Lead SDET

Lead Software Development Engineer in Test (Lead SDET)

Tria Federal delivers digital services and technology solutions that support the health and safety of veterans, service members and civilians. For two decades, federal agencies have relied on Tria companies to advance their critical missions and modernize their systems, so that they can uphold their commitment to the American people. Today, we are pushing the boundaries of possibility through partnerships and investments in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, developing solutions for the biggest challenges that government will face tomorrow.

We are proud to employ and support military veterans who bring mission-first mindset, technical expertise, and leadership qualities that strengthen our work. Veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses are strongly encouraged to apply.

Job Description

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Lead Software Development Engineer in Test (Lead SDET) with at least eight years of experience designing, developing, and maintaining automated testing solutions.

The Lead SDET will provide technical leadership in test automation, quality engineering, and continuous improvement. This individual will work as part of a collaborative Agile team that develops modern, standards-based, responsive web applications supporting mission-critical healthcare IT solutions.

The ideal candidate will be a hands-on technical leader who can establish automation best practices, conduct pull request reviews, mentor team members, and identify innovative tools and approaches that improve software quality and delivery efficiency.

Basic Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information technology, or a related field.
• At least eight years of related software testing, quality engineering, or test automation experience.
• Ability to obtain a U.S. Federal Position of Trust clearance designation.
• Must reside and be authorized to work in the United States.
• Must have lived in the United States for at least three of the last five years.
• Strong leadership, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Exceptional attention to detail and commitment to delivering high-quality software.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical topics to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work effectively as a collaborative and proactive team member in an Agile environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of scalable test automation frameworks.
• Establish and promote automation standards, coding practices, and quality engineering best practices across the team.
• Develop and maintain automated tests using frameworks such as JUnit, NUnit, TestNG, and Cucumber.
• Develop automation solutions using tools such as Selenium, Cypress, or Taiko, with Taiko experience preferred.
• Design and implement automated testing solutions for Angular-based web applications.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to SDETs, automation engineers, developers, and other team members.
• Review pull requests to ensure automated test code is maintainable, reusable, reliable, and aligned with established coding standards.
• Help team members resolve automation challenges and successfully contribute their work to the shared automation repository.
• Partner with developers during pull request reviews to identify test coverage gaps, potential defects, and opportunities to improve application testability.
• Evaluate and recommend new tools, frameworks, and technologies that improve automation coverage, execution speed, reporting, maintainability, and overall delivery efficiency.
• Lead proofs of concept and innovation initiatives involving new testing tools, artificial intelligence, continuous testing, and other emerging quality-engineering practices.
• Identify opportunities to reduce manual testing through automation and process improvements.
• Integrate automated tests into continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines.
• Monitor automation results, troubleshoot failures, and improve the reliability and performance of the test suite.
• Collaborate with product owners, developers, analysts, and stakeholders to define test strategies and ensure requirements are clear, testable, and adequately covered.
• Support sprint planning, backlog refinement, release planning, defect triage, and production-readiness activities.
• Create and maintain technical documentation for automation frameworks, test processes, tools, and standards.
• Communicate testing progress, quality risks, automation results, and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Required Technical Experience

• Advanced knowledge of test automation concepts, frameworks, design patterns, and industry best practices for web applications.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing customized test automation frameworks.
• Strong experience with JUnit, NUnit, TestNG, and/or Cucumber.
• Strong experience with Selenium, Cypress, Taiko, or comparable web automation tools.
• Experience developing automated tests for Angular applications.
• Strong SQL skills and knowledge of relational database concepts.
• Experience writing database queries or scripts for backend data validation.
• Experience with Maven, NPM, Jenkins, or comparable build and continuous integration tools.
• Experience with Git or another source-control platform, including branching, merging, and pull request workflows.
• Experience with API testing tools such as Postman, SoapUI, or similar tools.
• Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with collaboration and work-management tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Microsoft Visio.
• Ability to analyze test results, investigate failures, and clearly document defects and technical findings.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting healthcare, federal government, or other highly regulated technology programs.
• Experience leading automation engineers or quality-engineering teams.
• Experience with performance, accessibility, security, or contract testing.
• Experience evaluating and implementing AI-assisted testing tools or other emerging quality-engineering technologies.
• Familiarity with cloud-based test execution, containerization, and test reporting platforms.

Public Trust Clearance

Many of our positions require the selected candidate to complete a Public Trust clearance process. Candidates must have lived in the United States for at least three of the last five years to be eligible for Public Trust clearance sponsorship.

Work Location

The company is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with a primary office in Baltimore, Maryland, for employees who prefer to work on-site. With employees located across more than 40 states, many positions may also be performed remotely within the United States.

Why Tria?

What defines the Tria brand is more than just our dedication to excellence in our craft; it's our incredible team of dedicated, talented, and passionate people that make Tria so exceptional. As people powering possible, we are all partners in our team's shared success.

As a company that cares about people, we seek to cultivate a culture in which all can thrive personally and professionally. We offer a top-tier benefits package to invest in your physical, mental, and financial health and wellness so that you can be your best self - at work and in life. At Tria, we are growth-minded, entrepreneurial in spirit, and committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and opportunity for all. Whatever your background, your role, your department, or stage in your professional journey, here you will have opportunities to learn new skills, seize new challenges, and advance your career as we grow.