Principal Quality Engineer

** Job Type:
** Permanent
* * Build a brilliant future with Hiscox
**** Principal Quality Engineer
** We are seeking an innovative Principal Quality Engineer who will advance our testing capabilities through modern automation and AI-driven methodologies. This position is responsible for establishing an automation-centric approach, designing sophisticated test frameworks, and ensuring quality is integrated throughout the software development lifecycle by utilizing artificial intelligence for efficient test generation, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics. Reporting directly to the Director of Quality Engineering, the successful candidate will support and guide scrum teams, exemplify best practices, and champion ongoing improvement initiatives.

The ideal applicant will demonstrate a strong commitment to scalable automation, effective cross-functional collaboration, leveraging AI in testing strategies, and addressing complex testing scenarios.
** Key Responsibility Areas:
**** Quality Engineering Leadership & Execution:
*** Lead the design, implementation, and evolution of
** automation frameworks
** using
** Playwright, and Cucumber**.
* Drive an
** automation‐first mindset**, ensuring new features are supported by robust automated tests across UI, API, integration, and regression layers.
* Partner with developers to improve code quality through testability reviews, shift‐left practices, and continuous testing.
* Own test strategy for assigned value streams, ensuring coverage, reliability, and alignment with CI/CD pipelines.
** Framework & Tooling Ownership:
*** Build and maintain scalable, reusable automation frameworks that support multiple teams and applications.
* Integrate automated tests into modern CI/CD pipelines (Git Hub Actions, Jenkins, Azure Dev Ops, or similar).
* Establish standards for test data management, mocking, and service virtualization.
* Evaluate and introduce new tools that improve speed, stability, and observability of automated tests.
** Process Engineering & Quality Governance:
*** Define and enforce best practices for test automation, defect triage, root‐cause analysis, and quality gates.
* Partner with QE leadership to standardize tooling, reporting, and quality metrics across teams.
* Track and communicate key quality indicators such as automation coverage, flakiness, performance trends, and release readiness.
** Cross‐Functional Collaboration & Enablement:
*** Work closely with Engineering, Product, Architecture, and Security to embed testing early in the development lifecycle.
* Lead enablement sessions on Playwright, Cucumber, Type Script best practices, and continuous testing.
* Support performance testing, security testing, and observability initiatives as needed.
*
* Qualifications:

*** 10+ years of experience in software test automation or software engineering, with at least 5+ years in a principal or lead role.
* Deep hands‐on expertise with
** Type Script**,
** Playwright**,
** Cucumber**, and modern automation frameworks.
* Strong understanding of
** CI/CD pipelines**, cloud‐native application testing, and Dev Ops‐aligned QA workflows.
* Experience designing automation frameworks from scratch and scaling them across teams.
* Solid understanding of performance testing, API testing, and test observability tools.
* Familiarity with Agile/SAFe practices; insurance or financial services domain experience is a plus.
* Excellent communication, collaboration, and technical leadership skills.
*
* What We Offer:

*** Competitive salary and bonus (based on personal & company performance)
* 401(k) with competitive company matching
* Comprehensive health insurance, vision, dental and FSA plans (medical, limited purpose, and dependent care)
* Company paid group term life, short- term disability and long-term disability coverage
* 24 Paid time off days plus 2 Hiscox days, 10 paid holidays plus 1 paid floating holiday, and ability to purchase 5 PTO days
* Paid parental leave
* 4 week paid sabbatical after every 5 years of service
* Financial Adoption Assistance and Medical Travel Reimbursement Programs
* Annual reimbursement up to $600 for health club membership or fees associated with any fitness program
*…