Staff SDET Engineer, Tax Product Development

BDO USA; Melville (NY); Hybrid; USD 200,000 - 285,000; Full time

Job summary

BDO USA is looking for a Staff SDET Engineer to lead the quality assurance strategy for Tax products, focusing on automation and testing. This role involves developing scalable frameworks, managing defect processes, and mentoring junior engineers within a collaborative environment.

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in test automation, proficiency in C# or Java, and knowledge in API testing. Additionally, familiarity with AI features and a passion for quality assurance are essential.

Qualifications

• Ten or more years in software engineering, quality engineering, or test automation.
• Three years leading QA/SDETs with technical direction.
• Five years building UI automation frameworks in C# or Java.

Responsibilities

• Own the test strategy and QA for BDO Tax products.
• Design and maintain UI automation frameworks using C# or Java.
• Develop and execute automated API tests for REST services.

Skills

Test Automation

C# or Java

Playwright

Selenium

Apache JMeter

SQL

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), Finance, or Accounting

Tools

Azure DevOps

Git

Postman

Job description

Job Summary

The Staff SDET Engineer leads the quality assurance strategy and test engineering for BDO Tax products and platforms, including AI-enabled solutions with a domain focus on Partnership, Direct Tax (i.e. Business Tax), Indirect Tax and Dynamics/ERP systems. This role establishes scalable automation frameworks for UI, API, data, and performance testing; defines regression and release readiness processes; and ensures consistent defect management and stakeholder reporting. Responsibilities include validating product features, testing for reliability, safety, and compliance, and partnering with product, engineering, and DevOps to integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines. The position mentors SDETs, improves test coverage, and drives quality outcomes through measurable standards, use of LLM-based features and agent workflows, responsible AI practices, and continuous improvement across the tax technology portfolio.

Job Duties

• Owns test strategy, test planning, and quality assurance for BDO Tax products and platforms
• Embeds themselves within the development team to define acceptance criteria, test approaches, and quality risks during discovery, including refinement, and sprint execution
• Designs, implements, and maintains UI automation frameworks using C# or Java with Playwright and/or Selenium, emphasizing maintainability and extensions
• Develops, executes, and maintains automated API tests for REST services, including contract validation, negative testing, and error handling verification
• Performs database testing using SQL for backend validation, reconciliation, and test data verification
• Builds, executes, and analyzes performance tests using Apache JMeter, including load, stress, and endurance testing with actionable reporting
• Integrates automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and enforce quality gates with clear pass/fail criteria and build health visibility
• Defines regression strategy, test suite organization, coverage targets, and ongoing optimization based on product risk and change impact
• Leads defect management processes, including triage, severity assignment, reproduction steps, root cause collaboration, and verification of fixes
• Produces QA status reporting, quality metrics, and risk summaries for stakeholders, including release go/no-go recommendations
• Drives testability improvements with engineering teams, including logging, telemetry, environment stability, and feature flag validation support
• Tests features enabled by AI using repeatable evaluation methods, safety-focused scenarios, and responsible AI best practices aligned to approved governance standards
• Other duties as required

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Mentors SDETs and QA engineers through technical guidance, code reviews, standards adoption, and execution oversight
• Acts as a direct supervisor to team members, as assigned
• Acts as a Career Advisor to team members, as assigned

Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Education:

• High school diploma, GED, or equivalent, required
• Bachelor's degree, with a focus in Computer Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), Finance, or Accounting, preferred

Experience:

• Ten (10) or more years of progressive experience in software engineering, quality engineering, test automation, and modern QA practices, required
• Three (3) or more years of leading QA/SDETs through technical direction, code reviews, and test strategy ownership, required
• Five (5) or more years of building and maintaining UI automation frameworks in C# or Java using Playwright and/or Selenium, preferred
• Five (5) or more years of designing and executing automated REST API testing, preferred
• Five (5) or more years of performing database testing and data validation using SQL, preferred
• Three (3) or more years of executing performance testing using Apache JMeter or similar tools with analysis and reporting, preferred
• Three (3) or more years of integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines with quality gates and reporting, preferred
• Two (2) or more years supporting testing for AI-enabled software features, including evaluation of non-deterministic outputs and safety-focused test scenarios, preferred
• Experience supporting Agile delivery as part of a cross-functional product development team, preferred
• Experience with tax domain platforms, compliance workflows, or document/data-heavy applications, preferred

License/Certifications:

• ISTQB Certified Tester, preferred
• Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate or similar, preferred
• Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) or Professional Scrum Master (PSM I), preferred

Software:

• Experience with one (1) or more of the following products, preferred: Microsoft Office Suite, Playwright, Selenium, Apache JMeter, Postman or equivalent API tooling, Git, CI/CD tooling (Azure DevOps Pipelines, GitHub Actions, OctopusDeploy), Test management and defect tracking tools (Azure DevOps, Jira), SQL Server Management Studio or equivalent database client tooling, AI platforms and agent tooling (Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI Studio, Microsoft Copilot Studio), Observability tooling (Azure Application Insights, OpenTelemetry), Container tooling (Docker)

Language:

• N/A

Other Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities:

• Ability to work well in hybrid and remote environments
• Solid verbal and written communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills, including training/instruction with professionals at all levels
• Sound decision-making skills
• Ability to lead and manage a team
• Ability to complete projects by performing the QA/SDET function independently with minimal leadership oversight.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a focus on delivering practical and innovative solutions
• Familiarity with data privacy regulations and compliance requirements relevant to the accounting industry
• Strong ability to communicate quality status, defects, and delivery risk to technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Strong analytical skills for troubleshooting failures and partnering on root cause analysis across teams
• Strong ability to lead through influence, establish standards, and mentor engineers through actionable technical feedback

Individual salaries that are offered to a candidate are determined after consideration of numerous factors including but not limited to the candidate’s qualifications, experience, skills, and geography.

National Range: $200,000 - $285,000

Maryland Range: $200,000 - $285,000

NYC/Long Island/Westchester Range: $200,000 - $285,000