Lead Quality Engineer

Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago; Chicago, Northern (IL, KY); Hybrid; USD 108,000 - 181,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) and pension plan

Five weeks of paid vacation (PTO)

11 paid holidays per year

Lifestyle Spending Account

Job summary

FHLBank Chicago is seeking a Lead Quality Engineer to elevate our quality engineering capabilities. You will drive automation-first testing, design scalable test frameworks, and lead SDET efforts across agile teams.

This role blends hands-on coding, test strategy, and mentorship to ensure built-in quality from design through delivery. You will collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, HR, Finance, ERP owners, and risk stakeholders to embed quality into every SDLC phase, while guiding

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline; equivalent experience may be considered.
• 10+ years of Quality Engineering or SDET experience, including hands-on leadership supporting Workday, HR, Finance, ERP, SaaS, or related enterprise platforms.
• 5+ years mentoring or supervisory oversight to Quality Engineers, SDETs, or software delivery teams.
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-scale automated test frameworks and quality engineering solutions for Workday, HRIS, Finance, ERP, SaaS, APIs, data integrations, batch processing, and financial systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Quality Engineering strategy across teams, including test management for functional, regression, SIT, E2E, UAT, performance/load, and test data.
• Architect, design, and maintain scalable test plans and automated frameworks for Workday, HR, Finance, ERP, SaaS, APIs, data integrations, and non-functional testing.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations to drive shared ownership of quality and production readiness.
• Mentor and coach Quality Engineers, influence standards, and support talent development and delivery execution.
• Embed automated quality checks and gates into CI/CD pipelines; drive AI-assisted testing and DevSecOps practices.

Skills

C#

TypeScript

Python

Playwright

Selenium

SpecFlow

AWS

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Azure DevOps

Job description

Our mission at FHLBank Chicago: To partner with our members in Illinois and Wisconsin to provide them competitively priced funding, a reasonable return on their investment, and support for their community investment activities.

Simply said, we're a bank for banks and other financial institutions, focused on being a strategic partner for our members and working together to reinvest in our communities, from urban centers to rural areas. Created by Congress in 1932, FHLBank Chicago is one of 11 Federal Home Loan Banks, government sponsored in support of mortgage lending and community investment.

What it’s like to work here

At FHLBank Chicago, we bring people together. We are committed to a high performing, engaged workforce, and to supporting the communities we serve across Illinois and Wisconsin. Our Buddy Program pairs new hires with tenured employees to guide their onboarding. Our professional development and training opportunities through upskilling, mentorship programs, and tuition reimbursement allow employees to grow their career with us. Our collaborative, in-office operating model brings teams together to foster innovation, connection, and shared success. To support balance and flexibility, employees are provided an allocation of remote days to use as needed throughout the year.

What you’ll do

Our Lead Quality Engineer is responsible for advancing the Bank’s quality engineering capabilities by shifting from traditional test execution toward an automation-first, engineering-led quality model driving built-in quality end to end. This role combines handson technical delivery like an experienced SDET with team leadership, quality governance, and mentoring across agile delivery teams. The role designs, develops, and maintains End to End Test Plans, scalable automated test frameworks; integrates continuous testing into CI/CD pipelines; and partners with developers, product owners, business analysts, HR, Finance, ERP platform owners, security, architecture, operations, and risk stakeholders to ensure quality is built into every phase of the SDLC.

The position enables the Bank’s modern engineering transformation across Workday, HR, Finance, ERP, and SaaS platforms through test automation, performance testing, test environment, test data, and DevSecOps practices. Enables AI-assisted delivery, secure pipeline controls, DORA-aligned metrics, and quality ownership across product teams. This role is expected to be both hands-on manual, automation and supervisory: directly contributing to Test plans, automation frameworks, test strategy, code review, CI/CD quality gates, and technical problem-solving, while also coaching Quality Engineers / SDETs, influencing standards, and helping product teams adopt modern quality practices.

How you’ll make an impact

Leverage Kainos Smart to design, execute, and manage comprehensive testing activities for Workday HR/Finance implementations, upgrades, and ongoing enhancements. Lead testing of semi-annual Workday releases.

Utilize Azure DevOps to manage test cases, track defects, monitor testing progress, and produce clear, actionable quality dashboards for project stakeholders.

Validate SaaS applications across functional, integration, regression, performance and end-to-end testing scenarios to ensure reliability, usability, and alignment with business requirements.

Lead business users through User Acceptance Testing (UAT), including test planning, coordination, execution support, defect triage, and sign-off readiness.

Plan, develop, maintain, and execute automated test suites that improve testing efficiency, strengthen coverage, and support repeatable quality assurance practices.

What you can expect

Lead the Quality Engineering strategy cross-team and end to end , Test Management for all test engineering approaches (Functional, Regression, SIT, E2E, UAT,Perfornance/Load, Test Data, Test Environment ) , test automation architecture, Exploratory and continuous testing practices across agile product teams, ensuring quality is built into every stage of the SDLC.

Architect, design, develop, and maintain scalable test plans, automated test frameworks, and reusable quality engineering solutions supporting Workday, HR, Finance, ERP, SaaS, API, integration, end-to-end, performance, and non-functional testing.

Define and implement quality engineering strategies and best practices across agile teams, including system architecture review, test pyramid alignment, risk-based automation, test data strategy, environment readiness, traceability, and release quality criteria.

Partner with Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, Infrastructure, and Operations teams to drive shared ownership of quality, defect prevention, testability, non-functional requirements and production readiness.

Build , Integrate and maintain automated tests using strong coding practices, quality gates, reusable libraries, page/object models, service-level test patterns, test data utilities, and CI/CD-ready execution models to enable rapid, reliable, and secure software delivery. Support DevSecOps transformation by embedding security and quality controls into the SDLC .

Collaborate with developers, architects, HR and Finance partners, ERP platform owners, product owners, business analysts, security, infrastructure, operations, and risk/compliance stakeholders to validate requirements, acceptance criteria, design quality, and production readiness.

Review user stories, acceptance criteria, architecture designs, API contracts, data flows, and technical specifications to identify test scenarios. risks, improve testability, and prevent defects earlier in the lifecycle .

Establish , Measure/Monitor and communicate quality metrics such as automation coverage, escaped defects, defect trends, test effectiveness, pipeline quality gate results, deployment readiness, and DORA-aligned delivery outcomes .

Review user stories, acceptance criteria, architecture designs, API contracts, data flows, and technical specifications to identify risks, improve testability, and prevent defects earlier in the lifecycle. Lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement initiatives, driving systemic solutions that reduce risk, improve reliability, and strengthen engineering outcomes.

Support audit readiness and regulatory expectations by ensuring quality processes produce traceable evidence, controlled approvals, policy-aligned gates, and measurable risk reduction.

Mentor, coach, provide supervisory support and technical leadership to Quality Engineers, SDETs, and other engineering team members while supporting talent development, performance, prioritization, and delivery execution.

Champion & Promote modern engineering capabilities including AI-assisted testing, GitHub Copilot adoption, reusable automation assets, human-in-the-loop quality controls and enterprise quality engineering transformation initiatives.

What you’ll bring

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline; equivalent experience may be considered.

10+ years of Quality Engineering or SDET experience, including hands-on leadership supporting Workday, HR, Finance, ERP, SaaS, or related enterprise platforms.

5 + years of experience mentoring, coaching, or supervisory oversight to Quality Engineers, SDETs, or software delivery teams.

Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining enterprise-scale automated test frameworks and quality engineering solutions for Workday, HRIS, Finance, ERP, SaaS, APIs, data integrations, batch processing, and financial systems.

Experience with modern test automation frameworks including Playwright, Selenium, Appium, SpecFlow/Cucumber, API automation frameworks, BDD and service virtualization tools.

Experience integrating automated testing and quality controls into CI/CD pipelines using platforms such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar technologies.

Strong experience testing Workday, HR, Finance, ERP, SaaS platforms, APIs, integrations, databases, and enterprise applications.

Experience with performance/load test, test environment/data TDEM management, security, and non-functional testing practices.

Experience with source control, code review, branching strategies, and modern engineering workflows using GitHub and/or Azure DevOps.

Working knowledge of relational databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, or similar technologies.

Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or comparable environments , microservices and Event based architectures, domain model understanding .

Familiarity with DevSecOps tooling and practices, including code quality, security scanning, software supply chain controls, and automated quality gates. Experience with Kainos Smart test tool is a PLUS.

Experience with Workday HCM, Workday Financials, ERP integrations, payroll, compensation, talent, procurement, accounting, and related business processes is preferred.

Experience within a banking, financial services, or other regulated industry is preferred.

Required Technical Experience -

C#, TypeScript, Python (optional – Java Script/Python )

Playwright, Selenium , Specflow

AWS and/or compa rable cloud solutions & architectures.

Performance Testing - Artillery, Gatling, JMeter

Test Environment/Data Management - Tonic.ai or equivalent, including HR and Finance data validation

Security Testing and DevSecOps Tooling

GitHub Copilot and AI-assisted engineering tools

Deep understanding of modern Quality Engineering, automation-first testing, continuous testing, shift-left practices, and defect prevention. Strategic Thinking beyond day to day test delivery.

Ability to do hands-on coding, scripting, and automation framework design capabilities.

Requires working knowledge of SDLC, Agile or Hybrid, DevOps, TDD, BDD, DevSecOps, CI/CD, and modern engineering delivery practices.

Ability to embed automated quality checks, test coverage, release readiness controls, and quality gates into delivery pipelines.

Strong analytical, troubleshooting, SQL/data validation, HR/Finance business process validation, and root-cause analysis skills.

Ability to communicate quality risks, technical issues, and delivery impacts clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.

Strong collaboration skills across Product, Engineering, Architecture, Security, Operations, Risk, and Compliance teams.

Ability to plan, prioritize, estimate, and execute work effectively in a fast- paced delivery environment.

Knowledge of banking, financial services, HR, Finance, ERP controls, audit, regulatory, and risk-control expectations is preferred.

Demonstrated leadership, project management, mentoring, coaching, problem-solving and team enablement capabilities.

Software Monitoring / Event Management / Operational Validation

Incident / Problem Management / RCA

Shift-Left / Shift-Right Testing

Agile / Secure SDLC Practices

DevOps / DevSecOps Practices, TDD / BDD

Architecture & Technical Specifications Review

Testability Analysis, Work Planning / Estimation / Prioritization

Stakeholder Communication / Cross-Functional Collaboration

Mentoring / Technical Guidance,Technical Leadership / Coaching

Software Development / Unit Testing Awareness

Project Management / Requirements Management

Security Testing and Analysis

AI-Assisted Engineering and Testing

The Perks

At FHLBank Chicago, we believe in rewarding our high performing workforce. We offer a highly competitive compensation and bonus package, and access to a comprehensive benefits program designed to meet the needs of our employees. Our retirement program includes a 401(k) and pension plan. Our wellbeing program supports employees at work and in their personal lives: Our PTO plan provides five weeks of vacation for new employees and 11 paid holidays per year; our Lifestyle Spending Account provides an annual stipend for employees to support wellbeing activities; and our central downtown location at the Old Post Office provides easy access to public transportation and breathtaking views from our award-winning rooftop. Visit FHLBCbenefits.com for additional details about our benefits. Step into a brighter future with us.

Salary Range

$108,450.00 - $180,825.00

Salary Range

$108,450.00 - $180,825.00

The above represents the expected salary range for this job requisition. Ultimately, in determining your pay, we may also consider your experience, and other job-related factors. In addition to the base salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package which can be found here: https://hrportal.ehr.com/fhlbc