Lead QA Engineer

Ambry Genetics Corporation; California (MO); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 165,000; Full time

Job summary

Ambry Genetics Corporation is seeking a Lead QA Engineer to own the quality engineering strategy for a portfolio of in-house clinical software, including HIPAA-compliant order platform and ETL tooling. You will set test architecture, automate standards, and own nightly regression and CI/CD orchestration, guiding release readiness with evidence.

This role requires hands-on testing leadership, deep automation experience, and the ability to mentor Senior engineers while ensuring regulatory

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software QA with 7+ years in test automation and 3+ years leading QA teams.
• Experience owning test architecture and automation standards across multiple applications.
• Expert-level programming in Java and/or Python; treat test code as production code.
• Deep hands-on experience with Playwright and/or Selenium WebDriver and with JUnit5 or TestNG.
• Experience with API test automation (REST Assured, Postman) including validation and authentication workflows.
• CI/CD automation experience (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, Bamboo).
• Advanced SQL and MySQL; defensible test data management for regulated data.
• Performance/load testing using JMeter/k6/Gatling.
• Cloud-native delivery (AWS/Azure) and Docker for parallel tests.
• Observability tooling (Datadog/CloudWatch) and logs for defect investigation.
• Healthcare standards exposure (HIPAA, SOX, HL7, FHIR) in regulated environments.
• Mentor Senior/mid engineers; participate in interviews and onboarding.
• Excellent communication; justify quality risk to executives.
• Ability to set direction and drive multi-quarter initiatives independently.
• Bachelor's or advanced degree in CS or related field, or equivalent experience.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end quality engineering strategy across the portfolio, including test architecture and coverage targets.
• Set and enforce automation framework architecture across multiple suites and repositories.
• Own CI/CD test orchestration end to end (GitHub Actions or equivalent).
• Lead release readiness and go/no-go decisions with evidence-based assessments.
• Drive shift-left in Agile teams and build quality gates into the delivery pipeline.
• Own HIPAA/SOX compliance within test practice and QA audits point of contact.
• Define, publish, and track quality metrics and automation coverage.
• Mentor QA/SDET team and oversee career development.
• Escalate complex failures and drive root-cause resolution across teams.
• Set standards for non-functional testing and AI-assisted QA workflows.
• Partner with Eng/DevOps/Product on architecture and release decisions.
• Stay hands-on designing and maintaining high-risk-area automation.

Skills

Test architecture

Automation frameworks

Java

Python

CI/CD

Playwright/Selenium

SQL

HIPAA/SOX

Mentoring

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

JUnit5

TestNG

Maven

Gradle

REST Assured

Postman

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Docker

Kubernetes

Datadog

CloudWatch

MySQL

Selenium WebDriver

Playwright

Job description

Compensation: National: $110,000-$155,000 NYC/SF: $120,000-$165,000

Tempus AI is a cutting-edge clinical laboratory coupled with powerful automation capabilities. We continually strive to deliver quality results to our patients as quickly as possible.

As a Lead QA Engineer, you will own the quality engineering strategy for a portfolio of in-house developed clinical software, including a HIPAA-compliant clinical order platform and its supporting data-query and ETL tooling, and you will be the senior-most technical voice on how we prove that software works. You will set the test architecture and automation standards that our Senior and mid-level QA engineers build against, own nightly regression and CI/CD test orchestration end to end, and lead release readiness and go/no-go decisions with evidence rather than opinion. Knowledge of genetic testing, molecular biology, or other scientific disciplines is a strong plus but is not required.

This is a fantastic opportunity to shape how quality is engineered across a growing clinical software organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end quality engineering strategy across the application portfolio: test architecture, tooling selection, coverage targets.
• Set and enforce the automation framework architecture across multiple suites and repositories, reusable page objects and fixtures, shared utilities, dependency and version management, stable selectors, and act as the final reviewer on test-framework pull requests.
• Own CI/CD test orchestration end to end (GitHub Actions or equivalent): deployment-triggered and nightly regression runs, health checks, artifact and version gating, reporting, and automated notification.
• Lead release readiness and go/no-go: consolidate risk assessment, validation evidence, and quality metrics into a clear recommendation for engineering and product leadership.
• Drive shift-left across the Agile Scrum teams you support, represent quality and testability in design reviews, requirements, and definition of ready/done, and build quality gates into the delivery pipeline rather than at the end of the sprint.
• Own the compliance posture of our test practice for regulated components: HIPAA and SOX coverage, PHI handling, access controls, audit trails, and requirement-to-test-to-result traceability. Serve as the QA point of contact for audit and validation activities.
• Define, publish, and act on quality metrics, automation coverage, flake rate, escape rate, MTTR, and regression runtime, and hold the organization to an improvement trend.
• Mentor and grow the QA/SDET team, including Senior engineers: code review, pairing, framework onboarding, technical roadmap, and career development. Partner with hiring managers on interviewing, leveling, and onboarding.
• Serve as the final escalation for complex or systemic failures that span product, environment, test data, and harness, and drive root cause to resolution across team boundaries.
• Set the standard for non-functional testing (performance, load, resilience) and for responsible AI-assisted QA workflows, test authoring, failure triage, and coverage analysis, while keeping the team accountable for the correctness of every test that ships.
• Partner with software engineering, DevOps, and product leadership, and represent quality in architecture, platform, and release-process decisions.
• Stay hands-on: personally design, build, and maintain automation for the highest-risk areas of the portfolio, and validate scheduled night-time and off-hours deployments in lower and production environments.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software QA or test engineering, with 7+ years of hands-on test automation, including 3+ years as the lead, staff, or principal-level technical owner of a test practice.
• Demonstrated track record of owning test architecture and automation standards across multiple applications or teams, not just within a single suite.
• Expert-level programming ability in Java and/or Python, with strong design instincts (Page Object Model, dependency management, avoiding brittle waits and copy-paste tests) and a habit of treating test code as production code.
• Deep hands-on experience with modern browser automation (Playwright and/or Selenium WebDriver) and test runners such as JUnit5 or TestNG, built with Maven or Gradle.
• Deep hands-on experience with API test automation and tooling (e.g., REST Assured, Postman), including status/schema/contract validation and authentication flows.
• Experience owning automation in CI/CD (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, Bamboo, or similar): pipeline design, scheduled and triggered runs, artifacts, and test reporting such as Allure.
• Advanced SQL and relational database skills (e.g., MySQL), plus a defensible approach to test data management for regulated data.
• Experience setting performance and load testing strategy, with hands-on use of tools such as JMeter, k6, or Gatling.
• Experience with cloud-native delivery, especially AWS (ECS/Fargate, Lambda, S3) or Azure, and with containers (Docker) for reproducible, parallelized test execution.
• Practical use of observability tooling (e.g., Datadog, CloudWatch) and application logs to investigate defects and validate non-functional behavior.
• Working knowledge of healthcare standards and compliance (HIPAA, SOX, HL7, FHIR, and similar), and of testing in a validated or regulated environment.
• Proven mentorship of Senior and mid-level engineers through pairing, code review, and framework onboarding.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain quality risk and trade-offs to executive and non-QA stakeholders.
• Ability to set technical direction and drive multi-quarter initiatives independently, making pragmatic trade-off between coverage, speed, and effort.
• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred

• ISTQB/ASTQB certification, Advanced Level or above.
• Experience in a CLIA/CAP laboratory, FDA-regulated, or SOX-controlled software environment, including audit support.
• Experience building or operating AI/LLM-assisted QA workflows, automated failure summarization, test generation, or agent-based regression triage.
• Knowledge of genetic testing, molecular biology, or other scientific-related disciplines.

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California Privacy Notice | Ambry Genetics

Equal Opportunity Employer

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.

For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.

Ambry Genetics Corporation is a CAP-accredited and CLIA-licensed molecular genetics laboratory based in Aliso Viejo, California.

We are a genetics-based healthcare company that is dedicated to open scientific exchange so we can work together to understand and treat all human disease faster.

At Ambry, everyone is welcome.

A career at Ambry Genetics is a chance to be part of a dynamic company that aims to improve health by understanding the relationships between genetics and human disease.

We earned our reputation as industry leaders by responsibly introducing cutting-edge genetic testing solutions and continually sharing what we learn with the global scientific community.

At Ambry you will be learning, challenging yourself, and having fun while collaborating with teammates through the open exchange of ideas.

Our outstanding benefits program includes medical, dental, vision, FSA, paid sick leave and generous paid time off (PTO) program. The Company reserves the right to make changes to the 401k plan from time to time. You can learn more about the benefits here.

Ambry Genetics is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) and we maintain a drug-free work environment. The Company believes in second chance employment. Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction history will be considered regardless of their arrest or conviction history, consistent with local laws such as Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act. You do not need to disclose your criminal history or participate in a background check until a conditional job offer is made to you. After making a conditional offer and running a background check, if the Company is concerned about conviction that is directly related to the job, you will be given the chance to explain the circumstances surrounding the conviction, provide mitigating evidence, or challenge the accuracy of the background report.

For the purpose of the above job description, “Essential Functions” are “Material Job Duties”.

Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race (and traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks, and twists), color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression (including transgender status), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability, protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws and ordinances.

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