PRINCIPAL AUTOMATION ENGINEER

PRINCIPAL AUTOMATION ENGINEER

Visa Status: All visas 

End Client - SCE

Duration - 12 months
Interview Mode - Virtual
Experience: 14-20 Years

Location:Remote - must work PST hours. (Highly prefer candidates located in PST) 

Bonus: if they are located near the Rosemead and come in office.

Contract: 1 year - likely to extend

Principal Automation Engineer (Desktop Applications)

Notes client 

Job Description

Principal Automation Engineer

The Principal Automation Engineer will play a dual role — leading automation strategy and contributing hands-on to the design and build of automation frameworks and solutions. This individual will serve as the senior-most technical expert on the automation team, driving innovation and technical excellence in the automation of desktop-based applications and systems.Role Overview (25% Leadership / 75% Hands-On Technical Work)

·         Architect and design robust automation frameworks specifically for desktop applications, ensuring scalability, maintainability, and long-term adaptability across multiple platforms and technologies.

·         Provide technical leadership and mentorship, guiding the automation team through complex design challenges and promoting best practices in automation engineering.

·         Develop and enhance automation strategies covering desktop, API, and database layers, integrating them into CI/CD processes to ensure continuous quality and reliability.

·         Partner closely with application SMEs, domain architects, infrastructure teams, and project managers to align automation initiatives with business and technical goals.

·         Analyze existing manual testing processes for desktop software and identify opportunities to replace or augment them with automated solutions.

·         Maintain, evolve, and optimize the in-house automation framework, ensuring compatibility and efficiency across desktop environments and configurations.

·         Participate in root cause analysis and troubleshooting efforts, driving cross-team collaboration to identify and resolve defects efficiently.

·         Provide detailed estimates, solution designs, and test automation strategies for upcoming desktop-based projects. The Essentials

·         10+ years of hands-on experience designing, building, and maintaining test automation frameworks, with a strong focus on desktop application testing (Windows, .NET, or similar environments).

·         Proven expertise in framework architecture and design patterns for test automation, including component-based, modular, and data-driven approaches.

·         Strong understanding of desktop UI automation tools and libraries (e.g., WinAppDriver, White, Pywinauto, FlaUI, TestStack, or equivalent).

·         Experience developing automation for APIs, packaged, and custom desktop applications.

·         7+ years of experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and stakeholders across engineering, QA, and business units to align automation goals and deliver enterprise-grade solutions.

·         Strong Python skills required, as well as one other programming/scripting language (.NET, C#, Java, Bash, etc.) for building automation utilities and integrating frameworks.

·         Strong SQL skills, including writing and maintaining queries, interacting with relational databases, and designing simple schema updates to support test automation.

·         Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, enabling desktop test automation to execute autonomously in build and deployment workflows.

·         Comfortable working in both Windows and Linux environments for cross-platform automation support.

·         Excellent communication skills, capable of articulating technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

·         Experience using Tosca or other enterprise-grade test automation platforms. Nice to Have

·         Prior experience in the utility or energy industry, or in other large-scale operational environments.

·         Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.

Here are the five bullet points that are part of the interview process for the Principal Automation role:

1.        Python coding exercise

2.        SQL exercise

3.        Test design deep dive questions

4.        Framework design deep dive questions

5.        Troubleshooting exercise

You will need someone who is very confident in their ability to do the above exercises.