ZipRecruiter

Log In

1

Principal Qa Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

ProScore Technologies

QA Engineer

Fort Lauderdale, FL · On-site

QA Engineer - Job Profile Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL We are seeking a QA Engineer to join our team and ensure the quality, reliability, and performance of our SaaS platform. This role requires ...

Staffingine LLC

QA Engineer

Nashville, TN · On-site

Job Title: QA Engineer Job Location: Nashville, TN Job Type: Contract * 7+ years of experience in Automated QA - TestComplete. * QA testing with AI +ETL

Securiport

Quality Assurance Engineer

Reston, VA · On-site

You will collaborate with the rest of the QA Team and developers to execute the quality assurance ... Principal Duties and Responsibilities * Experience performing quality assurance activities across ...

The New York Times

QA Engineer

New York, NY · Hybrid

About the Role, Mission or Department Overview The Quality Engineering team at The New York Times is hiring a QA Engineer. You will work with software engineers, DevOps, product managers, and ...

New

Bridgeway Benefit Technologies

QA Engineer

Tampa, FL · Remote

The QA Engineer is responsible for ensuring the quality, reliability, and performance of software products through automated and manual testing practices. Quality Assurance Engineers are integral to ...

Securiport LLC

Quality Assurance Engineer

Reston, VA · On-site

You will collaborate with the rest of the QA Team and developers to execute the quality assurance ... Principal Duties and Responsibilities * Experience performing quality assurance activities across ...

401GO

QA Engineer

Sandy, UT · On-site +1

Role: QA Engineer Location: Hybrid / Remote / Flexible Reports To: QA Manager Job Type: Full-Time The QA Engineer works closely with business stakeholders, product specialists, QA leadership, and ...

Hexagon AB

Quality Assurance Engineer

Houston, TX · On-site

Quality Assurance Engineer Job Location (Short): Houston, Texas-USA | Madison, Alabama-USA Workplace Type: Remote Req Id: 2762 Responsibilities Octave is seeking a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer ...

Pavago

Quality Assurance Engineer

Quality Assurance Engineer (Manual + Automation SaaS) - Remote Position Type: Full-Time, Remote Working Hours: U.S. Business Hours (flexible for releases & sprints) About the Role We're hiring a ...

next page

Showing results 1-20

All JobsPrincipal Qa Engineer Jobs

Principal Qa Engineer information

See salary details

$64.5K

$125.5K

$171K

How much do principal qa engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 12, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal qa engineer in the United States is $125,478.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $102,500.00 and $150,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Principal QA Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Principal QA Engineer, you need deep expertise in software testing methodologies, automation frameworks, and quality assurance best practices, often supported by a relevant degree and significant industry experience. Familiarity with tools like Selenium, Jenkins, JIRA, and scripting languages, as well as certifications such as ISTQB, is highly valued. Strong leadership, problem-solving, and communication skills set standout candidates apart, enabling effective guidance of QA teams and collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders. These skills ensure robust product quality, efficient testing processes, and successful delivery of reliable software solutions.

What is the difference between Principal Qa Engineer vs Senior Qa Engineer?

AspectPrincipal Qa EngineerSenior Qa Engineer
CredentialsBachelor's/Master's in Computer Science or related field, certifications like ISTQBBachelor's in Computer Science or related, some certifications preferred
Work EnvironmentLeads testing strategies, mentors teams, collaborates with cross-functional teamsPerforms testing, develops test cases, reports bugs, supports QA team
Industry UsageUsed in large organizations, enterprise software, and complex projectsCommon in various companies, from startups to large firms
Comparison FocusStrategic leadership, process improvement, mentorshipHands-on testing, execution, reporting

The Principal Qa Engineer typically holds a more strategic and leadership-oriented role, overseeing testing processes and mentoring teams, while the Senior Qa Engineer focuses on executing tests and reporting issues. Both roles require strong testing skills and industry experience, but the Principal position emphasizes leadership and process improvement.

How does a Principal QA Engineer typically contribute to cross-functional teams during product development?

A Principal QA Engineer plays a crucial role in collaborating with development, product management, and operations teams to ensure quality standards are maintained throughout the software development lifecycle. They often lead the design and implementation of test strategies, facilitate communication between stakeholders, and mentor junior QA members. Their expertise helps teams proactively identify potential issues and streamline testing processes, which results in more robust and reliable product releases.

What are Principal QA Engineers?

Principal QA Engineers are senior-level professionals responsible for overseeing and improving the quality assurance processes within a company. They design and implement testing strategies, mentor QA teams, and ensure that software products meet high standards of quality and reliability. Principal QA Engineers often collaborate with developers, product managers, and stakeholders to define quality goals and address complex technical challenges. Their role is crucial in guiding the direction of QA practices and adopting new tools or methodologies to enhance product quality.
More about Principal Qa Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Principal Qa Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Principal Qa Engineer job openings:
What states have the most Principal Qa Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Principal Qa Engineer jobs include:
What job categories do people searching Principal Qa Engineer jobs look for? The top searched job categories for Principal Qa Engineer jobs are:
Principal Qa Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Principal Qa Engineer job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 95% Full Time, 2% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $125,478 per year, or $60.3 per hour.
Senior Engineering Manager - QA & Standards

Senior Engineering Manager - QA & Standards

insightsoftware

Remote

Full-time

Re-posted 19 days ago

Job description

About Us:
insightsoftware is a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions that unlock the potential of business data and transform the way finance and data teams operate. We empower leaders from over 32,000 organizations to make timely and intelligent decisions. Our comprehensive solutions span Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A), Controllership, and Data and Analytics. We deliver finance teams the insights required to navigate any economic climate and drive greater financial intelligence, while increasing productivity, visibility, accuracy, and compliance. Learn more at insightsoftware.com.
Job Description:
Job Description
As Senior Engineering Manager for QA & Standards, you will own the quality engineering organization for the entire Certent Equity Management (CEM) platform - insightsoftware's enterprise SaaS product serving 1,200+ global clients. Reporting to the Sr Engineering Manager over Application Engineering and QA, you are accountable for all QA across every delivery vertical - through a combination of direct reports and Principal-level QA Leads matrixed into scrum teams.
This is a transformational leadership role. You are coming into an organization that has significant work ahead across all three pillars of this role - Manual QA, Automation, and Performance Testing. On the Manual QA side, the focus is on improving test discipline and establishing rigorous test plan and test case standards across a large, distributed engineering workforce. The Automation practice requires honest assessment and a clear path forward - whether that means stabilizing and optimizing what exists, sunsetting and rebuilding, or bridging to a future-state platform as CEM modernizes; you will partner closely with the Automation Lead to make that call. Performance Testing is a fledgling capability today - a small team focused on load testing, benchmarking, and pre-release performance validation - with the mandate to professionalize it and integrate it into engineering workflows and definition of done across the org.
Driving the organization's QA-focused AI strategy is a core expectation of this role - accelerating adoption of AI tooling across both automation and manual QA practices to expand test coverage, reduce cycle time, and improve engineering quality outcomes across the org.
Responsibilities
QA Ownership & Accountability
  • Own quality outcomes across all CEM delivery verticals - through direct reports and Principal QA Leads matrixed into scrum teams.
  • Establish and enforce test plan and test case standards organization-wide; hold teams accountable to consistent, rigorous quality practices regardless of vertical or geography.
  • Define and own release quality gates - partnering with Engineering Managers and Release Management on go/no-go criteria, defect triage, and customer-impacting issue escalation.
  • Communicate quality status clearly and fluently - accountable up to the Sr Engineering Manager and Sr Director, and across to Application, Platform, and Reporting/BI vertical leaders - with accurate, actionable narratives.
  • Identify systemic quality risks, coverage gaps, and process breakdowns early; drive resolution through direct ownership or escalation.
AI Strategy & Adoption - QA
  • For automation engineers: champion ≥50% AI-authored PR targets and ≥95% AI code review adoption as organizational minimums.
  • For manual QA: drive adoption of AI tooling to generate test plans, test cases, edge cases, positive/negative scenarios, end-to-end scenarios, and test data sets - meaningfully reducing manual effort while expanding coverage.
  • Serve as the organization's advocate for AI-augmented quality practices; establish AI-first QA as a standard expectation, not an optional enhancement.
  • Stay current on emerging AI tooling relevant to QA - test generation, intelligent triage, anomaly detection - and bring forward-looking recommendations to the Sr Engineering Manager and Sr Director.
Team Leadership & People Management
  • Day-to-day management of the QA & Standards organization: Principal QA Leads, QA Engineers, and Equity Specialist QA across all verticals.
  • Partner with the Automation Lead to assess the current automation platform, align on a forward path, and sequence automation improvements alongside the broader CEM modernization roadmap.
  • Own hiring, onboarding, performance management, career development, and retention across your teams; partner with the Sr Director on headcount planning.
  • Run effective team cadences - creating the operational rhythm that drives accountability and continuous improvement across a large, distributed QA workforce.
  • Foster a high-trust, high-accountability culture that attracts strong QA talent and reflects insightsoftware's core values.
QA Transformation & Standards
  • Lead the QA organization through meaningful transformation - elevating test discipline, closing coverage gaps, and building the processes and standards that a growing enterprise SaaS platform requires.
  • Establish automation-first principles across the QA org; partner with the Automation Lead to stabilize the current automation environment, reduce false-failure noise, and improve triage efficiency.
  • Define the long-term automation strategy in partnership with the Automation Lead and Scalable Architecture Team - bridging current-state realities with a future-state automation platform as CEM modernizes.
  • Drive adoption of structured test planning and test case management practices across all scrum teams, embedded QA engineers, and Principal QA Leads.
Performance Engineering
  • Own the Performance Engineering team - currently a small, early-stage group - and build it into a mature, well-integrated capability.
  • Establish load testing and benchmarking baselines for the CEM platform; identify system chokepoints and failure thresholds under real-world user traffic and large-scale data processing workloads.
  • Define and drive pre-release performance testing standards - ensuring new features are validated against performance criteria before they ship.
  • Integrate performance testing into engineering definition of done across scrum teams, in partnership with Engineering Managers and QA Leads.
Cross-Functional Alignment
  • Serve as the primary QA interface across all delivery verticals - owning alignment on quality standards, test coverage expectations, and release readiness criteria.
  • Represent the QA organization's priorities and health in engineering leadership forums alongside peer Sr Engineering Managers.
  • Partner with the Sr Engineering Manager and Sr Director on org-wide engineering standards, quality investment sequencing, and QA headcount strategy.

Qualifications
Required
  • 8+ years of software engineering and QA experience in enterprise SaaS environments, with 3+ years in engineering management leading QA organizations of 10+ engineers across multiple teams or verticals.
  • Demonstrated experience leading a QA organization through significant transformation - elevating standards, closing structural gaps, and building a quality-first culture in an environment that needed it.
  • Deep expertise in test plan and test case methodology - able to define, enforce, and continuously improve structured testing standards across a large, distributed engineering org.
  • Automation-first mindset with hands-on experience assessing, stabilizing, or rebuilding automation platforms in complex legacy environments.
  • Demonstrated AI/ML background as it applies to QA - experience driving adoption of AI tooling for test generation, coverage expansion, and quality acceleration across both automation and manual QA workflows.
  • Strong delivery ownership mindset: experience setting clear accountability structures, managing distributed QA teams, and driving quality outcomes in high-complexity, high-client-impact environments.
  • Fluent communicator - able to translate QA health, risk, and coverage gaps into crisp narratives for senior engineering and executive audiences.
  • Experience managing distributed, global QA teams across multiple time zones.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent work experience.
Preferred
  • Experience with Microsoft technology stack - C#, .NET, Azure - and testing patterns specific to enterprise .NET/Oracle SaaS applications.
  • Background in financial services, equity compensation, or adjacent regulated domains where test rigor and auditability are critical.
  • Experience defining and owning release quality gates in environments with contractual delivery obligations and enterprise client SLAs.
  • Familiarity with AI-powered test generation, intelligent triage, or anomaly detection tooling.
  • Experience partnering with architecture or platform teams to design future-state automation platforms alongside application modernization programs.
  • Experience building or maturing a performance engineering practice, including load testing, benchmarking, and integration into CI/CD and definition of done workflows.

The salary range in United States of America for this position is 139,000.00 to 174,000.00 USD Annual.
Your specific offer within this range will be determined by your skills, experience, and qualifications. For non-sales roles, you may be eligible for a bonus. For sales roles, this range includes a commission target.
We are committed to pay transparency and fair compensation practices. If you have questions about our compensation approach, please don't hesitate to ask during the interview process.
Additional Information
All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.
Learn more about our high-energy, high-performance global team: Work With Us
insightsoftware About Us: Hear From Our Team
Background checks are required for employment with insightsoftware, where permitted by country, state/province.
At insightsoftware, we are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, national origin, gender, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or parental status, disability, veteran status, or other class protected by applicable law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

Apply