Sr. Digital Accessibility Automation Engineer _ Houston, TX/ Chicago, IL(Day1 Onsite)

Job Title: Sr Digital Accessibility Automation Engineer

Location- Houston, TX/ Chicago, IL(Day1 Onsite)

Contract 12+ months

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with design, product, and engineering teams to ensure accessibility is built into digital experiences from ideation through delivery.

• Provide technical expertise on accessible implementation patterns using semantic HTML and WAI-ARIA.

• Conduct accessibility testing using automated and targeted manual approaches aligned to WCAG 2.2.

• Design, implement, and maintain accessibility automation at scale using Deque Axe Monitor.

• Script and execute transactional accessibility test scripts (e.g., authentication, search, booking, checkout flows) executed by Axe Monitor.

• Integrate automated accessibility checks into Selenium-based automation frameworks.

• Embed accessibility validation into CI/CD pipelines to support shift-left and continuous testing strategies.

• Monitor accessibility trends, regressions, and risk across applications and environments using automated reporting and dashboards.

• Analyze automated scan results to distinguish true accessibility defects from false positives.

• Partner with engineering and test teams to troubleshoot automation failures and guide remediation.

• Maintain reusable, reliable automation scripts and frameworks that scale across products and teams.

• Clearly communicate technical findings and recommendations to engineering, test, and product stakeholders.

Program Leadership & Strategy

• Lead execution of the digital accessibility roadmap, with a strong emphasis on automation-first enforcement.

• Translate accessibility goals into repeatable, automated validations that reduce manual testing effort and compliance risk.

• Coordinate automation milestones across Product, Engineering, and QA, aligning accessibility automation with release schedules.

• Monitor accessibility maturity using automation-driven KPIs (coverage, regressions prevented, time-to-fix).

Hands-On Accessibility Expertise

• Conduct targeted manual accessibility testing to:

• Validate automated findings

• Cover gaps automation cannot detect (cognitive, usability, AT behavior)

• Evaluate experiences against WCAG 2.2 AA, ADA, Section 508, EAA, using assistive technologies as needed.

• Provide engineering-ready remediation guidance, including code-level recommendations.

• Validate fixes via automated reruns and regression testing prior to release.

Collaboration & Enablement

• Partner with Engineering, test, and DevOps to:

• Embed accessibility automation into existing pipelines

• Align functional and accessibility test strategies

• Mentor teams on:

• Writing accessibility-friendly UI code

• Interpreting Axe results

• Fixing issues efficiently

• Act as a technical liaison with Deque and other tooling partners.

Governance & Compliance

• Ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA and EAA through continuous automated monitoring.

• Maintain and evolve:

• Automation standards

• Accessibility test patterns

• CI/CD accessibility gates

• Support vendor and third-party evaluations by assessing automation readiness and accessibility risk.

Reporting & Insight

• Produce automation-driven reporting:

• Accessibility coverage by product

• Regressions caught pre-release

• Trends over time from Axe Monitor

• Communicate results clearly to engineering leaders and executives, focusing on risk reduction and velocity gains.

Must-Have Skills

• 5+ years of experience in digital accessibility with a strong automation and engineering focus.

• Expert knowledge of WCAG 2.1 / 2.2 and WAI-ARIA, including deep understanding of automatable success criteria.

• Strong understanding of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, including modern SPA behavior.

• Hands-on experience with Deque Axe Monitor, including configuration, execution, and maintenance of transactional scripts.

• Strong experience with Deque Axe DevTools for rule validation, debugging, and pre-Monitor testing.

• Proven experience integrating accessibility automation into Selenium-based test frameworks.

• Ability to write, maintain, and troubleshoot transactional automation scripts executed at scale.

• Experience integrating accessibility automation into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps).

• Strong debugging skills related to flaky automation, selectors, timing issues, and dynamic content.

• Experience working with version control systems (Git) and enterprise automation practices.

• Excellent technical communication skills with engineering and test teams.

• Must be local to Houston or Chicago and willing to work in a hybrid environment.