Senior SDET/QA Automation Engineer

Eccalon, LLC; Hanover (MD); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Eccalon, LLC is seeking a Senior SDET / QA Automation Engineer to design and own automated testing for web apps and backend services in DoD, Intelligence, and enterprise programs.

You will build robust test frameworks, integrate quality gates into CI/CD pipelines, and ensure reliability in regulated, compliance-driven environments. This hands-on role collaborates with software engineers, DevOps, and product teams to shift quality left.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in SDET, QA automation, or related discipline.
• Hands-on proficiency with Playwright and/or Cypress for end-to-end UI automation.
• Strong API testing skills using Postman and/or REST Assured.
• Experience integrating test automation into CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins).
• Familiarity with AWS services and Azure GCC High for testing.
• Experience testing authentication flows (OAuth2, SAML, OIDC, MFA).
• Strong understanding of HTTP, REST, JSON, and web app architecture.
• Ability to work independently and communicate quality risk clearly.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain end-to-end UI automation frameworks across multiple web applications.
• Develop and maintain API and backend test suites using Postman and REST Assured; validate auth flows and data integrity.
• Build reusable test utilities and data factories to reduce setup overhead and improve reliability.
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines to enforce quality gates on PRs and deployments.
• Define and track test coverage, pass rates, and flakiness trends; report quality signals to leadership.
• Collaborate with backend engineers to identify testability gaps and improve interface contracts.
• Mentor engineers on test best practices and tooling selection.
• Maintain test documentation and traceability for audits and regulatory compliance.

Skills

SDET experience

UI test automation

Playwright

Cypress

Postman

REST Assured

CI/CD pipelines

GitLab CI/CD

AWS testing

OAuth2/SAML/OIDC/MFA

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

GitLab

Postman

REST Assured

Playwright

Cypress

Jenkins

Newman

AWS (Cognito, RDS, DynamoDB)

Azure GCC High

Job description

Eccalon is seeking a Senior SDET / QA Automation Engineer to build and own the automated testing strategy across our web applications and backend services supporting DoD, Intelligence, and enterprise programs. You will design and maintain robust test frameworks, integrate quality gates into CI/CD pipelines, and ensure the reliability of systems operating in regulated, compliance-driven environments. This is a hands‑on senior role with broad visibility across the full engineering stack—working directly with software engineers, DevOps, and product teams to shift quality left and keep mission-critical software shipping with confidence.

Responsibilities

Test Automation & Framework Development

• Design, build, and maintain end-to-end UI automation frameworks using Playwright and/or Cypress across multiple web applications (e.g., lynxconnect.io, eccalon.com).
• Develop and maintain API and backend test suites using Postman collections and REST Assured; validate authentication flows, data integrity, and service contracts.
• Build reusable test utilities, fixtures, and data factories that reduce test setup overhead and improve suite reliability.

CI/CD Integration & Quality Gates

• Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI/CD) to enforce quality gates on every pull request and deployment.
• Configure and maintain synthetic monitoring scripts (e.g., Playwright-based uptime checks) for production applications; triage and resolve false positives.
• Define and track test coverage metrics, pass rates, and flakiness trends; report quality signals to engineering leadership.
• Validate REST APIs against specifications; test authentication and authorization flows including OAuth2, SAML, OIDC, and JIT provisioning patterns.
• Develop data‑driven test scenarios against AWS-hosted services (RDS/PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Cognito) and Azure-backed platforms (GCC High).
• Collaborate with backend engineers to identify testability gaps in service design and recommend interface contracts that support automation.

Cross-functional Collaboration & Quality Strategy

• Partner with DevOps, software engineering, and IT teams to embed testing earlier in the development lifecycle; contribute to definition-of-done criteria.
• Serve as the quality subject matter expert on the team—mentoring engineers on test best practices, automation patterns, and tooling selection.
• Maintain test documentation, test plans, and traceability matrices that satisfy compliance audit and ATO evidence requirements.
• Evaluate and recommend improvements to the overall QA toolchain and processes as applications and team scale.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field—or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in software development engineering in test (SDET), QA automation, or a related discipline.
• Hands‑on proficiency with Playwright and/or Cypress for end-to-end UI test automation.
• Strong API testing skills using Postman (including collections, environments, and Newman for CI execution) and/or REST Assured.
• Experience integrating test automation into CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI/CD, or Jenkins).
• Familiarity with AWS services (Cognito, RDS, DynamoDB, CloudWatch) and how they factor into end-to-end test design.
• Experience testing authentication and authorization flows (OAuth2, SAML, OIDC, MFA).
• Strong understanding of HTTP, REST, JSON, and web application architecture.
• Ability to work independently, prioritize across multiple projects, and communicate quality risk clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with synthetic monitoring and uptime automation (e.g., Playwright-based health checks, Pingdom scripting).
• Familiarity with NIST 800-171, CMMC, or FedRAMP testing and traceability requirements.
• Experience testing applications hosted on Azure GCC High or AWS GovCloud environments.
• Background in performance or load testing (k6, JMeter, or Locust).
• Experience with accessibility testing (WCAG 2.1, 508 compliance) and security-focused test cases (OWASP Top 10 validation).
• ISTQB certification or equivalent QA/testing credential.