Principal QA Engineer, Platform

Hybrid to Wayne, PA

 

Frontline Education is the leading provider of school administration software, empowering strategic K-12 leaders with the right tools, data and insights to proactively manage human capital, business operations and special education. Educational organizations representing over 80,000 schools and millions of educators, administrators and support personnel have partnered with Frontline Education in their efforts to develop the next generation of learners. Frontline is dedicated to driving engagement across K-12 school systems and supporting the continuous improvement of employee effectiveness and efficiency with solutions for proactive recruiting and hiring, absence and time, professional growth, student information systems, special education and interventions, payroll, benefits and financial management.

We are seeking a Principal QA Engineer to serve as a key contributor within agile development scrum teams, leading and performing critical software testing functions to enhance product quality and improve the overall client experience. This individual will play a pivotal role in both hands-on testing and in mentoring QA engineers across teams, driving best practices in manual and automated testing. A central aspect of this role is fostering the development of high-quality coding and testing practices, as well as championing the expansion of automation frameworks to improve efficiency and coverage. As a mentor to QA across all Platform teams, you will guide cross-team initiatives, ensuring the consistent application of quality standards, while identifying opportunities to optimize testing and automation processes across Platform’s teams.

This role reports to Platform Integration team leader and works closely with Development, Architecture, Product, Customer Success, Operations and Strategic Partners to deliver solutions that simplify the daily work life of the front line of education.

 

Responsibilities

Lead the design, execution, and improvement of test strategies for manual and automated testing across multiple technology stacks and application tiers, including .NET microservices (C#), Node microservices (JavaScript/TypeScript), and client applications built with ASP.NET MVC & Razor, AngularJS, and React. Serve as a subject matter expert and mentor for QA engineers at all levels, providing guidance on test frameworks, tools, and methodologies. Collaborate with development and product teams to ensure test strategies align with business and technical requirements. Perform system analysis and recommend improvements to architecture, scalability, and reliability of testing methodologies and automation suites. Identify quality bottlenecks and lead cross-team initiatives to implement process improvements. Advocate for test automation and CI/CD pipelines, streamlining integration and delivery processes. Analyze testing results, offering actionable insights and driving defect resolution. Stay current on emerging QA trends, tools, and technologies, recommending and evangelizing improvements across the organization. Promote and lead guild activities to encourage knowledge-sharing among engineers. Author, maintain, and execute functional test cases and test plans for complex user stories. Lead QA efforts across the organization, providing guidance and direction to engineers. Define automation strategies, protocols, and frameworks to be used by the team. Review and provide feedback on test cases and plans authored by scrum teams. Provide high-level estimates for QA activities at the project level. Serve as a role model and coach on effective time management. Encourage the team to prioritize long-term code maintainability and quality. Take an active role in ensuring the team meets sprint commitments. Facilitate discussions to engage all viewpoints and drive effective decision-making. Proactively communicate project status and deliverables to key stakeholders in a timely manner.

 

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field. 8+ years of experience in QA, with a strong focus on both manual and automated testing in agile environments. Proven experience leading and mentoring QA engineers across multiple levels. Expertise in designing and implementing test automation frameworks and strategies (e.g., Selenium, JUnit, Cypress, FluentAssertions, FluentValidation, MSTest, NUnit, xUnit). Proficiency in testing across technology stacks and application tiers, including .NET microservices (C#), Node microservices (JavaScript/TypeScript), and client applications built with ASP.NET MVC & Razor, AngularJS, and React. Strong knowledge of CI/CD processes and experience integrating testing into pipelines. Solid understanding of software architecture, scalability, and system reliability, with the ability to analyze and recommend improvements. Experience with a wide range of testing tools and methodologies, including performance, security, and functional testing. Ability to leverage generative AI tools to accelerate development and QA processes. Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to analyze testing results to drive resolution. Effective communicator with the ability to collaborate across teams and proactively engage stakeholders. Passion for continuous learning and innovation with QA best practices, tools, and emerging technologies. Strong organizational and time management skills, with the ability to balance multiple priorities and deliver on sprint commitments. Experience in the following is preferred: Confluence, Jira, GitHub, Office365, Slack, Xray, Zoom

 

Frontline Education is a pioneer of school administration software purpose-built for K-12 districts. We provide innovative, connected solutions for student and special programs, business operations, and human capital management with powerful data and analytics to empower educators and administrators. We earn the trust of K-12 leaders across the U.S. by serving as a consistently high-performing, forthright partner of school districts through every dimension of the company.

 

We're a group of unique and talented individuals that love what we do. We've been lucky enough to land jobs with a rapidly growing tech company that supports an appreciative and friendly customer base. We work hard to make our customers happy, but we like to have a good time in the process. We are a company that strives to think in terms of “we” instead of “me.” We believe in the philosophy of servant leadership and that it’s all about putting others first. We also value the balance between family and work.  

 

Frontline embraces diversity, equity, and inclusivity. We are intentionally building a workplace that respects, supports, and values the identities of all our employees. We believe this to be foundational in developing a strong community in our company. Frontline Education is an equal opportunity employer and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

 

Frontline offers a competitive compensation package including a base salary, rewarding bonus structure, 401k match, and unlimited PTO! Our company growth has created a promising environment for career advancement and rewarding challenges. We offer a tuition reimbursement program for eligible college credit coursework available to employees depending on their status and length of employment.