What are the responsibilities and job description for the Sr Software Engineer / Lead – Cloud Native, Automation position at ZealTech?
Job Title: Sr Software Engineer / Lead – Cloud Native, Automation
- Location: Chicago / Northfield
- Department: IT-Team / E-Commerce
- Employment Type: Contracting (Long Term)
About the Role
We’re seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer – Automation to join our Digital Frameworks team. This role is at the forefront of shaping the future of quality engineering. You’ll design and drive automation strategies, frameworks, and platforms that empower product teams to deliver with speed, reliability, and confidence.
This is NOT a traditional QA position. We’re looking for a full-stack automation Leader—someone passionate about building scalable tools, frameworks, and pipelines, evaluating emerging technologies, and influencing architecture-level decisions. You’ll work across backend microservices and modern frontend applications, all deployed in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
Key Responsibilities
- Design and maintain automation frameworks: Build reusable solutions for backend (API/microservices) and frontend (UI) testing.
- Evaluate modern tools: Research and introduce cutting-edge automation platforms (low-code/no-code, AI-powered, model-based testing).
- Lead proof-of-concepts: Drive PoCs to validate new tools and frameworks for organizational adoption.
- Develop shared quality tooling: Create pipelines and utilities for test orchestration, data setup, mocks/stubs, and parallelization.
- Collaborate cross-functionally: Partner with platform, DevOps, and product engineering teams to embed testability and shift quality left.
- Establish standards: Define automation guidelines, governance models, and best practices for cross-team reuse.
- Mentor and guide: Coach junior engineers and enable teams to adopt modern quality engineering practices.
What You Bring
- 10 years in Quality Engineering with deep expertise in test automation.
- Strong programming skills in Java (Spring Boot) and JavaScript/TypeScript (React/Next.js).
- Hands-on experience with frameworks like JUnit/TestNG, Cypress, Playwright, Selenium.
- Proficiency in CI/CD testing using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar.
- Cloud-native knowledge: Kubernetes, containers, and testing in distributed environments (preferably Azure).
- Expertise in test strategies: Contract testing, mocking services, and test data management.
Preferred Skills
- Low-code/no-code automation: Familiarity with platforms like Testim, Tricentis Tosca, Mabl, or Katalon.
- AI/ML-based testing: Exposure to self-healing tests or model-based test generation.
- Platform mindset: Experience working in centralized enablement teams.
- Observability tools: Hands-on with monitoring and analytics for test impact analysis.
Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field required.