Application Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Illinois
Application engineer roles in Illinois are concentrated in Chicago's tech and manufacturing corridors, with major employers like Motorola Solutions, Zebra Technologies, and Grainger actively hiring. The state's dense mix of enterprise software firms, industrial automation companies, and consulting houses creates consistent demand for application engineers who need visa sponsorship.
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Get Access To All JobsJob Title: Application Quality Assurance Lead
Location: Hybrid – Springfield, IL OR Plano, TX office
Position Summary
The IT Quality Assurance (ITQA) Lead is responsible for leading quality assurance activities across one or more business areas by working on multiple projects that require in-depth knowledge across multiple technical areas and business segments.
The QA Lead provides leadership to QA Analysts, coordinates test planning and execution, manages defects, and works closely with Business Analysts, Developers, Product Owners, and Project Managers to deliver high-quality software. The QA Lead also acts as a change agent for identifies gaps and opportunities, promotes best practices and use of automation to increase QA effectiveness and reducing cost of operations. The QA lead will report and work closely with the QA Manager.
The role combines hands-on testing expertise with team leadership, process improvement, reporting, and quality governance.
Key Responsibilities:
Test Strategy and Execution
- Develop and execute project test strategies, plans, schedules, and resource estimates.
- Define testing scope, objectives, risks, dependencies, environments, and entry/exit criteria.
- Review business and functional requirements for clarity, testability, and coverage.
- Review test scenarios, cases, data, regression suites, and traceability.
- Coordinate functional, system integration, regression, end-to-end, and user acceptance testing.
- Support test-data creation, environment readiness, deployment requests, and technical issue resolution.
Defect and Risk Management
- Lead defect triage meetings and ensure defects are accurately documented, prioritized, assigned, and resolved.
- Monitor defect aging, severity, root-cause documentation, and SLA compliance.
- Identify and escalate risks involving schedules, environments, test data, resources, requirements, defects, and release readiness.
- Recommend practical mitigation strategies and communicate quality risks to stakeholders.
Team Leadership and Governance
- Lead QA stand-ups and assign work across onshore and offshore team members.
- Mentor junior analysts and support the onboarding of new QA resources.
- Promote consistent QA standards, templates, processes, and best practices.
- Conduct peer reviews of testing artifacts and verify that deliverables meet quality expectations.
- Maintain QA repositories, test assets, reusable utilities, and knowledge-sharing materials.
- Drive shift-left testing, risk-based testing, continuous improvement, and process compliance.
Automation, Reporting, and Collaboration
- Identify and prioritize test-automation opportunities.
- Partner with automation engineers on script development, optimization, maintenance, and failure analysis.
- Promote the effective use of automation and AI-assisted tools throughout the software testing lifecycle.
- Prepare daily and weekly QA reporting covering execution progress, test coverage, defects, risks, and team performance.
- Provide release-readiness assessments, including regression results, open risks, pending items, and go/no-go recommendations.
- Serve as the primary QA contact for project execution, issues, risks, and status.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent professional experience.
- Eight or more years of software quality assurance experience.
- Five or more years leading QA activities or teams.
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments and supporting enterprise software implementations.
- Experience leading onshore and offshore QA resources.
- Strong knowledge of test planning, execution, defect management, risk assessment, and release readiness.
- Experience with test automation and AI-assisted testing.
- Insurance industry experience is preferred.
Technical Experience
Experience with one or more of the following:
- Test and defect management: Azure DevOps, Jira.
- Automation: UFT, Selenium, Playwright.
- API testing: Postman or SoapUI.
- Reporting: Excel or Power BI.
- AI-assisted tools: ChatGPT or similar platforms.
Leadership Competencies
- Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
- Coaching and mentoring.
- Decision-making and problem-solving.
- Conflict resolution.
- Organization and planning.
- Risk assessment.
- Continuous-improvement mindset.
Preferred Certifications
- ISTQB Advanced Level.
- Azure DevOps.
- Test/QA Management.
- Scrum Agile.
Measures of Success
The successful ITQA Lead will:
- Deliver testing activities on schedule and on budget.
- Ensure comprehensive test coverage and requirements traceability.
- Help prevent defects introduction and reduce escaped defects.
- Provide accurate quality metrics and release-readiness recommendations.
- Lead defect management effectively across cross-functional teams.
- Mentor QA team members and strengthen adoption of QA standards.
- Expand appropriate use of automation and AI-assisted testing.
- Build strong partnerships across development, business, product, and project teams.
- Recommend improvements that increase QA effectiveness and reduce operating costs.
Salary Range: $89,800.00 - $125,500.00
Salary is commensurate to experience, location, etc.
Horace Mann was founded in 1945 by two Springfield, Illinois, teachers who saw a need for quality, affordable auto insurance for teachers. Since then, we've broadened our mission to helping all educators protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. And with our broadened mission has come corporate growth: We serve more than 4,100 school districts nationwide, we're publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: HMN) and we have more than $12 billion in assets.
We're motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children's future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Our tailored offerings include special rates and benefits for educators.
EOE/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
For applicants that are California residents, please review our California Consumer Privacy Notice.
All applicants should review our Horace Mann Privacy Policy.
Job Title: Application Quality Assurance Lead
Location: Hybrid – Springfield, IL OR Plano, TX office
Position Summary
The IT Quality Assurance (ITQA) Lead is responsible for leading quality assurance activities across one or more business areas by working on multiple projects that require in-depth knowledge across multiple technical areas and business segments.
The QA Lead provides leadership to QA Analysts, coordinates test planning and execution, manages defects, and works closely with Business Analysts, Developers, Product Owners, and Project Managers to deliver high-quality software. The QA Lead also acts as a change agent for identifies gaps and opportunities, promotes best practices and use of automation to increase QA effectiveness and reducing cost of operations. The QA lead will report and work closely with the QA Manager.
The role combines hands-on testing expertise with team leadership, process improvement, reporting, and quality governance.
Key Responsibilities:
Test Strategy and Execution
- Develop and execute project test strategies, plans, schedules, and resource estimates.
- Define testing scope, objectives, risks, dependencies, environments, and entry/exit criteria.
- Review business and functional requirements for clarity, testability, and coverage.
- Review test scenarios, cases, data, regression suites, and traceability.
- Coordinate functional, system integration, regression, end-to-end, and user acceptance testing.
- Support test-data creation, environment readiness, deployment requests, and technical issue resolution.
Defect and Risk Management
- Lead defect triage meetings and ensure defects are accurately documented, prioritized, assigned, and resolved.
- Monitor defect aging, severity, root-cause documentation, and SLA compliance.
- Identify and escalate risks involving schedules, environments, test data, resources, requirements, defects, and release readiness.
- Recommend practical mitigation strategies and communicate quality risks to stakeholders.
Team Leadership and Governance
- Lead QA stand-ups and assign work across onshore and offshore team members.
- Mentor junior analysts and support the onboarding of new QA resources.
- Promote consistent QA standards, templates, processes, and best practices.
- Conduct peer reviews of testing artifacts and verify that deliverables meet quality expectations.
- Maintain QA repositories, test assets, reusable utilities, and knowledge-sharing materials.
- Drive shift-left testing, risk-based testing, continuous improvement, and process compliance.
Automation, Reporting, and Collaboration
- Identify and prioritize test-automation opportunities.
- Partner with automation engineers on script development, optimization, maintenance, and failure analysis.
- Promote the effective use of automation and AI-assisted tools throughout the software testing lifecycle.
- Prepare daily and weekly QA reporting covering execution progress, test coverage, defects, risks, and team performance.
- Provide release-readiness assessments, including regression results, open risks, pending items, and go/no-go recommendations.
- Serve as the primary QA contact for project execution, issues, risks, and status.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent professional experience.
- Eight or more years of software quality assurance experience.
- Five or more years leading QA activities or teams.
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments and supporting enterprise software implementations.
- Experience leading onshore and offshore QA resources.
- Strong knowledge of test planning, execution, defect management, risk assessment, and release readiness.
- Experience with test automation and AI-assisted testing.
- Insurance industry experience is preferred.
Technical Experience
Experience with one or more of the following:
- Test and defect management: Azure DevOps, Jira.
- Automation: UFT, Selenium, Playwright.
- API testing: Postman or SoapUI.
- Reporting: Excel or Power BI.
- AI-assisted tools: ChatGPT or similar platforms.
Leadership Competencies
- Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
- Coaching and mentoring.
- Decision-making and problem-solving.
- Conflict resolution.
- Organization and planning.
- Risk assessment.
- Continuous-improvement mindset.
Preferred Certifications
- ISTQB Advanced Level.
- Azure DevOps.
- Test/QA Management.
- Scrum Agile.
Measures of Success
The successful ITQA Lead will:
- Deliver testing activities on schedule and on budget.
- Ensure comprehensive test coverage and requirements traceability.
- Help prevent defects introduction and reduce escaped defects.
- Provide accurate quality metrics and release-readiness recommendations.
- Lead defect management effectively across cross-functional teams.
- Mentor QA team members and strengthen adoption of QA standards.
- Expand appropriate use of automation and AI-assisted testing.
- Build strong partnerships across development, business, product, and project teams.
- Recommend improvements that increase QA effectiveness and reduce operating costs.
Salary Range: $89,800.00 - $125,500.00
Salary is commensurate to experience, location, etc.
Horace Mann was founded in 1945 by two Springfield, Illinois, teachers who saw a need for quality, affordable auto insurance for teachers. Since then, we've broadened our mission to helping all educators protect what they have today and prepare for a successful tomorrow. And with our broadened mission has come corporate growth: We serve more than 4,100 school districts nationwide, we're publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: HMN) and we have more than $12 billion in assets.
We're motivated by the fact that educators take care of our children's future, and we believe they deserve someone to look after theirs. We help educators identify their financial goals and develop plans to achieve them. This includes insurance to protect what they have today and financial products to help them prepare for their future. Our tailored offerings include special rates and benefits for educators.
EOE/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Disabled. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.
For applicants that are California residents, please review our California Consumer Privacy Notice.
All applicants should review our Horace Mann Privacy Policy.
Application Engineer Job Roles in Illinois
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Search Application Engineer Jobs in IllinoisApplication Engineer Jobs in Illinois: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies in Illinois sponsor visas for application engineers?
Several Illinois-based employers have established sponsorship histories for application engineer roles. Motorola Solutions, Zebra Technologies, and Grainger are among the larger names with documented H-1B visa filings. Enterprise software firms concentrated in Chicago's Loop and River North neighborhoods, along with manufacturing automation companies in the suburbs, also sponsor regularly. Checking DOL Labor Condition Application disclosure data shows which employers have filed for this specific role.
What visa types are most common for application engineers in Illinois?
The H-1B is the most common visa for application engineer roles in Illinois, as the position generally qualifies as a specialty occupation requiring at least a bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical field. Candidates already holding L-1B status through an intracompany transfer or those on OPT with STEM extension are also well-represented in this role category across Illinois employers.
Which cities in Illinois have the most application engineer sponsorship jobs?
Chicago accounts for the majority of application engineer sponsorship activity in Illinois, particularly in the River North, West Loop, and downtown areas where enterprise tech and consulting firms are headquartered. Schaumburg, Downers Grove, and Lisle in the northwest and western suburbs are also significant hubs, driven by established corporate campuses from companies like Motorola Solutions and several industrial automation firms.
How to find application engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Illinois?
Migrate Mate filters application engineer roles specifically by sponsorship eligibility and state, making it straightforward to browse open positions in Illinois without sorting through listings from employers unlikely to sponsor. Roles on Migrate Mate are tagged by visa type supported, so you can identify whether a position is suitable for H-1B, OPT, or other work authorization before applying. This saves significant time compared to applying broadly and asking about sponsorship after the fact.
Are there any Illinois-specific considerations for application engineers seeking sponsorship?
Illinois follows federal prevailing wage requirements for H-1B applications, with Chicago-area wages benchmarked to a higher wage level than many other metros due to the city's cost of living and concentration of enterprise employers. The University of Illinois system, including UIUC's engineering programs, produces a steady pipeline of international graduates who pursue OPT and H-1B sponsorship for application engineer roles, meaning competition for entry-level positions in this state is particularly active.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored application engineer jobs in Illinois?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.