Principal Automation Engineer
Posted Today by 1764306310
Negotiable
Outside
Remote
USA
Summary: The Principal Automation Engineer will lead the automation strategy while also engaging in hands-on design and development of automation frameworks for desktop applications. This role requires a senior technical expert to drive innovation and ensure technical excellence within the automation team. The position emphasizes both leadership and technical contributions, focusing on the automation of desktop-based systems. The ideal candidate will possess extensive experience in automation engineering and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
Key Responsibilities:
- Architect and design robust automation frameworks specifically for desktop applications, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and long-term adaptability across multiple platforms and technologies.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship, guiding the automation team through complex design challenges and promoting best practices in automation engineering.
- Develop and enhance automation strategies covering desktop, API, and database layers, integrating them into CI/CD processes to ensure continuous quality and reliability.
- Partner closely with application SMEs, domain architects, infrastructure teams, and project managers to align automation initiatives with business and technical goals.
- Analyze existing manual testing processes for desktop software and identify opportunities to replace or augment them with automated solutions.
- Maintain, evolve, and optimize the in-house automation framework, ensuring compatibility and efficiency across desktop environments and configurations.
- Participate in root cause analysis and troubleshooting efforts, driving cross-team collaboration to identify and resolve defects efficiently.
- Provide detailed estimates, solution designs, and test automation strategies for upcoming desktop-based projects.
Key Skills:
- 10+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and maintaining test automation frameworks, with a strong focus on desktop application testing (Windows, .NET, or similar environments).
- Proven expertise in framework architecture and design patterns for test automation, including component-based, modular, and data-driven approaches.
- Strong understanding of desktop UI automation tools and libraries (e.g., WinAppDriver, White, Pywinauto, FlaUI, TestStack, or equivalent).
- Experience developing automation for APIs, packaged, and custom desktop applications.
- 7+ years of experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and stakeholders across engineering, QA, and business units to align automation goals and deliver enterprise-grade solutions.
- Proficiency in one or more programming/scripting languages (Python, .NET, C#, Java, Bash, etc.) for building automation utilities and integrating frameworks.
- Strong SQL skills, including writing and maintaining queries, interacting with relational databases, and designing simple schema updates to support test automation.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, enabling desktop test automation to execute autonomously in build and deployment workflows.
- Comfortable working in both Windows and Linux environments for cross-platform automation support.
- Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Salary (Rate): undetermined
City: undetermined
Country: USA
Working Arrangements: remote
IR35 Status: outside IR35
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: IT
Detailed Description From Employer:
The Principal Automation Engineer will play a dual role leading automation strategy and contributing hands-on to the design and build of automation frameworks and solutions. This individual will serve as the senior-most technical expert on the automation team, driving innovation and technical excellence in the automation of desktop-
Role Overview (25% Leadership / 75% Hands-On Technical Work)
- Architect and design robust automation frameworks
specifically for desktop applications, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and long-term adaptability across multiple platforms and technologies. - Provide technical leadership and mentorship, guiding the automation team through complex design challenges and promoting best practices in automation engineering.
- Develop and enhance automation strategies covering desktop, API, and database layers, integrating them into CI/CD processes to ensure continuous quality and reliability.
- Partner closely with application SMEs, domain architects, infrastructure teams, and project managers to align automation initiatives with business and technical goals.
- Analyze existing manual testing processes for desktop software and identify opportunities to replace or augment them with automated solutions.
- Maintain, evolve, and optimize the in-house automation
framework , ensuring compatibility and efficiency across desktop environments and configurations. - Participate in root cause analysis and troubleshooting efforts, driving cross-team collaboration to identify and resolve defects efficiently.
- Provide detailed estimates, solution designs, and test automation strategies for upcoming desktop-based projects.
The Essentials
- 10+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and maintaining test automation
frameworks , with a strong focus on desktop application testing (Windows, .NET, or similar environments). - Proven expertise in framework architecture and design patterns for test automation, including component-based, modular, and data-driven approaches.
- Strong understanding of desktop UI automation tools and libraries (e.g., WinAppDriver, White, Pywinauto, FlaUI, TestStack, or equivalent).
- Experience developing automation for APIs
, packaged, and custom desktop applications . - 7+ years of experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and stakeholders across engineering, QA, and business units to align automation goals and deliver enterprise-grade solutions.
- Proficiency in one or more programming/scripting languages (Python, .NET, C#, Java, Bash, etc.) for building automation utilities and integrating frameworks.
- Strong SQL skills, including writing and maintaining queries, interacting with relational databases, and designing simple schema updates to support test automation.
- Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, enabling desktop test automati
on to execute autonomously in build and deployment workflows. - Comfortable working in both Windows and Linux environments for cross-platform automation
support. - Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Nice to Have
- Experience using Tosca or other enterprise-grade test automation platforms.
- Prior experience in the utility or energy industry, or in other large-scale operational environments.
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
ON CANDIDATE QUALITY (GUIDELINES)
Please review these notes carefully and ensure all future submissions strictly adhere to these expectations.
This is a senior-level role, and the candidate's professionalism, resume, and assessment performance must reflect that high standard.
Key Focus Areas and Mandatory Requirements
1. Communication and Professionalism (Interview Stage)
- Candidates must be articulate, concise, and confident during the interview.
- They must attend the interview (local or Zoom) professionally dressed and prepared to discuss their experience with specific examples that showcase their skills.
2. Glider Technical Assessment
- Grammar: Absolutely mandatory. Candidates must use proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. Candidates have been declined solely for these errors.
- Completion/Timing: The assessment has a 50-minute time limit. Candidates must complete the assessment fully within a maximum of three days of receiving the link. No extensions will be granted.
- Quality of Answers: Responses to the essay-type questions must be thorough and reflective of their experience (one or two paragraphs). Do not submit sloppy or bulleted answers. The quality of the assessment and the resume are the only two factors the hiring manager uses to decide on an interview.
3. Resume and Experience
- Job Description Adherence: Review the job description carefully for all mandatory skills.
- Desktop Experience: Candidates must have recent and primary career experience focused on desktop application automation (not mobile).
- Leadership Experience: Must showcase clear experience leading teams, not just training or mentoring individuals.
- Role Level: Only Principal or Management level candidates will be accepted. Do not submit candidates with Engineer or Lead titles/experience.
- Visual Consistency: The resume must be visually consistent (e.g., matching capitalization for headers, consistent use of bullet points per job description).
- Location: PST candidates are strongly preferred. EST candidates will not be accepted. MT/CST candidates may be considered only if they are absolute "rock stars."
4. LinkedIn Profile
- The LinkedIn profile must be professional, active, and fully up-to-date.
- The experience, titles, and employment dates must match their resume exactly.
Thank you for your ongoing efforts in sourcing for this critical role. Please ensure your candidates meet these elevated requirements before submission.