We are a cutting-edge Defense Innovation Company seeking a Senior QA Engineer to join our engineering organization and raise the bar for quality across our web application portfolio. This is not a manual testing role — it is a hands-on, heavy coding position for an engineer who treats test automation as a software discipline. You will architect, build, and maintain automation frameworks with the same rigor applied to production code, with Playwright at the center of your toolkit.
You'll operate with the autonomy and pace of a startup engineer, backed by the scale and resources of an enterprise. The ideal candidate has thrived on small, fast-moving teams and knows how to deliver quality at speed without heavyweight process.
This role is ideally based near one of FTI's office locations in Chesapeake, VA, Beavercreek, OH, Colorado Springs, CO, or Northern Virginia. Candidates in these markets will receive primary consideration. Exceptional remote candidates with highly relevant experience may also be considered.
Responsibilities- Design, develop, and maintain robust end-to-end automation suites for complex web application workflows using Playwright with TypeScript/JavaScript
- Leverage frontier LLM models to increase development velocity and code quality
- Architect scalable, maintainable test frameworks and shared libraries adopted across multiple engineering teams
- Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines to enable fast, confident, continuous delivery
- Write production-quality code daily — page objects, fixtures, custom utilities, API test harnesses, and tooling
- Partner with developers, product managers, and DevOps to shift quality left and embed testability into design and architecture decisions
- Triage, root-cause, and drive resolution of defects and flaky tests; champion test reliability and meaningful coverage metrics
- Mentor engineers on automation best practices and code review test code with a critical eye
- Evaluate and introduce tools and practices that improve quality engineering velocity
Required Qualifications
- Must be a U.S. Citizen AND possess an active U.S. Dept. of Defense Secret security clearance with TS/SCI eligibility.
- Bachelor's degree in a STEM field (required)
- 5+ years of software quality engineering or software development experience
- Extensive, demonstrable experience using Playwright to automate workflows in modern web applications
- Strong professional experience writing JavaScript/TypeScript — you will be evaluated as a coder
- Experience working in startups or small, fast-moving teams where you owned outcomes end-to-end
- Solid understanding of CI/CD practices and integrating automated tests into build pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, ADO)
- Deep knowledge of testing strategy: E2E, API, integration, and component testing trade-offs
- Strong debugging skills across the stack — browser internals, network traffic, async behavior, race conditions
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to influence quality practices across teams
Preferred Qualifications
- BS in Computer Science or a closely related field (greatly preferred)
- MS in Computer Science (preferred)
- Experience with cloud platforms — GCP, AWS, or Azure
- Experience with API testing, contract testing, or performance/load testing
- Familiarity with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and infrastructure-as-code
- Prior experience with scaling test automation in a large engineering organization
#LI-KM1
#LI-Onsite
Skills Required
- U.S. citizenship
- Active U.S. Department of Defense Secret security clearance with TS/SCI eligibility
- Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field
- 5+ years of software quality engineering or software development experience
- Extensive experience using Playwright to automate modern web application workflows
- Strong professional JavaScript and TypeScript coding experience
- Experience working in startups or small, fast-moving teams with end-to-end ownership
- Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines
- Knowledge of E2E, API, integration, and component testing strategies
- Strong debugging skills across browser, network, asynchronous, and race-condition issues
- Excellent communication and cross-team quality-influence skills
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a closely related field
- Master’s degree in Computer Science
- Experience with GCP, AWS, or Azure
- Experience with API testing, contract testing, or performance/load testing
- Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and infrastructure as code
- Experience scaling test automation in a large engineering organization
FTI Defense Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about FTI Defense and has not been reviewed or approved by FTI Defense.
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Healthcare Strength — The package includes medical, dental, and vision coverage plus life and AD&D insurance, indicating comprehensive core protection. Additional options such as FSAs and disability coverage further reinforce health-related support.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Flexible PTO plus jury duty, bereavement, military leave, and short- and long-term disability are explicitly offered. This breadth supports time away for both planned rest and major life events.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) plan with company matching is part of the stated total rewards. The program is positioned as competitively benchmarked, signaling attention to long-term savings.
FTI Defense Insights
What We Do
FTI Defense provides the technology and deep data expertise to drive the best defense and intelligence solutions. Our subject matter experts, deep knowledge of domain and mission requirements, close customer collaboration, and extensive technology portfolio mean we can be mission-ready in a matter of weeks at a fraction of the cost and our customers own their data, all to enhance the ability of our customers to make the best decisions possible in support of their missions. Working here means you bring your intelligence, integrity, and ideas to make a positive impact. By collaborating on teams united by trust and respect, we create an environment where it is safe to offer your ideas and your contributions are seen and heard. Our strong moral compass and warm culture help us attract and retain high performing, cleared teammates who maintain deep subject matter expertise across all areas of importance to our customers. Integrity, commitment, compassion and charity act as the North Star for everything we do - and we do it all for the people who safeguard our nation, each other, and the children, veterans and underserved in our communities. Join us and make a positive impact on our company, our customers, our communities – and your career.









