Senior IT QA Engineer
Summary
Senior individual-contributor QA engineer at Guild Mortgage, a US mortgage lender, who owns quality strategy end to end: building automated testing (API, performance, end-to-end), AI-assisted quality tooling, and observability dashboards embedded in CI/CD pipelines, while advising product, engineering, and business teams with data-driven insights.
Guild Mortgage Company, closing loans and opening doors since 1960. As a mortgage banking firm we are dedicated to serving the home owner/buyer. Our goal is to provide affordable home financing for our customers, utilizing the best terms available while providing a level of professionalism and service unsurpassed in the lending industry.
Position Summary
The Senior IT QA Engineer is a senior individual contributor responsible for delivering quality outcomes through technology, influence, data, and leadership of work. This role operates at the intersection of quality engineering, automation, analytics, and organizational change.
Rather than focusing solely on manual test execution, the Senior IT QA Engineer acts as the orchestrator of quality solutions. They leverage automation platforms, AI-enabled quality capabilities, observability data, quality intelligence, and modern engineering practices to continuously assess product health, identify risk, drive improvements, and influence better decisions across product, development, and business teams.
The Senior IT QA Engineer serves as a trusted quality advisor and quality owner within delivery teams. They do not manage people but are expected to manage complex quality initiatives, influence technical and business decisions, guide quality strategy, and drive measurable improvements in product outcomes through technology, automation, data, and expertise.
Success is measured not by the volume of tests executed personally, but by the quality outcomes, insights, automation capabilities, risk reduction, and measurable improvements they enable.
Compensation
This role is an exempt position with a targeted salary range of $94,882 to $136,096.
Compensation at Guild is influenced by a wide array of factors including but not limited to local and federal minimum wage requirements, education, level of experience, and applicant’s geographical location.
Essential Functions
Quality Ownership and Organizational Influence
- Serve as the primary quality owner and trusted quality advisor for assigned products, platforms, or initiatives.
- Drive quality outcomes through influence, partnership, coaching, and data-driven decision making.
- Use quality metrics, production telemetry, defect trends, customer feedback, and delivery data to identify risks and opportunities.
- Lead conversations with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and Business stakeholders to improve quality, reduce risk, and increase delivery effectiveness.
- Challenge assumptions and advocate for quality-focused decisions supported by data and evidence.
- Build credibility as a trusted advisor capable of influencing change without direct authority.
Quality Strategy and Risk Management
- Develop and execute risk-based quality strategies aligned to business objectives.
- Identify quality risks early and recommend mitigation plans before issues impact customers.
- Design scalable approaches that balance speed, quality, cost, and business risk.
- Define meaningful quality measures and continuously evaluate product health.
- Drive root-cause analysis and systemic improvement efforts for recurring quality issues.
- Assess quality holistically across systems, processes, data, customer experiences, and organizational practices.
Automation, AI, and Quality Platforms
- Leverage modern automation frameworks, AI-assisted quality solutions, and engineering tooling to maximize quality coverage and efficiency.
- Treat automation platforms, AI capabilities, and quality technologies as force multipliers capable of performing work at scale.
- Design, implement, and continuously improve automated quality solutions.
- Guide the adoption of advanced testing approaches including API, integration, performance, data, security, and end-to-end automation.
- Partner with architects and engineering teams to embed quality verification directly into delivery workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
- Continuously evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities to modernize quality practices.
- Leverage AI-assisted engineering and quality tools to improve productivity, quality coverage, insight generation, and decision support.
Data-Driven Quality Engineering
- Analyze quality signals from multiple systems to identify patterns, trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities.
- Transform quality data into actionable insights for leadership and delivery teams.
- Develop dashboards, reporting, and quality intelligence mechanisms that improve decision making.
- Use customer, operational, and production data to validate product quality and business outcomes.
- Drive improvements based on measurable results rather than opinion or anecdotal evidence.
- Identify opportunities by analyzing quality, operational, and customer data across the software delivery lifecycle.
Technical Expertise and Engineering Experience
- Lead complex testing initiatives across web, mobile, API, data, cloud, and distributed systems.
- Apply software engineering principles to design, implement, and maintain scalable quality solutions.
- Establish and promote engineering standards, testing practices, and quality patterns.
- Read, understand, troubleshoot, and contribute code when necessary.
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship to QA engineers and delivery teams.
- Contribute to architecture discussions to improve testability, observability, reliability, maintainability, and system resilience.
- Support quality engineering maturity through innovation, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
Team and Delivery Partnership
- Partner closely with Product Management, Development, Architecture, Security, Operations, and Business stakeholders.
- Participate in Agile ceremonies and delivery planning with a focus on quality outcomes.
- Help teams prioritize quality investments based on risk and expected business value.
- Promote a culture where quality is owned by the entire team rather than a single function.
- Influence Technical and Business Decisions through expertise, evidence, data, and trusted partnerships
Qualifications
- Bachelors Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field strongly preferred.
- Minimum five years of experience in software quality engineering, software testing, quality automation, software development, or a related discipline.
- Relevant industry certifications (e.g., ISTQB or CSTE is a plus)
- Demonstrated ability to drive quality outcomes through automation, data analysis, technical expertise, and cross-functional influence.
- Experience creating automated quality solutions and integrating them into modern delivery pipelines.
- Experience using metrics, analytics, and operational data to drive decisions and improvements.
- Experience working within Agile, DevOps, and modern software engineering environments.
- Demonstrated success delivering quality outcomes for complex enterprise technology initiatives.
- Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices.
- Proficiency in one or more programming or scripting languages such as Python, Java, C#, JavaScript, or similar technologies.
- Experience with automated testing frameworks and quality engineering platforms.
- Experience with source control systems, CI/CD pipelines, cloud-native architectures, APIs, microservices, and distributed systems.
- Strong SQL and data analysis capabilities with the ability to transform quality data into actionable business insights.
- Ability to analyze complex systems and identify quality risks across people, process, technology, and data.
- Ability to read, understand, troubleshoot, and contribute code when necessary.
- Experience with monitoring, logging, observability, and production telemetry platforms.
- Experience leveraging AI-assisted engineering, automation, and quality solutions to improve quality outcomes and team effectiveness.
- Strong troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, and problem-solving skills.
- Strong systems-thinking mindset with the ability to evaluate end-to-end business processes, technical dependencies, and organizational risk.
- Demonstrated ability to influence organizational outcomes through expertise, credibility, and relationships.
- Experience mentoring engineers and elevating team capabilities.
- Strong business acumen and ability to connect quality activities to customer and organizational outcomes.
- Continuous learner with curiosity around emerging technologies, AI capabilities, automation, analytics, and quality engineering practices.
- Exposure to Nexora Framework is a plus.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills required.
- Highly organized and detail-oriented; ability to work in a fast-paced, metrics-driven environment required.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Wiki, collaborative cloud-based programs, and third-party software applications required.
- Commitment to company values.
- Customer Service - Proactive attention to each person
- Integrity - Do and say what's right
- Respect - Treat others with dignity
- Collaboration - Listen and work together
- Learning - Seek knowledge and strive for improvement
- Excellence - Deliver the unexpected
Requirements
Physical Demands
Work is primarily sedentary, mobility in an office setting.
Manual Dexterity
Ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards
Audi/Visual
Ability to accurately interpret sounds and associated meanings at a volume consistent with interpersonal conversation.
Environmental
Office environment – moderate noise, no substantial exposure to adverse environmental conditions.
Mental
This role requires effective adaptation to workplace stressors, including customer service complaints, security responsibilities, and competing priorities.
Schedules
Work is primarily performed during the business week, Monday - Friday; occasional night or weekend may be necessary.
Travel
5-10%
Guild offers a pleasant work environment, competitive compensation and excellent benefits package; including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, LTD and 401(k) with employer match.
Guild Mortgage Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
REQ#: SENIO018574
