Sr. SDET Consultant

Location: Hybrid - Chicago, IL

Interview: Virtual

Contract: 12+ months Contract

Client: Caterpillar

Exp: 10+ years required

Visa: Any

Excellent Communication

JOB DESCRIPTION:

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior SDET to extend and enhance existing test automation frameworks. The ideal candidate will take ownership of test strategy, design, and execution while working closely with cross-functional teams to ensure high-quality software delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Test Strategy & Ownership

• Understand business requirements and acceptance criteria (ACs)
• Define and own test strategy and test plans
• Develop and execute automated and manual test cases

Automation & Framework Development

• Extend and maintain automation frameworks using Java / JavaScript
• Develop automation test cases using existing frameworks
• Build automation for:
  • Continuous Integration (CI)
  • Continuous Delivery (CD)
  • Systems and infrastructure validation

API & Performance Testing

• Design, develop, and maintain API automation frameworks
• Perform REST API testing
• Develop scenario-based performance testing using JMeter

Hands-on Testing

• Create automated functional scripts using:
  • Java
  • Karate
  • JMeter
• Perform exploratory and manual testing when required

Leadership & Collaboration

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to QA/test engineers (onshore & offshore)
• Train team members on:
  • Automation scripting
  • Execution & reporting
  • Regression suite maintenance
• Collaborate with Product Owners to:
  • Resolve issues
  • Understand features and enhancements

Quality & Best Practices

• Implement testing methodologies, standards, and best practices
• Participate in code reviews and CI/CD processes
• Support end-to-end integration and system testing

Team & Work Environment

• Work within a team of 20+ members
• Hybrid work model with onsite presence required from Day 1
• Some interview rounds may be conducted onsite

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of overall experience
• Bachelor's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience
• Minimum 8 years of experience in test automation framework design
• Strong design & development experience in two or more:
  • Java (3 5 years)
  • Cucumber (3 5 years)
  • JBehave or other BDD frameworks
• Strong experience in Web Services / REST API testing (3 5+ years)
• Experience in:
  • Writing test scripts, test cases, and test data
  • SQL / relational database querying
• 3+ years of JMeter for performance testing
• Experience with:
  • Full-stack testing
  • Integration testing with third-party systems
  • End-to-end system integration testing

Preferred / Desired Skills

• Hands-on experience with Python
• Experience with AWS Cloud technologies
• Knowledge of:
  • TDD (Test-Driven Development)
  • Continuous Integration practices
  • Code review processes
• Experience with API gateways (Apigee or similar)
• Familiarity with DevOps tools:
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Jenkins
  • Git
• Minimum 2 years of Agile experience with strong understanding of Agile/Lean methodologies

Key Highlights

• Senior-level role with strong automation + leadership exposure
• Opportunity to work with a large enterprise client (Caterpillar)
• Hands-on + strategic role across automation, API, and performance testing