AVP Quality Engineering Lead

LPL Financial LLC; Fort Mill, Charlotte (SC, NC); On-site; USD 117,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

LPL Financial LLC seeks an AVP, Quality Engineer to lead and transform Quality Engineering across cloud-native applications within the Investor Data Technology Team. You will drive test strategy, establish standards, and champion shift-left testing in a fast-paced agile environment.

You’ll mentor QE teams, implement scalable automation across UI, API, and data layers, and partner with DevOps to ensure release readiness and operational stability.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in Software Quality Assurance, Quality Engineering, or Test Automation.
• 5+ years of experience leading Quality Engineering teams in enterprise-scale environments.
• Strong experience designing and implementing automated testing frameworks and strategies.
• Experience testing cloud-native and hybrid-cloud applications deployed on AWS.
• Hands-on experience with automated testing tools such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Rest Assured, Karate, or equivalent frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead Quality Engineering strategy and execution across multiple agile product teams.
• Define, implement, and continuously improve enterprise testing standards, frameworks, and best practices.
• Drive adoption of test automation across UI, API, data, integration, and end-to-end testing layers.
• Partner with Engineering and Architecture teams to embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Establish quality gates and testing standards within CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop and maintain scalable automated test frameworks for cloud-native applications.
• Lead performance, scalability, resiliency, and non-functional testing initiatives.
• Collaborate with DevOps teams to ensure quality is integrated into deployment and release processes.
• Define and monitor quality metrics, defect trends, test coverage, release readiness, and operational stability.
• Support root cause analysis, production issue validation, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Partner with business stakeholders to ensure testing aligns with business requirements and customer expectations.
• Mentor and guide Quality Engineers, fostering a culture of engineering excellence and continuous improvement.
• Evaluate and implement emerging Quality Engineering tools, technologies, and methodologies.

Skills

Quality leadership

Quality strategy

Test automation

CI/CD integration

Agile / Scrum

Cloud testing

Python-based frameworks

API testing

Stakeholder collaboration

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field

Tools

Selenium

Playwright

Cypress

Rest Assured

Karate

Job description

Where Ambition Meets Innovation Build a career that matches all your initiative with an impressive dose of innovation. From cutting-edge resources and a collaborative environment to the freedom to make an impact and more, you’ll find the ingredients you need at LPL Financial to shape your success while helping clients pursue their financial goals.

Job Overview

LPL Financial is seeking an AVP, Quality Engineer to join our Investor Data Technology Team. Reporting to an Application Technical Manager, this role will work closely with Product Owners, Architects, Engineering teams, and Release Management teams to establish and execute a comprehensive quality strategy across cloud-native applications and platforms. This role is ideal for a hands-on Quality Engineering leader with expertise in modern testing practices, automation strategy, and quality governance. The successful candidate will drive quality transformation initiatives, champion shift-left testing practices, and ensure the delivery of highly scalable, secure, and reliable software solutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead Quality Engineering strategy and execution across multiple agile product teams
• Define, implement, and continuously improve enterprise testing standards, frameworks, and best practices
• Drive adoption of test automation across UI, API, data, integration, and end-to-end testing layers
• Partner with Engineering and Architecture teams to embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle
• Establish quality gates and testing standards within CI/CD pipelines
• Develop and maintain scalable automated test frameworks for cloud-native applications
• Lead performance, scalability, resiliency, and non-functional testing initiatives
• Collaborate with DevOps teams to ensure quality is integrated into deployment and release processes
• Define and monitor quality metrics, defect trends, test coverage, release readiness, and operational stability
• Support root cause analysis, production issue validation, and continuous improvement initiatives
• Partner with business stakeholders to ensure testing aligns with business requirements and customer expectations
• Mentor and guide Quality Engineers, fostering a culture of engineering excellence and continuous improvement
• Evaluate and implement emerging Quality Engineering tools, technologies, and methodologies

What are we looking for?

We're looking for strong collaborators who deliver exceptional client experiences and thrive in fast-paced, team-oriented environments. Our ideal candidates pursue greatness, act with integrity, and are driven to help our clients succeed. We value those who embrace creativity, continuous improvement, and contribute to a culture where we win together and create and share joy in our work.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in Software Quality Assurance, Quality Engineering, or Test Automation
• 5+ years of experience leading Quality Engineering teams in enterprise-scale environments
• Strong experience designing and implementing automated testing frameworks and strategies
• Experience testing cloud-native and hybrid-cloud applications deployed on AWS
• Hands-on experience with automated testing tools such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Rest Assured, Karate, or equivalent frameworks

Core Competencies

• Experience designing and leading Python-based test automation frameworks and standards
• Experience with Starling test automation framework leveraging Playwright and TypeScript for UI and end-to-end testing
• Experience applying AI and automation to improve test coverage, accelerate test creation, and increase engineering productivity (e.g., AI-assisted test case generation and intelligent test maintenance)
• Experience validating APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and integration of automated testing into DevOps workflows
• Experience with SQL and data validation across Oracle, PostgreSQL, or other relational databases
• Expertise in test planning, defect management, test metrics, and release quality governance
• Strong understanding of Agile, Scrum, and modern software delivery methodologies
• Leadership Expectations: Set QE direction and standards across multiple product teams
• Influence architecture and release decisions through quality metrics and release-readiness criteria
• Build QE capability through hiring, mentoring, and succession planning

Preferences

• Experience with AWS services including ECS, EKS, Fargate, S3, RDS/Aurora, DynamoDB, Lambda, and API Gateway
• Experience implementing Quality Engineering practices in large-scale digital transformation programs
• Familiarity with performance testing tools such as JMeter, LoadRunner, BlazeMeter, or Gatling
• Experience with continuous testing, service virtualization, and test data management solutions
• Knowledge of security testing and DevSecOps practices
• Experience working with Kafka, event-streaming architectures, and data integration platforms
• Experience with containerized environments using Docker and Kubernetes
• Proven ability to influence engineering teams and stakeholders through technical leadership and strategic thinking
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills

Pay Range

Pay Range: $117,111.00 - $195,185.00. Actual base salary varies based on factors, including but not limited to, relevant skill, prior experience, education, base salary of internal peers, demonstrated performance, and geographic location.

Benefits

Additionally, LPL Total Rewards package is highly competitive, designed to support your success at work, at home, and at play – such as 401K matching, health benefits, employee stock options, paid time off, volunteer time off, and more.

Company Overview

LPL Financial Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LPLA) is among the fastest growing wealth management firms in the U.S. As a leader in the financial advisor-mediated marketplace(6) , LPL supports over 32,000 financial advisors and the wealth management practices of approximately 1,100 financial institutions, servicing and custodying approximately $2.3 trillion in brokerage and advisory assets on behalf of approximately 8 million Americans. The firm provides a wide range of advisor affiliation models, investment solutions, fintech tools and practice management services, ensuring that advisors and institutions have the flexibility to choose the business model, services, and technology resources they need to run thriving businesses. For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com. At LPL, independence means that advisors and institution leaders have the freedom they deserve to choose the business model, services, and technology resources they need to run a thriving business. They have the flexibility to do business their way. And they have the freedom to manage their client relationships, because they know their clients best. Simply put, we take care of our advisors and institutions, so they can take care of their clients. For further information about LPL, please visit www.lpl.com.

Join the LPL team and help us make a difference by turning life’s aspirations into financial realities.

Information on Interviews

LPL will only communicate with a job applicant directly from an @lplfinancial.com email address and will never conduct an interview online or in a chatroom forum. During an interview, LPL will not request any form of payment from the applicant, or information regarding an applicant’s bank or credit card. Should you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact LPL’s Human Resources Solutions Center at [phone]. EAC 5.19.26 LPL Financial is the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer.* Our company is widely known for its financial strength, exceptional service, and favorable industry reputation among financial professionals. To understand who we are, it’s important to know our core belief: financial guidance is a fundamental need for everyone. LPL Financial creates the space to let you do what you do best – create personal, long-term client relationships that turn financial aspirations into realities. Each year, thousands of financial professionals successfully manage billions of dollars in assets. Because our company is not too big and not too small, you can seize the opportunity to make a real impact. To learn more about our organization visit our About LPL page. * As reported by Financial Planning magazine, June 1996-2019, based on total revenue.

Principals only. EOE.