QA Test Automation Engineer (26-00297) -

Ideal Candidate Profile

Seeking a QA Test Automation Engineer will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining reliable automated test suites for complex enterprise financial aid applications across desktop and web platforms. The ideal candidate is a hands-on automation engineer with strong scripting craft and a genuine passion for quality, paired with solid experience automating enterprise applications that rely on SQL Server, structured data files, and integrations with external systems. Candidate should be comfortable working independently in established enterprise environments, supporting the move from legacy desktop to web, and delivering well-structured, dependable, production-ready automation with minimal ramp-up.

Job Duties & Responsibilities

Design, develop, execute, and maintain automated regression and functional test suites for desktop and web applications

Update and extend automation scripts each release cycle to reflect new features, changed behavior, and evolving requirements

Build data-driven tests that cover multiple data-creation and import paths and multiple academic/award years

Create and manage test data using SQL Server queries and XML or other structured data files

Run tests across browsers and devices, and analyze failures to separate product defects from script or environment issues

Participate in sprint planning and estimation, and provide effort and story-point input for automation work

Review user stories and acceptance criteria, and flag gaps, ambiguities, or missing scenarios before test development

Report results, defects, and quality risks clearly to the QA Manager, developers, and stakeholders

Contribute to automation standards, reusable libraries, and documentation that improve team efficiency

Required Skills

4–6+ years of professional experience in software test automation or QA engineering, with hands-on ownership of automation frameworks

Strong proficiency in Python, C# and XML scripting for test automation, with clean, maintainable, reusable code

Hands-on experience building and maintaining UI test automation using Playwright (or comparable tools such as Selenium) for web applications

Experience automating Windows desktop applications using tools such as pywinauto, WinAppDriver, FlaUI, or similar

Experience logging, tracking, and reporting defects and test results using a defect or test management tool (e.g., Jira)

Experience with cross-browser and cross-device test execution platforms (e.g., BrowserStack) and diagnosing environment-specific failures

Solid working knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server, including writing T-SQL queries to set up, validate, and clean up test data

Experience with XML and structured data files, including generating and validating files for import/export and integration testing

Experience testing and automating RESTful APIs, and validating integrations between internal and external systems

Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), QA methodologies, and test design techniques (regression, functional, integration, data-driven)

Ability to analyze requirements and acceptance criteria, identify gaps, and translate them into complete, well-structured automated test coverage

Skill in debugging flaky or failing tests, performing root-cause analysis, and clearly reporting defects to development teams

Working knowledge of web accessibility (WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA) and an ability to include accessibility checks in automated test suites

Mentor QA engineers on automation best practices

Preferred Skills

Experience designing data-driven automation that covers multiple record-creation paths (e.g., manual entry, file import, API) and multiple academic/award years

Experience with Excel-based test artifacts (e.g., openpyxl) for test data generation and reporting

Exposure to CI/CD pipelines, automated test execution in build and release processes, and source control systems such as Git

Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and experience working within sprint-based release cycles

Experience supporting the migration or modernization of legacy desktop applications to web, including re-baselining automation suites

Experience with performance, load, or security testing tools

Familiarity with automated accessibility tools and assistive technology testing

Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain test results and quality risks to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Provide guidance to QA engineers in automated testing best practices.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience