Principal QA Engineer

POSITION SUMMARY

The Principal QA Engineer owns Carey's quality program end to end as Carey establishes a dedicated quality function for the first time. The role sets the testing architecture, standards, and automation strategy for Carey's customer-facing web booking platform, iOS and Android applications, chauffeur and operations applications, and the supporting APIs and integrations. It directs the contracted Podifi offshore QA engineering team, builds the Carey-side quality practice, and serves as the technical authority on release readiness. This is a player-coach role that stays hands-on in critical automation while leading both quality strategy and people.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

QA Architecture and Technical Direction

• Own the QA architecture: frameworks, tooling, standards, and the automation strategy across web, mobile, and APIs.
• Lead architecture decisions, including the choice of stack and patterns (such as Playwright or Selenium and CI/CD integration), and set the standards that Carey and Podifi engineers build to.
• Build and review critical automation directly, serving as a player-coach rather than a manager only.
• Own the QA tooling recommendation and coordinate directly with Podifi management.

Build Strategy and Sequencing

• Own the QA roadmap: decide which applications are automated in which order, and which functions within each application come first, based on risk, customer impact, and release cadence.
• Sequence the work so that coverage grows where it matters most and the highest-risk, highest-frequency paths are protected first.
• Translate Carey's product and release priorities into a clear, prioritized QA plan.

Team Leadership, Including the Podifi Offshore QA Team

• Manage the workload of the Podifi offshore QA team: assign work, set priorities, and keep the team productive against the roadmap.
• Review the team's output, provide guidance and feedback, and hold the quality bar on what it delivers.
• Mentor and grow the team's capability, set standards and ways of working, and coordinate with Podifi management.
• Build the Carey-side quality practice and lead the hiring and development of future QA roles.

Release Quality and Program Ownership

• Own pre-release QA sign-off and the release-readiness decision across the program.
• Own the defect practice: defects are logged, reproduced, tracked to closure, and root cause confirmed.
• Report on quality (coverage, escaped defects, release health) to engineering and leadership.
• Be available during release time windows.

Proactive Quality

• Set the quality bar and hold the whole program, Carey-side and offshore, to it.
• Hunt for what breaks before customers do, and build the architecture and team that do the same at scale.
• Raise quality risk early, in design and planning, and make a clear call when a release is not ready to ship.

Additional Duties

This role may also perform other duties that are not essential to the position and may be reassigned as reasonable accommodation.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

This role has no direct Carey-side reports at hire. It directs the work of the contracted Podifi offshore QA engineering team and leads the hiring and development of Carey-side QA roles as the function grows.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

Experience: Minimum 8 years in software quality assurance or software development in test (SDET), including at least 3 years leading QA engineers or setting QA technical direction.

Automation: Hands-on web test automation with Playwright and/or Selenium, with automated suites integrated into a CI/CD pipeline.

Mobile and API: Hands-on experience automating API tests and testing native iOS and Android applications.

Architecture: Demonstrated experience designing test automation frameworks and QA strategy from the ground up, including a risk-based roadmap.

Leadership: Experience managing workload, reviewing the work of others, and providing technical guidance to a QA team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing or coordinating offshore or vendor QA teams, including statements of work, service levels, and vendor performance review.
• Experience testing booking, marketplace, logistics, travel, or mobility platforms.
• Experience testing payment flows in a PCI DSS-scoped environment.
• Experience building quality gates in GitHub Actions or Jenkins.
• Experience applying AI-assisted testing (AI test authoring, self-healing frameworks) under defined data-handling controls.
• ISTQB Advanced Level certification (Test Automation Engineering or Test Management) or a comparable test-management certification.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND COMPETENCIES

• Test automation architecture: scalable, maintainable framework design, parallel execution, flaky-test management, and reporting.
• Proficiency in at least one automation language (TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, or Java), including code review of automation written by others.
• API testing and automation (REST), with working knowledge of contract testing.
• Mobile test automation for iOS and Android (such as Appium, XCUITest, or Espresso) on real devices and cloud device farms.
• CI/CD integration of automated quality gates, with Git-based source control.
• Risk-based test strategy and prioritization, including shift-left practices, in-sprint testing, and the test pyramid.
• Non-functional testing: performance and load testing, security testing awareness (OWASP Top 10 and OWASP MASVS for mobile), and accessibility testing against WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
• Working knowledge of PCI DSS v4.0.1 requirements for payment flows and of privacy obligations (such as CCPA/CPRA), including keeping production personal data out of test environments.
• Test environment and test data management, and use of logs, monitoring, and production telemetry to confirm release health.
• Quality metrics and reporting: coverage, escaped-defect rate, defect leakage, flaky-test rate, and delivery measures such as change failure rate and lead time.
• Defect lifecycle management, root-cause analysis, and release-readiness criteria.
• Distributed and vendor team management: work allocation, knowledge transfer, and working across time zones.
• Evaluating and governing AI-assisted testing tools, including controls on the Carey data they may access.
• Familiarity with ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 and ISTQB terminology and test-management tools such as Jira or TestRail.
• Clear written and verbal communication of quality risk to engineers, product, and executive leadership.

ATTRIBUTES AND CHARACTERISTICS

• Proactive: goes to find problems rather than waiting for them.
• Accountable: takes ownership of quality across Carey and the offshore team.
• Decisive: makes a clear ship or no-ship call when a release is not ready.
• Developmental: mentors others and grows the capability of the team.
• Collaborative: works openly with engineering, product, and vendor partners.

PRIMARY CONTACTS

Internal: VP, Technology & Data; engineering; product; and Carey leadership.

External: Podifi management and the Podifi offshore QA engineering team.

WORK ENVIRONMENT AND PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

Carey provides reasonable accommodation to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this role.

Work environment: Hybrid, Maryland (home office and on-site as scheduled)

Schedule structure: Regular working-hours overlap with the Podifi team, which includes recurring early-morning or late-evening meetings; availability during release time windows

Travel: Minimal

Physical Requirements

Sitting or standing for extended periods: Frequent sitting

Extended computer and screen use: Constant

Communicating verbally with clients and colleagues: Constant

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

Carey is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.