Lead Quality Engineer

At the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, employees come first - that's why we offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees. Collaborative, in-office operating model Retirement program (401k and Pension) Medical, dental and vision insurance Lifestyle Spending Account Competitive PTO plan 11 paid holidays per year What you’ll do Our Lead Quality Engineer is responsible for advancing 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. This role combines hands-on technical delivery like an experienced SDET with team leadership, quality governance and mentoring across agile delivery teams. The role designs, develops, and maintains End to End Test Plans, scalable automated test frameworks; integrates continuous testing into CI/CD pipelines; and partners with developers, product owners, business analysts, security, architecture, operations, and risk stakeholders to ensure quality is built into every phase of the SDLC. The position helps enable the Bank's modern engineering transformation through test automation, Performance testing, test environment, test data and DevSecOps practices. Enables AI-assisted delivery, secure pipeline controls, DORA-aligned metrics, and quality ownership across product teams. This role is expected to be both hands-on manual, automation and supervisory: directly contributing to Test plans, automation frameworks, test strategy, code review, CI/CD quality gates, and technical problem-solving, while also coaching Quality Engineers/SDETs, influencing standards, and helping product teams adopt modern quality practices. How you’ll make an impact Elevate Summit quality and release confidence by designing and executing robust manual and automated test strategies for Summit and its complex integrations - ensuring stable, scalable, and defect-resident releases. 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 across multi-org Summit environments. In addition to using industry standard test automation tools, the candidate will be expected to 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, while proactively identifying issues early in the Agile lifecycle. 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. What you can expect Lead the Quality Engineering strategy cross-team and end to end, Test Management for all test engineering approaches (Functional, Regression, SIT, E2E, UAT, Perfornance/Load, Test Data, Test Environment), test automation architecture, Exploratory and continuous testing practices across agile product teams, ensuring quality is built into every stage of the SDLC. Architect, Design, develop, and maintain scalable Test plans and automated test frameworks and reusable quality engineering solutions 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 to enable rapid, reliable, and secure software delivery. 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, improve testability, and prevent defects earlier in the lifecycle. 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. Review user stories, acceptance criteria, architecture designs, API contracts, data flows, and technical specifications to identify risks, improve testability, and prevent defects earlier in the lifecycle. 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, provide supervisory support and technical leadership to Quality Engineers, SDETs, and other engineering team members while supporting talent development, performance, prioritization, and delivery execution. 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. What you’ll bring 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 TDEM 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. 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 capabilities. Requires 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 Salary Range $108,450.00 - $180,825.00 The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors. In addition to the base salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package which can be found here: #J-18808-Ljbffr The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago