Job Description

Role Title

Principal Test Engineer

Business Area

CAPTG

Career Stream

Technical

Career Level

T5

Location

Remote

Reports to

Head of Engineering

Number of direct reports

0

Number of total reports

0

Department Context

Sitting within the Cox Automotive Product and Technology Group (CAPTG), Product Engineering is responsible for developing high-quality software products for customers of Cox Automotive Europe. We adopt modern software development best practices, leveraging Cloud Technologies and DevOps principles to produce highly scalable, highly secure and highly resilient systems.

We are cloud native in our approach, seeking to leverage Managed Services where possible, enabling our developers to remain laser focused on delivering business value. The product that we are developing will require the adoption of appropriate, and best practise technologies to ensure we maximise value for our employees.

Our Test Analysts & Test Engineers are embedded within Product Engineering teams, which promotes a true DevOps culture, driving more and more Automation to reduce time to market and to increase quality.

Scope of Role

As a Principal Test Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in driving the quality and reliability of our products through advanced test automation strategies. You will leverage modern tooling and frameworks to enhance our testing processes and lead the transformation from manual to automated testing. Your expertise will be crucial in coaching and mentoring teams, defining test strategies, and shifting the responsibility for testing ‘left’ in the development lifecycle.

You will be a strong ‘hands-on’ tester, adept at building trust and credibility across teams, enabling you to guide testers and developers towards increasing levels of Test Automation, to ensure the successful delivery of our cutting-edge solutions. 

You will have extensive, demonstrable experience of defining test strategies across multiple teams and domains. You will be adept at influencing direction, challenging the norm, and supporting teams to leverage test automation to reduce delivery timescales.

Test Automation Tooling

·       Languages – Typescript, Javascript, C#, Java

·       Testing Tools – Playwright, Pact, Cucumber, K6, Selenium, Cypress, JUnit, TestNG, JMeter

·       Api Testing – Postman, Soap UI, Rest Assured

·       Continuous Integration – Github, Github actions, Jenkins, Azure Devops Pipelines

·       Containers and docker experience

·       Observability – New Relic, Grafana & Cloudwatch

Objectives for Role

Test Automation Leadership: Lead the design, development, and implementation of robust test automation frameworks using modern tools and technologies. Help teams move away from over-reliance on manual testing, towards increasing levels of automation.

 

Coaching and Mentoring: Provide guidance and training to QA teams on best practices in test automation, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Test Strategy Development: Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define and implement effective test strategies that align with business goals and promote early detection of defects.

DevOps Approach: Advocate for and implement shifting-left testing practices, ensuring that testing is integrated early in the development process.

Manual to Automated Transition: Lead initiatives to transition teams from manual testing to automated testing, identifying opportunities for automation and addressing challenges.

Quality Assurance: Ensure the highest standards of quality and reliability in our products by implementing comprehensive testing methodologies.

Collaboration: Work closely with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to ensure seamless integration of testing processes within the development lifecycle.

Continuous Improvement: Stay up-to-date with industry trends and advancements in test automation, continuously seeking ways to improve our testing practices.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

Experience: Minimum of 5 years of experience in test automation, with a proven track record of leading successful automation initiatives.

Technical Skills: Proficiency in modern test automation tools and frameworks (e.g., Playwright, K6, Selenium, Cypress, JUnit, TestNG, etc.).

Leadership: Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with experience in coaching teams towards an automation first approach.

Strategic Thinking: Ability to define and implement effective test strategies that align with business objectives.

Shift-Left Expertise: Experience in promoting and implementing shift-left testing practices.

Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify and address testing challenges.

Communication: Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

Skills & Knowledge – Interpersonal and Non-Technical Skills

·       Excellent interpersonal skills, verbal and written communication skills when working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

·       An influencer who can articulate arguments well and is comfortable working with a wide range of people from different areas of the business and at different levels of seniority.

·       A strong natural focus on what matters; delivering value and designing to minimise risk.

·       Hands-on experience of working through the end-to-end project lifecycle within an Agile environment.

·       The ability to work across multiple priorities in parallel and the ability to contribute to wider group strategies.

 

Information Security Statement

You must ensure that you are aware of, understand and comply with the Cox Automotive Information Security Policies and supporting procedures including the specific section on your own personal responsibilities.

You must ensure that adequate financial and people resources are available so that you can comply with all aspects of Team Member Training and Communication, Risk Assessment and Emergency Planning, Security and for those locations or departments that are within your line management responsibilities as stated with Cox Automotive’s Information Security and other related policies.

Along with those responsibilities you shall ensure that all information handling and computer use activities performed in your business area are developed and managed in accordance with Information Security policies and any changes to process are specifically referenced against policy, business and IT change management as appropriate.

Furthermore, you must ensure that all your direct reports fulfil their own personal responsibilities and ensure compliance with all relevant Cox Automotive Information Security and other related Policies.

This job description is not a definitive list of the key deliverables or objectives for the role. They may be subject to change. By signing this document, you agree that you understand the requirements of the role.

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