DevOps Automation Test Engineer

SOA; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Generous paid time off

Professional development & tuition Re

Health benefits

Disability coverage

Retirement plan (403b)

Parental leave

Flexible hybrid environment

Job summary

SOA is seeking a DevOps Automation Engineer in Chicago with a strong automation mindset to lead testing within CI/CD pipelines. You will define standards, mentor QA teams, and coordinate cross-functional testing across multiple releases.

The role emphasizes automated test frameworks, AI-assisted planning, and infrastructure validation, with a hybrid work arrangement. A bachelor's degree and 4+ years IT experience are required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field.
• At least four years of experience in Information Technology.
• Automation-first and AI-first mindset, with strong analytical and systems-thinking abilities.
• Experience with CI/CD tools and cloud platforms, including AWS and/or Azure.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code.
• Proficiency in scripting languages such as Python, Bash, or similar languages.
• Foundational knowledge of software testing methodologies and QA best practices.
• Ability to independently plan, organize, prioritize, and advance multiple concurrent initiatives in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to support users with varying levels of technical knowledge.
• Customer service mindset and strong attention to detail.
• Ability to gather and document business and system requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead testing strategy, planning, and execution across development teams and releases.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to QA team members.
• Document and improve testing standards, frameworks, and procedures for QA automation.
• Coordinate testing across teams to ensure quality coverage and progress milestones.
• Facilitate test planning, defect triage, and release readiness reviews.
• Promote early testing and use AI tools to improve test planning and coverage.
• Design and maintain automated testing frameworks for functional, API, and end-to-end tests.
• Implement test automation strategies that support CI/CD.
• Develop reusable automated test suites for regression, performance, and reliability testing.
• Build automated validation for infrastructure and deployment pipelines.
• Ensure automated tests run in CI/CD with actionable reporting.
• Maintain dashboards and metrics to show quality, risks, and delays.
• Incorporate AI-assisted test generation and prioritization.
• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines with quality gates.
• Perform manual testing when needed and support release validation.
• Collaborate with product owners during user acceptance testing.

Skills

Automation mindset

Project coordination

Communication skills

Analytical thinking

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in IT or CS

Tools

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

AWS

Terraform

Gearset UI Testing

Testsigma

Eggplant

Job description

If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact this employer to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.

Technology + Innovation Regular Full-Time Technical Chicago, IL, US

8 days ago Requisition ID: 1398

Salary Range: $80,000.00 To $85,000.00 Annually

DevOps Automation Engineer Technology Innovation
Regular Full-Time
Professional
Chicago, IL 60631 (Hybrid) **Applicants must reside within a 100-mile radius of the Chicago, IL office to be considered. **

Salary Range:
$80,000 To $ 85,000 Annually

DevOps Automation Engineer

Your Purpose:

The DevOps Automation Engineer independently leads the design, implementation, and maintenance of automated testing frameworks and quality controls within continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. This role owns and documents the end-to-end DevOps automation lifecycle, from defining requirements and planning initiatives through deployment, monitoring, maintenance, and continuous improvement.

You’ll apply strong project management skills to prioritize work, coordinate stakeholders, track progress, and resolve risks and dependencies while communicating plans, status, and outcomes clearly. Working closely with DevOps, Salesforce, Digital Platforms, Digital, Cyber Security, and stakeholder teams, you’ll embed quality engineering principles throughout the software development lifecycle to improve software reliability, security, performance, and scalability while reducing manual effort and accelerating delivery.

What You’ll Do:

Testing Leadership and Coordination

Own and lead testing strategy, planning, and execution across assigned development teams, workstreams, and releases. Translate objectives into structured plans, milestones, deliverables, ownership, dependencies, risks, and success criteria.

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to QA testing team members.

Establish, document, maintain, and improve testing standards, frameworks, best practices, and operating procedures for QA automation, including intake, prioritization, testing lifecycle, environment progression, defect handling, reporting, and maintenance.

Coordinate testing across multiple teams to ensure consistent quality coverage, identify stakeholders and required approvals, and proactively advance work toward agreed milestones.

Facilitate test planning sessions, defect triage meetings, and release readiness reviews. Document decisions, owners, deadlines, and action items, and follow through to completion.

Promote early testing throughout the development lifecycle and use AI tools to improve test planning, defect prediction, and test coverage.

Quality Engineering and Test Automation

Design, develop, and maintain automated testing frameworks for functional, integration, API, and end-to-end testing.

Implement test automation strategies that support CI/CD.

Develop reusable automated test suites for regression, performance, and reliability testing.

Build automated validation processes for infrastructure and deployment pipelines.

Ensure automated tests run within CI/CD pipelines and produce actionable reporting.

Maintain test reports, dashboards, metrics, and status information that provide visibility into quality, blockers, dependencies, risks, and potential delays.

Incorporate AI-assisted test generation, self-adapting test scripts, and intelligent test prioritization.

CI/CD Pipeline Quality Integration

Partner with the Manager, DevOps, to integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or similar platforms.

Implement quality gates that enforce testing standards before deployment.

Ensure pipelines include automated unit testing, integration testing, security scanning, and performance validation.

Monitor pipeline health and identify failures, bottlenecks, and quality risks.

Apply AI-driven insights to optimize pipeline performance, detect anomalies, and predict failures.

Manual Testing and Quality Validation

Perform manual functional, exploratory, and user acceptance testing when automation is not practical or deeper validation is needed.

Develop and maintain test plans, test cases, and scenarios aligned with product requirements and acceptance criteria.

Validate complex workflows, edge cases, and usability through structured manual testing.

Support release validation to ensure deployments meet business and technical requirements.

Collaborate with product owners and business stakeholders during user acceptance testing and release readiness reviews.

Use AI-assisted tools to enhance exploratory testing and defect identification.

AIOps and Self-Healing Systems

Integrate AIOps platforms to support real-time anomaly detection, predictive incident management, and automated root cause analysis.

Develop self-healing systems that automatically respond to common failures.

Use machine learning insights to reduce downtime and improve system resilience.

DevOps and Infrastructure Quality

Collaborate with the Manager, DevOps, and platform teams to validate Infrastructure as Code configurations.

Develop automated validation for infrastructure provisioning using tools such as Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, and Kubernetes.

Implement testing strategies for containerized environments and microservices architectures.

Support environment consistency across development, staging, and production.

Reliability, Performance, and Monitoring

Develop automated performance and load testing frameworks.

Integrate monitoring and observability tools to validate system health and deployment quality.

Assist with root cause analysis for production issues and implement preventive testing strategies.

Use AI-driven observability tools for predictive performance analysis and proactive issue resolution.

What You’ll Need:

Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field.

At least four years of experience in Information Technology.

An automation-first and AI-first mindset, with strong analytical and systems-thinking abilities.

Experience with CI/CD tools and cloud platforms, including AWS and/or Azure.

Experience with Infrastructure as Code.

Proficiency in scripting languages such as Python, Bash, or similar languages.

Foundational knowledge of software testing methodologies and QA best practices.

Ability to independently plan, organize, prioritize, and advance multiple concurrent initiatives in a fast-paced, service-oriented environment, including proactively identifying dependencies, risks, deadlines, and decisions.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to support users with varying levels of technical knowledge.

A customer service mindset and strong attention to detail.

Ability to gather and document business and system requirements.

Ability to consistently document processes, project status, decisions, ownership, dependencies, risks, and next steps in designated systems while maintaining alignment across related documentation.

The following qualifications are preferred:

Four years of systems development lifecycle experience.

Two to four years of software testing experience.

One year of end-user support experience.

One year of user interface design and/or usability experience.

Hands-on experience using AI/ML tools or platforms within DevOps, QA, or automation workflows is strongly preferred.

Terraform experience.

Experience with Gearset UI Testing, Testsigma, ACCLQ, Keysight Eggplant, or similar tools.

Relevant Salesforce certifications, such as Salesforce Associate, Salesforce AI Associate, Salesforce Administrator, Salesforce Advanced Administrator, Salesforce AI Specialist, or Salesforce Platform App Builder, are highly desirable.

What We Offer:

Competitive Compensation: We understand the value of your contributions, and we ensure that you are rewarded competitively for your skills and dedication.

Generous Paid Time Off: Achieve a work-life balance with ample paid time off, giving you the flexibility you need for personal and family responsibilities.

Professional Development: We invest in our team’s growth. Take advantage of opportunities for continuous learning and career advancement, including tuition reimbursement and continuing education funding.

Health and Wellness: Your well-being is important to us. Enjoy access to comprehensive health benefits and wellness programs, including our Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellness reimbursement.

Disability Coverage: Gain peace of mind with our comprehensive disability coverage, including life, short-term, and long-term disability benefits.

Retirement Planning: Secure your future with our 403(b) plan and generous employer contribution.

Maternal/Paternal Leave: Embrace parenthood with confidence, knowing that we’ve got you covered every step of the way. Our maternal/paternal leave policy is designed to give you the time you need to bond with your newest family member without worrying about work.

Flexible Work Environment: Embrace a flexible hybrid environment that supports your productivity and work-life balance.

Diversity and Inclusion: We celebrate diversity and foster an inclusive workplace where everyone’s unique perspectives are valued.

The SOA will provide equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment regardless of actual or perceived race, color, religion, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, ancestry, disability (mental or physical), genetic information, military or veteran status, marital status, order of protection status, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other category protected by applicable law. Such action shall include but is not limited to: initial consideration for employment; job placement and assignment of responsibilities; performance evaluation; promotion and advancement; compensation and fringe benefits; training and professional development opportunities; formulation and application of human resource policies and rules; facility and service accessibility; and discipline and termination.