Lead Quality Engineer With Karate experience (Locals only - Cincinnati, OH)

Job Title: Lead Quality Engineer (Contract-to-Hire)
Location: Cincinnati, OH (Hybrid – Local candidates only)
Work Authorization: USC/GC holders only 

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Lead Quality Engineer to design, implement, and champion enterprise-wide testing strategies for critical retail applications. This is a hands-on leadership role with a focus on automation frameworks, API testing (Karate), performance testing, and CI/CD integration.

This is a contract-to-hire position, requiring candidates to be local to Cincinnati, OH.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Quality Engineering Strategy

  • Define and implement best-in-class testing practices and shift-left strategies.

  • Build scalable automation frameworks across squads.

• Test Automation & Technical Skills

  • Hands-on API testing with Karate, RestAssured, Postman, SOAPUI.

  • Develop and maintain automation frameworks with Selenium, BDD (Cucumber), TestNG/JUnit.

  • Implement performance testing with JMeter, LoadRunner, Neoload.

  • Integrate automation into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab, TeamCity).

• Cross-Team Collaboration

  • Act as a quality advocate across multiple engineering teams.

  • Communicate test results and risk forecasts to stakeholders.

  • Partner with account managers and product teams to align QA strategy with delivery timelines.

• System Modernization & Production Quality

  • Support transformation of legacy systems into modern, customer-facing platforms.

  • Implement robust performance and production validation practices.

Required Qualifications

• 6+ years in Quality Engineering with increasing leadership responsibility (15+ preferred).

• Proven expertise in test strategy, automation, and performance testing.

• Strong hands-on experience with Karate (or RestAssured, Cucumber, Postman).

• Proficiency with QA tools and frameworks (Selenium, JMeter, Tosca, etc.).

• Experience in Agile/DevOps environments and CI/CD pipelines.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.