Test Engineer

AAMVA (American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators); Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 148,000; Full time

Job summary

AAMVA is seeking a Test Engineer to join the IT Division's Quality Assurance Department. You will test AAMVA applications and REST services across microservices, supporting jurisdictions and data consumers in motor vehicle administration and driver licensing systems.

The role requires executing test plans, running functional and automated tests, and participating in testing sessions with external customers. AI-assisted testing and strong test-design judgment are encouraged.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in software quality assurance and testing in SDLC context.
• Ability to design and execute test cases and test plans.
• Strong analytical skills and rapid learning of new tools and apps.
• Experience with REST/API testing and databases (SQL/NoSQL).
• Familiarity with CI/CD, test management, and defect tracking tools.

Responsibilities

• Create, execute, and maintain test cases and plans for applications and REST/microservices.
• Perform functional, system, integration, and regression testing across layers.
• Develop automated tests for UI, API, and service layers; run in CI/CD.
• Test data management and use of mocks/service virtualization for repeatable tests.
• Collaborate with developers, BA, and project managers; support external stakeholders.

Skills

QA testing

Test design

Analytical skills

CI/CD pipelines

Cloud basics

AI-assisted testing

Troubleshooting

Communication

Education

Four-year degree

Tools

Selenium

Postman

Playwright

Jira

Azure DevOps

ALM

Job description

Position Overview

The Test Engineer is a member of the AAMVA Quality Assurance Department within the IT Division, responsible for testing AAMVA applications and the REST services and microservices that compose them, and for supporting testing efforts with state and federal jurisdictions and commercial/third-party data consumers on motor vehicle administration and driver licensing systems. This role executes and contributes to test plans, runs functional and automated tests, and participates in testing sessions with external customers, working with a degree of independence and seeking guidance from senior team members on complex initiatives. It is a strong foundation for building modern quality engineering skills and growing toward senior technical roles.

Position Overview

The Test Engineer is a member of the AAMVA Quality Assurance Department within the IT Division, responsible for testing AAMVA applications and the REST services and microservices that compose them, and for supporting testing efforts with state and federal jurisdictions and commercial/third-party data consumers on motor vehicle administration and driver licensing systems. This role executes and contributes to test plans, runs functional and automated tests, and participates in testing sessions with external customers, working with a degree of independence and seeking guidance from senior team members on complex initiatives. It is a strong foundation for building modern quality engineering skills and growing toward senior technical roles.

About AAMVA

The IT Division develops and operates information systems for state and federal agencies conducting business related to motor vehicle and driver license administration. Our systems support critical government functions across multiple jurisdictions. Our systems run on a cloud-native, microservices architecture on Azure with REST interfaces across all internal and external integrations, and we invest in automation-first, AI-assisted test engineering. Our in-house test platform abstracts much of the underlying infrastructure, so we value strong test-design judgment, data and integration testing depth, and learning agility over pre-existing mastery of any single platform technology.

Key Responsibilities

Testing & Quality Assurance

• Create, execute, and maintain test cases, and contribute to test plans for AAMVA applications and their underlying REST services and microservices.
• Conduct functional, system, integration, and regression testing based on AAMVA's business and technical specifications.
• Build and maintain automated test scripts across UI, API/REST, and service layers, and run them within CI/CD pipelines.
• Perform API testing of RESTful services — request/response and schema validation, status codes, and authentication.
• Use existing service-virtualization and mocks to test components in isolation and manage test data (create/modify/reset) so tests are atomic and repeatable.
• Validate data across relational and NoSQL data stores (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB).
• Participate in testing for jurisdictions and partners making system or platform changes, ensuring quality standards are maintained.
• Apply AI-assisted testing tools to speed up test creation, debugging, and reporting.

Defect & Issue Management

• Log, track, and manage defects through resolution using established tracking systems (e.g. Jira, Azure DevOps).
• Communicate issues clearly to technical teams and stakeholders, with steps to reproduce and supporting detail.
• Help determine whether a failure originates in the application, the test data, or a mocked dependency, escalating complex cases to senior team members.

Customer Engagement & Support

• Facilitate and conduct testing sessions with jurisdictions and commercial/third-party consumers (e.g. DLDV, consumer-access, and CDLIS third-party customers) implementing new or enhanced applications.
• Conduct customer outreach including surveys, scheduling, and consultations.
• Build and maintain strong, positive relationships with internal and external customers.

Collaboration & Communication

• Attend meetings on testing schedules, concerns, reviews, and documentation changes, and participate actively in work groups.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including developers, business analysts, and project managers.
• Participate in the review of testing and procedural documentation.

Learning, Knowledge & Continuous Improvement

• Build and maintain proficiency in AAMVA applications and the team's testing tools through ongoing training and hands-on experience.
• Provide input and recommendations to improve testing processes, efficiency, and the customer experience.

Formal Education

Four-year degree from an accredited college or university; equivalent work experience may be substituted for the degree.

Experience & Technical Skills

The skills below are described by the depth we expect. "Strong / hands-on" indicates required, working depth. "Familiarity / awareness" indicates that exposure is sufficient - our test tooling abstracts much of the underlying platform, and the ability to learn quickly matters more than deep prior expertise in those areas.

• 3-5 years of software quality assurance and testing experience with a solid understanding of the software development lifecycle.
• Solid test-design ability - creating and executing test cases and contributing to test plans, including basic edge and negative cases.
• Strong analytical skills and learning agility - able to reason about system behavior and quickly become proficient in new tools and proprietary applications. (Non-negotiable.)
• Working knowledge of functional, system, integration, regression, and REST/API testing.
• Working, hands-on knowledge of databases and SQL, including validating data across relational and NoSQL stores (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB).
• Hands-on experience with test management and defect tracking tools (Jira, Azure DevOps/ALM, or similar).
• Familiarity with automated testing frameworks and tools (Selenium, Postman, Playwright, or similar).
• Familiarity with using service virtualization / mocks and managing test data for isolated, repeatable tests.
• Awareness of the Azure request-path components (API Management, Application Gateway, Web Application Firewall) - enough to recognize when a failure may originate outside the application.
• Conceptual understanding of cloud-hosted, microservices environments; platform expertise is not required.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, and exposure to AI-assisted testing.
• Ability to troubleshoot technical issues, escalating complex problems to senior team members.

Communication & Customer Service

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality customer service to internal teams and external jurisdictions and partners.
• Experience facilitating meetings and testing sessions with stakeholders.
• Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

Professional Attributes

• Self-motivated, able to work with a degree of independence while seeking guidance on complex issues.
• Exceptional attention to detail and analytical thinking.
• Proactive problem-solver with critical-thinking ability.
• Eager to learn and grow toward senior technical roles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of AAMVA applications, systems, and standards.
• Experience with government or public-sector IT systems in motor vehicle administration or driver licensing.
• Exposure to data analytics and BI pipelines (e.g. Synapse, Power BI).
• Understanding of or exposure to white box testing.
• Familiarity with scripting languages (JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, or similar).
• ISTQB Foundation Level or working toward relevant QA certifications.

Salary Range: $99,606 to $147,849 Annually

The expected hiring range for this position has been provided. Actual pay will be determined based on the candidate's experience, qualifications, specific skill sets, and geographic work location.

AAMVA is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled