Senior Software Engineer
caterpillar
Job Description
Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.
When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other. We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.
QA Testing & Automation Senior Engineer to lead the quality engineering strategy, drive automation maturity, and mentor a team of QA engineers. Own the end-to-end test automation architecture across UI, API, and data layers while actively contributing to hands-on development of test solutions.
Leadership & Strategy
Define and own the QA automation strategy and roadmap across all product streams and release cycles
Establish framework architecture standards, design patterns (POM, Factory, Strategy), and coding conventions across all automation projects
Drive a shift-left testing culture by embedding QA activities into sprint planning, refinement, and design reviews
Set and enforce quality gates in CI/CD pipelines — no merge without passing smoke and regression suites
Report test coverage, defect escape rates, automation ROI, and quality KPIs to engineering leadership and stakeholders
Own release readiness decisions in collaboration with Engineering Managers, Product Owners, and Architects
Lead technical interviews and assess candidates for QA automation positions
Team Management & Mentoring
Lead, mentor, and upskill a team of QA engineers across Playwright, Selenium, API, and data validation disciplines
Conduct regular 1:1s, set measurable performance goals, and deliver structured feedback
Identify skill gaps across the team and create targeted development plans
Facilitate internal knowledge-sharing sessions, brown bags, and hands-on workshops on tooling and best practices
Resolve sprint blockers for the team and escalate risks to delivery management proactively
Playwright — React App UI Testing
Architect and own the Playwright (TypeScript) framework end-to-end for React SPA coverage
Design reusable Page Object Models, test fixtures, custom reporters, and shared utility layers
Define coverage standards across component-level, integration, and full E2E scenarios for React routes, state transitions, and dynamic rendering
Implement API mocking via page.route() for isolated, deterministic UI test scenarios
Configure parallel execution, browser sharding, and multi-browser matrix (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit)
Integrate Playwright runs into CI pipelines with artifact retention, HTML report publishing, and failure screenshot capture
Establish and govern visual regression testing baselines and define triage and sign-off processes for visual failures
Define retry policies, flakiness thresholds, and quarantine procedures for unstable tests
Selenium + Java + BDD (Cucumber)
Govern the Selenium WebDriver + Cucumber framework architecture, dependency versioning, and upgrade strategy
Collaborate with BAs and Product Owners to review and approve Gherkin feature files prior to sprint execution
Implement and maintain step definitions, hooks (@Before, @After), and shared scenario context/state management
Enforce a structured tagging strategy (@smoke, @regression, @sanity, @critical) for selective pipeline execution
Manage cross-browser execution strategy
Ensure Cucumber execution results are published to Azdo for requirement traceability and audit compliance
Define and enforce fluent wait strategies and element interaction standards to reduce test brittleness
Own flaky test triage — identify root causes, quarantine, and drive resolution with dev teams
API Testing — REST Assured
Design and own the REST Assured (Java) API framework with a layered architecture: service layer, model layer, utility layer
Define standards for contract testing, JSON Schema validation, response time as