Quality Engineer or Automation Testing Lead - Remote

Optum is improving the flow of health data and information to create a more connected system. The Quality Engineer / Automation Testing Lead will define test strategy and quality standards, design and implement test automation frameworks, and ensure quality is built into the software development lifecycle.

Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership in quality engineering and test automation for modernization initiatives, including defining test strategy, automation approach, and quality metrics aligned to business outcomes
• Self-driven, ownership mindset to navigate ambiguity, identify options to resolve constraints, mitigate implementation risks and define solutions to implementation challenges with minimal supervision
• As part of the data management solution, implement appropriate data access and security patterns in alignment with appropriate regulatory and compliance standards such as HIPAA, PHI, PII, locational data restrictions, contractual, etc
• Build partnership and rapport with client technical resources by demonstrating solid written and verbal communication, presentation, analytical and interpersonal skills
• Ability to work closely with Business Analysts and SMEs to understand business requirements
• Ability to work in a matrixed team environment with distributed responsibility across different teams
• Create Process Flows using diagraming tools like Visio and OmniGraffle
• Establish and maintain automation frameworks and standards (e.g., UI, API, and data-layer automation) to enable repeatable, scalable regression testing
• Create and maintain test plans, traceability, and coverage across requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria; define entry/exit criteria and risk-based testing approach
• Define and coordinate test data management and environment readiness, including synthetic data approaches and controls appropriate for HIPAA/PHI/PII
• Lead non-functional testing strategy and execution (performance, reliability, accessibility, and basic security validation as applicable) and ensure results are translated into actionable remediation
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing, quality gates, and timely feedback to engineering teams
• Proactive and diligent in identifying and communicating scope, design, development issues and recommending potential solutions
• Lead functional, integration, and regression test execution; manage defect lifecycle (triage, prioritization, root cause collaboration, retest/verification) and provide quality status reporting

Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or related area
• 5+ years of experience in quality engineering and testing across enterprise applications, including test planning, execution, and defect management
• 3+ years of hands-on experience designing and implementing test automation solutions (UI and/or API), including framework design, coding standards, and maintainable test suites
• 3+ years of implementation experience with enterprise and cloud initiatives on Azure, AWS, and/or Google Cloud, including experience testing cloud-hosted applications, services/APIs, and CI/CD-driven release processes
• 3+ years of experience working as part of quality engineering and/or delivery teams, including offshore teams, through a product life cycle - requirements, design, build, testing, deployment and production support
• Experience coding automated tests using one or more languages such as Java, C#, Python, or JavaScript/TypeScript, plus solid SQL skills for test data validation
• Excellent understanding of quality engineering concepts including test design techniques, risk-based testing, API testing, data validation, and automation patterns for reliable, scalable test suites
• Proficiency in software delivery experience using Agile including CI/CD and DevOps with constituent applications such as Jira, Rally, Aha, GitHub, Selenium, etc
• Configuration Management using GitHub and/or other version control tools
• Demonstrated ability to meet tight deadlines, follow development standards and effectively raise critical issues with the client
• Demonstrated excellent oral and written communication skills
• Ability to travel up to 50% - 70% based on the business needs and permissible travel conditions
• Testing / automation certification
• 3+ years of experience designing and implementing healthcare data and information management solutions and familiarity with healthcare payer/provider data with respect to Membership, Enrollment, Claims (Medical, Pharmacy etc.) and Clinical data
• Experience with UI test automation tools/frameworks such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, or similar, including page object / component-based test design
• Experience with API testing and automation (e.g., RestAssured, Postman/Newman, Karate, or similar) including contract/response validation
• Experience with performance testing tools and practices (e.g., JMeter, k6, Gatling, LoadRunner) and interpreting results to drive performance improvements
• Experience with test management and quality reporting practices (e.g., Jira/Xray, Zephyr, TestRail, ADO Test Plans) and/or BDD approaches (e.g., Cucumber) to improve traceability and stakeholder visibility
• Experience with accessibility testing practices and/or basic security testing concepts (e.g., OWASP Top 10 awareness) in regulated environments
• Experience leading QA/QE teams and driving adoption of quality gates, metrics, and continuous improvement practices across releases
• Knowledge of HL7 and EDI transactions and related formats including FHIR APIs
• Understanding of cloud and platform architecture patterns that influence test strategy such as containerization, microservices, and event-driven systems, including implications for testing APIs, integrations, resiliency, and observability