Lead QA Automation Engineer

Karate API testing Integration testing Microservices testing CI/CD quality gates AWS testing AI-driven testing Flaky test triage Schema validation Contract testing Java Spring Boot JUnit REST APIs Docker Git Maven Gradle Jenkins GitHub Actions Job Description Lead QA Automation Engineer Location: Herndon, Virginia | Type: Contract | Experience: 7+ years We're looking for a hands-on Lead QA Automation Engineer for an onsite contract role in Herndon, Virginia. You'll own the quality engineering practice for a Java and Spring Boot platform with a large API surface and an AWS-native deployment model. This role will define and lead test automation strategy across API, integration, and end-to-end layers. You'll build and maintain the Karate-based automation framework, write and review Java and Spring Boot test code alongside developers, and integrate quality gates into CI/CD pipelines so validation runs on every commit. You’ll also validate cloud-native behavior across AWS services and data flows, improve environment parity and observability-driven testing, and apply AI-driven approaches to test generation, intelligent test selection, flaky-test triage, and failure analysis. The role includes quality reporting across coverage, defect escape rate, and pipeline health metrics. Ideal candidates bring 7+ years building automated test frameworks for production systems, deep hands-on Karate experience, strong Java engineering skills, practical microservices testing experience, and familiarity with tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Docker, Maven or Gradle, JUnit, and REST APIs. Experience with performance testing, Pact, Kubernetes, and security testing is a plus. #J-18808-Ljbffr