Senior QA Automation Engineer - Cloud & Infrastructure Platforms (DoD / GovCloud)

NALEJ; Arlington (VA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NALEJ is seeking a Senior QA Automation Engineer to design and maintain test automation frameworks for cloud-native platforms deployed on Kubernetes and Docker. You will drive automated quality across AWS GovCloud environments, integrating AI agents for test generation and data creation.

The role emphasizes CI/CD integration with GitLab, security testing aligned with DoD standards, and end-to-end system testing of microservices. Eligibility for DoD clearance and U.S. citizenship are required.

Qualifications

• 5-8+ years of dedicated software quality engineering and test automation experience.
• Clearance Requirement: U.S. Citizenship required. Must be capable of obtaining and maintaining a DoD security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Custom Test Framework Architecture: Architect and maintain scalable, customized test automation frameworks and CLI tools built in Python (pytest, custom runners, async HTTP/gRPC clients).
• Container & Kubernetes System Testing: Build automated end-to-end integration and system test suites executing against Docker/Kubernetes environments (AWS EKS).
• API & Contract Verification: Implement automated contract, functional, and regression testing for REST, gRPC, and event-driven architectures (Kafka).
• AI Tooling & Testing Innovation: Integrate AI agents and autonomous testing to generate synthetic datasets and tests.
• CI/CD Integration & Gates: Embed automated test stages into GitLab CI pipelines with automated quality gates.

Skills

Python

Test Automation

Kubernetes

Docker

GitLab CI

API Testing

AI Testing

Tools

pytest

Docker

Kubernetes

HTTP/GRPC

Kafka

Async IO

pydantic

Job description

Senior QA Automation Engineer - Cloud & Infrastructure Platforms (DoD / GovCloud)

Location: Arlington, VA (Hybrid) Clearance Capable / Eligible (U.S. Citizenship required)

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior QA Automation Engineer to design, architect, and maintain comprehensive test automation frameworks and custom tooling for our cloud-native platforms. Operating across AWS Commercial and GovCloud (IL2-IL5) environments, you will ensure the reliability, security, and performance of complex microservices and data platforms deployed exclusively on Kubernetes and Docker.

Working in an AI-Native development ecosystem, you will champion automated quality by creating custom test harnesses in Python, orchestrating containerized test fixtures, and integrating autonomous AI agents into our verification pipelines for test generation, API fuzzing, and regression analysis.

Key Responsibilities

• Custom Test Framework Architecture: Architect and maintain scalable, customized test automation frameworks and CLI tools built in Python (pytest, custom runners, async HTTP/gRPC clients).


• Container & Kubernetes System Testing: Build automated end-to-end integration and system test suites executing directly against pure Docker and Kubernetes environments (AWS EKS), validating service discovery, networking, and resilience.


• API & Contract Verification: Implement automated contract, functional, and regression testing for REST, gRPC, and event-driven architectures (Kafka), verifying schema fidelity and backward compatibility. AI-Native Quality Engineering: Integrate AI agents and LLM tooling into the QA lifecycle to autonomously generate synthetic test datasets, discover edge cases, and produce automated test suites.


• CI/CD Integration & Gates: Embed automated test stages (smoke, integration, load, security) into GitLab CI pipelines, establishing automated quality gates that provide rapid feedback to engineering teams. Security & Compliance Automation: Collaborate with platform and security teams to automate security testing (SAST/DAST, container vulnerability scanning) and compliance validation aligned with DoD NIST 800-53 standards.

Required Technical Expertise

• Test Automation & Scripting: Advanced proficiency in Python for framework development, custom test harnesses, and CLI tooling (pytest, pydantic, requests/httpx, asyncio).


• Containers & Orchestration: Strong experience testing applications in pure Docker and Kubernetes environments, including automated provisioning of ***ephemeral*** test dependencies.


• API & Distributed Systems Testing: Deep knowledge of testing RESTful APIs, gRPC services, WebSocket connections, and asynchronous event streams.


• CI/CD & Developer Workflows: Experience with GitLab CI/CD pipelines, container registries, artifact management, and automated test reporting dashboards.


• AI Tooling & Testing Innovation: Familiarity with or strong interest in leveraging AI coding assistants and autonomous testing agents to accelerate QA cycles.

Qualifications

• 5-8+ years of dedicated software quality engineering and test automation experience.


• Clearance Requirement: U.S. Citizenship required. Must be capable of obtaining and maintaining a DoD security clearance (prior clearance history is not required).


• Proven track record building custom test automation frameworks and tooling from scratch in Python.


• Strong hands-on experience validating distributed applications deployed in pure Docker and Kubernetes environments.


• High autonomy as an Individual Contributor, capable of establishing quality standards and mentoring teams on automated testing best practices.