The Role
Be Part of Our Next Chapter
For over almost 60 years, our solutions have enabled impactful connections between some of the world’s leading brands and their customers. And while we’ve already done a lot of work we’re proud of, we’re just getting started!
We’re a global technology company focused on creating dynamic, smart, personalised and engaging customer experiences powered by our range of digital hardware, our proprietary content management system and our industry leading signage solutions. (For example: If you’ve ordered in-store or in the drive-thru at McDonald’s somewhere in the world in the last few years, chances are you’ve interacted with our digital solutions.) We work in over 50 global markets and have 9 offices around the world, with a global headquarters proudly located in our founding home of Sydney, Australia.
Coates Group has the values of a family-owned business and the innovative spirit of a start-up, both which fuel our purpose – Creating Connections. Empowering Partnerships. Always Evolving. Through hard work, dedication and creativity, we’ve become industry leaders who have won awards and set records while remaining focused on continual growth and evolution. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and successfully completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history.
We are curious, charismatic, authentic and we value and leverage the diversity of our crew. We are imaginers, kindness enthusiasts, experts, creators, thinkers, challengers, collaborators and over-achievers. And together, as a Crew, we are revolutionizing the way the world’s leading brands leverage technology to drive the best customer experiences.
As a Principal Quality Engineer, you will be at the forefront of transforming our testing culture, processes, and tooling. You will define, implement, and lead the adoption of test automation, quality frameworks, and best practices across our engineering teams. This is an opportunity to build and scale quality engineering from the ground up, ensuring that our software meets the highest standards of reliability, performance, and security.
Role Responsibilities
- Own and drive the overall quality strategy – Define the roadmap for test automation, tooling, and best practices across our engineering teams, ensuring alignment with business goals and scalability.
- Champion a shift-left approach to quality – Integrate automated testing early in the development lifecycle, ensuring that defects are caught before they reach production.
- Define and implement test strategies – Establish comprehensive testing strategies aligned with the testing pyramid, emphasizing unit tests as a foundation, followed by integration tests, and limited end-to-end (E2E) tests. Ensure thorough coverage across regression, performance, security, and exploratory testing to improve software reliability while maintaining efficiency.
- Mentor and upskill engineers – Provide technical leadership and training on test automation frameworks, best practices, and modern testing methodologies to developers and QA engineers.
- Evaluate, select, and introduce new test automation tools – Research and implement the most effective test automation frameworks for our React and TypeScript frontend, API layer, and infrastructure on AWS/Linux.
- Develop and maintain automated test suites – Create robust UI, API, and performance tests using tools like Cypress, Playwright, Jest, and Postman, ensuring high test coverage while establishing best practices to ensure long-term maintainability of the test suite.
- Embed test automation into CI/CD pipelines – Work closely with DevOps and Platform teams to integrate test automation into GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, or AWS-based pipelines, enabling faster, more reliable releases.
- Optimize test execution and scalability – Ensure tests run efficiently in parallel, reducing build times and improving developer feedback loops.
- Define and track key quality metrics – Implement dashboards and reporting to measure test coverage, defect trends, flakiness rates, and deployment stability, using tools like Datadog, Grafana, or custom reporting frameworks.
- Contribute to root cause analysis and drive quality improvements – Work with engineers to identify trends, patterns, and systemic issues, helping to prevent recurring defects and improve system resilience.
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams – Partner with software engineers, product managers, SREs, and DevOps to instill a culture of quality across the organization.
Role Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in software testing and quality engineering, with a strong focus on test automation.
- 5+ years of hands-on experience with test automation frameworks for web, APIs, and cloud-based systems (Cypress, Playwright, Jest, Postman, etc.).
- 3+ years of experience integrating test automation into CI/CD pipelines in cloud environments (AWS, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, or similar).
- Proven experience leading quality initiatives, setting best practices, automation frameworks, and test strategies at an organization-wide level.
- Strong knowledge of modern software development methodologies (Agile, DevOps, Shift-Left Testing).
- Experience working in Linux-based environments (Ubuntu preferred) and testing software deployed on AWS.
- Experience working in fast-paced startups or scale-ups is highly desirable.
- Strong hands-on experience with JavaScript/TypeScript and test automation for React-based web applications, along with experience testing applications that interact with both relational (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, DynamoDB) databases.
- Deep expertise in API testing (Postman, RestAssured, Pact for contract testing).
- Strong experience in performance, load, and security testing (e.g., JMeter, k6, OWASP ZAP).
- Experience setting up test reporting, monitoring, and alerting (e.g., Datadog, Grafana, or custom dashboards).
- Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) testing and cloud-native test strategies for AWS.
- Knowledge of IoT device testing would be a plus.
About Coates
We are industry leaders who have won awards and set records. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and we successfully completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history.
We are industry leaders who have won awards and set records. We are a 2x Australia Good Design Award winner and we successfully completed the largest hardware deployment in Quick Service Restaurant history.
We are led by a forward-thinking CEO who has demonstrated a true passion for people and making Coates a place where people genuinely enjoy working. Our growth plans enable a focus on providing rapid career advancement opportunities for our talent.
Together, we are creators, allowing us to make our purpose a reality – to create immersive brand experiences for everyone.
Join a Crew that Cares
Be part of a global team of talented, ambitious, creative people that value integrity, individuality and inclusivity. (Ask us about our Equality + Empowerment Initiatives).
The benefits include an annual market competitive bonus program and our “Thrive Program” which includes a suite of flexible work options because we’re strong believers that you should never miss an important life or work moment. Thrive also provides dedicated time to prioritize our health and wellbeing (think virtual Yoga or meditation sessions), a Global Wellness paid day off to recharge as well as a “Give Back Day” to allow our Crew an opportunity to make an impact in the community.
Be inspired To Be More
We skip the red tape and aim to always stay nimble. We’re proud of where we’ve been and are energized by where we’re going. We encourage ideas and perspectives because we know the more we have, the better we are. We work hard but have fun along the way. We push the boundaries but keep it real and authentic. We believe in the values that got us here are the ones that will continue to lead us forward. We are excited by what we’ve accomplished, but know the best is yet to come.
Coates Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, political affiliation or belief, disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam Era, or citizenship status (except in those special circumstances permitted or mandated by law).
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The Company
What We Do
Coates Group is a growing global technology and digital merchandising solutions provider creating immersive experiences for some of the world's leading brands and their customers.
We are focused on creating dynamic, personalised and engaging experiences powered by our range of digital hardware and proprietary content management system. If you’ve ordered in-store or in the Drive-Thru at McDonald’s somewhere in the world, chances are you’ve interacted with our digital solutions!
We work across 50+ global markets with our headquarters located in Sydney, Australia and other offices in Japan, India, China, the Middle East, Canada, Europe and the United States.
Our people who we proudly call our “Crew” are at the heart of everything that we do. So, it is our commitment to empower and develop the people that set us apart. This is done by implementing new policies that our people care about like an annual market competitive bonus program, opportunities for growth and prioritisation for learning and development that includes kick-starting our new wellbeing program called Thrive.
The cornerstone of Thrive is our flexible work approach, including a suite of flexible work options because we are believers that you should never miss an important life or work moment. Thrive also equips our crew with wellness tools and dedicated time to prioritise our health with Yoga and Meditation programs as well as a Global Wellness Day off to enjoy and recharge plus a Give Back Day for the opportunity to make an impact on the community.
Be part of a global team of talented, ambitious, creative people that value integrity, individuality and inclusivity. (Ask us about our Equality + Empowerment Initiatives).
We are one global crew with diverse perspectives that make us stronger. We are curious, charismatic and authentic. And together, we make our purpose become a reality, to create immersive brand experiences for everyone
