Principal Software Engineer - Quality Assurance

O'Reilly Auto Parts; Springfield (MO); On-site; USD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive wages

Paid time off

Stock purchase plan

401k with employer contributions

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Tuition educational assistance programs

Job summary

A leading automotive parts company is seeking a Principal Software Engineer in Quality Assurance to provide technical oversight and strategic direction in designing and developing scalable quality engineering solutions. Responsibilities include improving QA processes, guiding software development efforts, and monitoring application performance. Candidates should have a Bachelor's degree and 3-6 years of QA experience. The position offers competitive wages, a stock purchase plan, and various health benefits.

Qualifications

• 3 to 6 years of experience in relevant QA practices.
• Experience managing and supervising junior colleagues for 7 to 12 months.
• Strong software development and technical oversight capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Document QA processes and recommend improvements.
• Partner with teams to develop technology solutions.
• Monitor and fix complex software defects.
• Lead software development activity estimations.

Skills

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Data analysis

Technical documentation

Cloud Computing

Automation testing

Monitoring and diagnosing technology products

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

WDIO

Rest Assured

TestComplete

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Cucumber (BDD frameworks)

Job description

The Principal Software Engineer- Quality Assurance operates with a high degree of independence, leveraging multiple functional and technology skillsets and provides technical oversight and strategic direction in the design, development, and implementation of scalable, secure, and high-performing quality engineering solutions. This is an on site position located in Springfield, MO.

Responsibilities And Duties

• Document "as is" and "to be" QA processes and describe the changes required to migrate to the "to be" capability to accurately record the changes required.
• Discuss and recommend technical developments to improve the quality of software solutions and supporting infrastructure to better meet users’ needs.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to conceptualize technology solutions, leveraging data to drive original design ideas and decisions.
• Guide the development of existing and new applications by analyzing and identifying areas for modification and improvement.
• Develop, automate, and perform complex testing and monitoring to diagnose and correct application functionality and/or performance issues; validate and interpret test data to verify that specifications are met and/or to identify remedial actions required to ensure suitability.
• Ensure best practices around robust solution monitoring and alerting to proactively diagnose application performance or stability issues.
• Monitor, identify, and correct the most-complex software defects to maintain fully functioning applications software.
• Lead team in work breakdown and estimation of software development activities in order to develop and achieve software project delivery timelines; may provide resource staffing recommendations.
• Contribute to and maintain a technical roadmap to facilitate application software development and ensure the development work is prioritized in line with business requirements.
• Oversee others on continuous integration activities (sharing, testing and building), working within established operational systems.
• Explore and develop a detailed understanding of external developments or emerging issues and contribute to the evaluation of their potential impact on, or usefulness to, the organization.
• Develop own capabilities by participating in assessment and development planning activities as well as formal and informal training and coaching; gain or maintain external professional accreditation, where relevant, to improve performance and fulfill personal potential. Maintain an in-depth understanding of technology, external regulation, and industry best practices through ongoing education, attending conferences, and reading specialist media.

Skills

• Provides team oversight and guidance, to understand and apply the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), including requirements analysis, design, development, testing, and maintenance, to effectively develop software that supports modelling activities.
• Plans, organizes, prioritizes and oversees activities to efficiently meet objectives.
• Assimilates and understands data and information from various sources in order to draw appropriate conclusions and make relevant recommendation.
• Understands business context, needs, rules, and architecture, as well as organizational structure, cultures, capabilities, and processes to document the current state of technology and operational processes.
• Leads team to envision and document the future state of processes and products by identifying the solution scope, potential value of the future state, and the changes to the process, technology, organization infrastructure, and capabilities necessary to achieve the desired future state.
• Creates clear, comprehensives, effective documentation and artifacts that convey complex technical concepts that illustrate and explain overall technical specifications and solution/architecture design; may provide oversight and review of teams’ technical documentation.
• Develops software through use of programming languages, tools, and platforms including:
• Object or component-oriented development
• Database User Interfaces and Queries
• Cloud Computing: understand, deploy, and manage cloud-based infrastructure and services.
• Designs, executes and reports on systems/service tests to ensure that an application functions as specified in the requirements.
• Installs, sets up, configures, and manages software and environments.
• Monitors, diagnoses and fixes problems with technology products.

Preferred

• Experience with WDIO, Rest Assured and TestComplete
• Experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and cloud-based testing
• Experience with AI/GenAI in QA, including:
  • LLM-based test generation
  • Agentic workflows / mini agents
• Experience with BDD frameworks (Cucumber)
• Exposure to performance testing and scalability validation
• Knowledge of accessibility testing and cross-browser strategies
• Experience working in a TCoE or enterprise QA transformation environment

Education: Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent Level in Computer Science or related field.

Experience: Experienced practitioner able to deal with the majority of situations and to advise others (3 to 6 years).

Managerial Experience: Experience with general supervision of more junior colleagues (7 to 12 months).

Total Compensation Package

• Competitive Wages & Paid Time Off
• Stock Purchase Plan & 401k with Employer Contributions Starting Day One
• Medical, Dental, & Vision Insurance with Optional Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Team Member Health/Wellbeing Programs
• Tuition Educational Assistance Programs
• Opportunities for Career Growth

O’Reilly Auto Parts is an equal opportunity employer. The Company does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin or ancestry (including immigration status or citizenship), sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation, and related medical conditions), age (40 and over), veteran status, uniformed service member status, physical or mental disability, genetic information (including testing or characteristics) or another protected status as defined by local, state, or federal law, as applicable. Qualified individuals with a disability may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or employment process, please send an email to: [e-mail] or call [phone] option, and provide your requested accommodation, and position details.