited purpose, and dependent care)
• Company paid group term life, short-term disability and long-term disability coverage
• 24 Paid time off days plus 2 Hiscox days, 10 paid holidays plus 1 paid floating holiday, and ability to purchase 5 PTO days
• Paid parental leave
• 4 week paid sabbatical after every 5 years of service
• Financial Adoption Assistance and Medical Travel Reimbursement Programs
• Annual reimbursement up to $600 for health club membership or fees associated with any fitness program
• Company paid subscription to Headspace to support employees' mental health and wellbeing
• Recipient of 2024 Cigna's Well-Being Award for having a best-in-class health and wellness program
• Dynamic, creative and values-driven culture
• Modern and open office spaces, complimentary drinks
• Spirit of volunteerism, social responsibility and community involvement, including matching charitable donations for qualifying non-profits via our sister non-profit company, the Hiscox USA Foundation

Salary: $120-$140k

The actual salary for this position will be determined by a number of factors, including the scope, complexity and location of the role; the skills, education, training, credentials and experience of the candidate; and other conditions of employment.

**Please note that this position is hybrid and requires two (2) days in our office weekly**