Role Name: API Test Lead
Work site: Seattle WA (Onsite)
Mode of Employment: Contract
Job Purpose
The API Test Lead will lead the Quality Engineering workstream for Costco’s Global Membership Platform modernization, covering migration-focused validation of up to 257 in-scope APIs and repositories across planned migration waves.
The role will serve as the primary testing point of contact for Costco QE, architects, application teams, Apigee teams, platform teams and the offshore QE team.
The role will ensure testing remains aligned to the agreed SOW boundaries, including API integration testing, API-level regression check, and limited API performance testing.
The role is accountable for test governance,scope alignment, readiness reviews, defect governance, quality reporting and production-readiness recommendations.
Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology or a related field preferred.
10+ years of Quality Engineering experience, including API, integration or cloud-modernization testing.
Proven experience leading customer-facing QE governance for large, multi-team migration or transformation programs.
Experience with REST APIs, microservices, Azure, AKS, APIM or Apigee, CI/CD and production-release governance.
Knowledge of JWT, OAuth 2.0, Entra ID, RBAC and API security validation.
Experience defining API performance-test scope, NFRs and readiness criteria is preferred.
Principal Responsibilities
Test Strategy and Planning
Define and maintain the API testing strategy, wave-level test plan, entry/exit criteria, quality gates and acceptance approach.
Confirm the approved testing baseline, including API inventory, dependencies, environments, test data,complexity distribution and performance-test candidates.
Stakeholder Collaboration and Onshore Governance
Act as the customer-facing QE lead and primary liaison with Costco QE, product owners, architects, platform teams and release stakeholders during North America business hours.
Facilitate test-readiness, defect-triage, risk-review, Go/No-Go and production-readiness discussions and Coordinate timely clarification
Risk and Scope Management
Manage testing risks associated with API contract changes, shared dependencies etc.
Ensure out of scope modules are not absorbed into the baseline without approved Change Control.
Assess testing impacts arising from scope clarification, client decisions and changes to requirement
Quality and Defect Governance
Own test status, defect ageing, severity alignment, retest priorities, residual-risk reporting and escalation.
Review execution evidence, test results, defect summaries and production-readiness packs before submission to Costco.
Ensure pre-existing defects, external-system issues and data-quality issues are identified and reported with clear ownership.
Provide quality-based recommendations for migration-wave progression
Reporting and Documentation
Prepare concise customer-facing QE dashboards, risks, decisions, dependencies, test progress and readiness updates.
Maintain traceability across approved scope, test conditions, execution evidence, defects and acceptance criteria.
Skills
Strong stakeholder management and customer-facing communication skills.
Ability to translate technical risks into clear delivery, commercial and quality impacts.
Strong test strategy, estimation, defect governance and release-readiness capabilities.
Excellent analytical, reporting, facilitation and decision-making skills.
