Lead Software Test Engineer Jobs
Lead software test engineer jobs are open across fintech, healthtech, enterprise software, and defense contracting, with specializations in test automation, quality assurance strategy, and performance engineering, at every level from senior QA engineer to principal and staff. Scan the live roles below and apply to whichever ones fit.
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Showing 5 of 645+ Lead Software Test Engineer jobs
The Role
What You’ll Work On
- Implement test strategy with feature teams on a major project or area of Rally, and agree up front on what must be true for high-impact changes and who proves it
- Test Rally against defined system properties and invariants, especially those pertaining to scalability, resiliency, and performance at customer scale
- Design test infrastructure and fixtures that serve both test and development, weigh their tradeoffs with peers, and see them through implementation to adoption
- Build tests that return a clear verdict on well-defined system behaviors
- Advise feature developers as they own the development-loop tests for their own changes
- Test that Rally’s failures are diagnosable, so customers and support can tell what broke and why
- Review past production incidents with Support Engineering to find gaps in how we test
- Mentor other SDETs, and improve the practices and tools the team uses
What Success Looks Like
- First 90 days. You’re shaping the test strategy for a major project, know the test infrastructure well enough to support and refine its design, and feature teams coordinate with you to ensure releases ship with confidence.
- First year. You drive test strategy for a major area of Rally and have defined and tested its system properties. Feature developers use fixtures you designed, and other SDETs come to you for guidance.
What You’ll Bring
- A track record of driving test strategy for microservice-based systems, cloud-hosted systems, or single-page web applications with minimal direction
- Experience designing test infrastructure and frameworks, and explaining their tradeoffs to peers
- Experience testing how systems behave under load and failure, beyond functional correctness
- Experience applying AI agents to test work, or driving test on an AI-forward engineering team, and a clear sense of when agent-written tests check the implementation instead of the intent
- Strong ability to read and understand Python, Javascript, or another programming language commonly used in test
- Experience applying software or system design principles in the test domain
- Curiosity about how and why systems fail, and the discipline to learn new systems and technologies in depth
- The ability to explain deeply technical topics to non-technical audiences, and to adjust how you communicate for customers, management, or peers
Nice to Have
- Experience with load, performance, or fault-injection testing tools
- Experience running automated tests in CI pipelines
- Experience with pytest or similar test frameworks
- Experience with Robot Framework
- Experience mentoring other engineers
- Familiarity with professional media formats and tools, such as codecs, container formats, media encoders, and metadata management
How We Work
- We’re small and distributed. Most of our collaboration happens over Slack and Zoom, across time zones. You’ll own what you build, and you’ll work closely with people outside your immediate team.
- Engineers stay close to customers. You’ll hear directly from the people using what you build. When something goes wrong in production, the team that owns the code helps fix it.
- We dig for root causes. When something breaks, we find out why instead of patching the symptom and moving on.
- We ship, then refine. We work in short sprints and improve things over time instead of waiting for a perfect first version.
How We Use AI
Logistics
- This is a remote role, open to candidates across the United States
- Occasional travel may be required, but is not core to this role
- Interview process: introductory call, AI proficiency interview, team technical interview, interview project, interview project presentation, and founders interview
Compensation and Benefits
You Should Be Interested in SDVI Because:
- You are looking for your next big challenge
- You are looking for a company that welcomes your talent virtually
- You want teammates you can learn from, and who will learn from you
- You want to be part of a team that respects individuals and their work
- You consider the big picture and your contribution to it
SDVI offers a comprehensive benefits package including competitive salary, medical, vision, dental, 401(k) match, and stock options in a stimulating and rewarding distributed work environment.
SDVI is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in our workforce. We maintain a courteous work environment that recognizes the dignity and worth of each employee. SDVI respects the individual needs of employees and is an equal-opportunity employer.
The Role
What You’ll Work On
- Implement test strategy with feature teams on a major project or area of Rally, and agree up front on what must be true for high-impact changes and who proves it
- Test Rally against defined system properties and invariants, especially those pertaining to scalability, resiliency, and performance at customer scale
- Design test infrastructure and fixtures that serve both test and development, weigh their tradeoffs with peers, and see them through implementation to adoption
- Build tests that return a clear verdict on well-defined system behaviors
- Advise feature developers as they own the development-loop tests for their own changes
- Test that Rally’s failures are diagnosable, so customers and support can tell what broke and why
- Review past production incidents with Support Engineering to find gaps in how we test
- Mentor other SDETs, and improve the practices and tools the team uses
What Success Looks Like
- First 90 days. You’re shaping the test strategy for a major project, know the test infrastructure well enough to support and refine its design, and feature teams coordinate with you to ensure releases ship with confidence.
- First year. You drive test strategy for a major area of Rally and have defined and tested its system properties. Feature developers use fixtures you designed, and other SDETs come to you for guidance.
What You’ll Bring
- A track record of driving test strategy for microservice-based systems, cloud-hosted systems, or single-page web applications with minimal direction
- Experience designing test infrastructure and frameworks, and explaining their tradeoffs to peers
- Experience testing how systems behave under load and failure, beyond functional correctness
- Experience applying AI agents to test work, or driving test on an AI-forward engineering team, and a clear sense of when agent-written tests check the implementation instead of the intent
- Strong ability to read and understand Python, Javascript, or another programming language commonly used in test
- Experience applying software or system design principles in the test domain
- Curiosity about how and why systems fail, and the discipline to learn new systems and technologies in depth
- The ability to explain deeply technical topics to non-technical audiences, and to adjust how you communicate for customers, management, or peers
Nice to Have
- Experience with load, performance, or fault-injection testing tools
- Experience running automated tests in CI pipelines
- Experience with pytest or similar test frameworks
- Experience with Robot Framework
- Experience mentoring other engineers
- Familiarity with professional media formats and tools, such as codecs, container formats, media encoders, and metadata management
How We Work
- We’re small and distributed. Most of our collaboration happens over Slack and Zoom, across time zones. You’ll own what you build, and you’ll work closely with people outside your immediate team.
- Engineers stay close to customers. You’ll hear directly from the people using what you build. When something goes wrong in production, the team that owns the code helps fix it.
- We dig for root causes. When something breaks, we find out why instead of patching the symptom and moving on.
- We ship, then refine. We work in short sprints and improve things over time instead of waiting for a perfect first version.
How We Use AI
Logistics
- This is a remote role, open to candidates across the United States
- Occasional travel may be required, but is not core to this role
- Interview process: introductory call, AI proficiency interview, team technical interview, interview project, interview project presentation, and founders interview
Compensation and Benefits
You Should Be Interested in SDVI Because:
- You are looking for your next big challenge
- You are looking for a company that welcomes your talent virtually
- You want teammates you can learn from, and who will learn from you
- You want to be part of a team that respects individuals and their work
- You consider the big picture and your contribution to it
SDVI offers a comprehensive benefits package including competitive salary, medical, vision, dental, 401(k) match, and stock options in a stimulating and rewarding distributed work environment.
SDVI is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity in our workforce. We maintain a courteous work environment that recognizes the dignity and worth of each employee. SDVI respects the individual needs of employees and is an equal-opportunity employer.
See All 645+ Lead Software Test Engineer Jobs
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Find JobsLead Software Test Engineer Job Market
Who's Hiring
- Apple33
- Northrop Grumman25
- Lockheed Martin13
- CACI International13
- Sony Interactive Entertainment13
Top Industries Hiring
- Technology & Software40
- Medical Devices7
- Aerospace & Defense6
- Consulting & Professional Services6
- Manufacturing5
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in lead software test engineer jobs.
- 5 or more years of software testing experience with at least 2 in a lead or senior role
- Hands-on experience building and maintaining test automation frameworks using tools such as Selenium, Playwright, or Cypress
- Proficiency in at least one programming or scripting language such as Python, Java, or JavaScript
- Experience integrating automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or similar tools
- Strong knowledge of API testing using tools such as Postman, Rest Assured, or similar utilities
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related technical field
Tips for Your Lead Software Test Engineer Job Search
Quantify test coverage and defect outcomes
Your resume should show what your testing actually prevented or caught, not just list tools you used. Hiring managers want to see metrics like defect escape rates reduced or release cycles shortened through your automation frameworks.
Tailor your automation stack to each listing
Lead roles care deeply about which frameworks you can architect from scratch versus which you've inherited. Read each job description for mentions of Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, or Appium and mirror the exact names in your resume's skills section.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists lead software test engineer openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Target companies mid-release-cycle
Organizations posting lead QA roles often do so when a product ship date is approaching and test debt is piling up. Applying within the first week of a posting improves your odds because hiring moves fast under that pressure.
Prepare a framework design walkthrough
Most technical screens for lead-level QA roles include a live or take-home exercise where you design a test automation architecture. Practice narrating your decisions out loud, covering test pyramid rationale, CI integration, and reporting strategy.
Negotiate scope before discussing compensation
Lead QA titles vary wildly in team size and ownership. Before you negotiate pay, clarify whether you own the full QA strategy or report into an engineering manager. That answer changes your leverage and shapes your counteroffer.
Lead Software Test Engineer Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most lead software test engineers?
Apple, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin are hiring the most lead software test engineers right now, with openings concentrated in California, Texas, and Massachusetts, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Demand is especially strong at companies scaling cloud platforms and regulated software products.
How many lead software test engineer jobs are remote?
About 61% of lead software test engineer openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting strong employer flexibility at the senior individual contributor and lead level. Test automation and QA strategy roles that do not require hands-on access to physical hardware or lab environments tend to be the most remote-friendly.
How do you become a lead software test engineer?
Start by building a foundation in manual testing and then develop scripting skills to write automated test cases. Progress to owning a full test suite for a product area, then take on cross-team responsibilities like defining testing standards or mentoring junior engineers. Lead roles require demonstrated ability to design an automation strategy, not just execute one.
Can you get hired as a lead software test engineer with limited experience?
Getting hired at the lead level without direct team leadership experience is possible if you can show ownership of a test automation framework end to end. Contributing to open-source testing projects, building a portfolio of framework designs, and volunteering to lead QA planning on a current team are concrete ways to close that gap before applying.
What does the lead software test engineer interview process look like?
Most processes include an initial recruiter screen, a technical phone interview covering automation concepts and test strategy, and a practical exercise where you design or extend a test framework. Final rounds typically involve a panel with engineering leads and product managers where you discuss how you would own QA across a full development cycle.
Where can I find and apply to lead software test engineer jobs?
You can find and apply to lead software test engineer jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States. Search for roles that match your automation stack and experience level, then apply directly to each listing that fits your background.
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Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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