Qa Software Engineer Apprenticeship Jobs in Virginia

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What You Will Do:

We are seeking a highly motivated QA/Test Automation Engineer to support the delivery of high-quality software solutions within a fast-paced Agile and DevSecOps environment. This role is responsible for designing, developing, maintaining, and executing comprehensive testing strategies that ensure software quality across the development lifecycle.

The QA/Test Automation Engineer will partner closely with software developers, business analysts, product owners, DevOps engineers, and stakeholders to validate application functionality, identify defects early, and continuously improve testing processes. The ideal candidate possesses a strong foundation in both manual and automated testing, demonstrates a quality-first mindset, and contributes to the advancement of automation frameworks, test coverage, and continuous integration practices.

This position supports a large-scale integrated platform operating within an Agile Scrum environment and requires active participation throughout all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Success in this role requires excellent communication, collaboration, attention to detail, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Test Planning and Quality Assurance

Design, develop, and maintain comprehensive test plans, test cases, test scripts, and test data.

Review business, functional, technical, and user requirements to ensure complete test coverage.

Execute functional, integration, regression, system, end-to-end, and user acceptance testing activities.

Validate software releases against business requirements and acceptance criteria.

Ensure compliance with established testing standards, quality processes, and documentation requirements.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify quality risks and mitigation strategies early in the development process.

Test Automation Engineering

Develop, enhance, and maintain automated test frameworks and reusable test assets.

Create automated UI, API, database, and integration test suites.

Continuously improve automated test coverage and reduce manual testing effort where practical.

Integrate automated testing into CI/CD and DevSecOps pipelines.

Evaluate and recommend testing tools, frameworks, and automation best practices.

Support implementation of shift-left testing strategies to identify defects earlier in the development lifecycle.

Defect Management and Analysis

Identify, document, prioritize, and track software defects through resolution.

Perform detailed root cause analysis and collaborate with development teams to resolve issues.

Create clear defect reports including replication steps, supporting evidence, and impact analysis.

Verify defect fixes and perform appropriate regression testing.

Agile Team Participation

Participate actively in sprint planning, backlog refinement, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.

Provide testing estimates and quality-risk assessments for user stories and features.

Collaborate with product owners and business stakeholders to ensure requirements are testable and measurable.

Support continuous delivery objectives through timely completion of testing activities.

Quality Metrics and Continuous Improvement

Monitor and report on test execution, defect trends, automation coverage, and release readiness.

Contribute to process improvements that enhance quality, efficiency, and team productivity.

Promote a quality engineering culture emphasizing prevention, automation, and continuous feedback.

Stay current with emerging trends in software testing, test automation, AI-assisted testing, and quality engineering practices.

Successful candidates will be expected to:

Deliver testing activities within established sprint and release timelines.

Maintain high levels of testing accuracy and completeness.

Achieve continuous growth in automated test coverage.

Effectively identify defects before production deployment.

Minimize escaped defects through comprehensive validation efforts.

Actively contribute to continuous improvement initiatives and testing best practices.

Demonstrate strong collaboration with development, DevOps, business, and product teams.

Communicate testing progress, risks, dependencies, and issues proactively.

Support reliable, repeatable, and scalable testing processes.

Produce clear, accurate, and maintainable test documentation.

Contribute to high application availability, reliability, and customer satisfaction.

What You Will Need:

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related discipline; an additional FOUR (4) years of equivalent professional experience in leu of Degree.

Experience

Minimum 5 years of recent professional experience in software quality assurance and test automation.

Experience supporting Agile Scrum software development environments.

Experience working within CI/CD and DevSecOps delivery models.

Experience testing web applications, APIs, and integrated enterprise systems.

Technical Skills

Demonstrated experience with:

Designing and developing test plans, test cases, test strategies, and testing documentation.

Manual and automated software testing methodologies.

Building and maintaining test automation frameworks.

Developing automated test scripts using Java or comparable programming languages.

Functional, integration, regression, system, and end-to-end testing.

API testing and validation techniques.

Root cause analysis and defect lifecycle management.

Quality assurance processes within Agile development environments.

Version control systems such as Git.

Utilizing test management and defect tracking tools.

Testing Tools

Experience with one or more of the following tools or equivalent technologies:

Selenium

Katalon Studio

TestNG

JUnit / NUnit

JMeter

Postman

SonarQube

Jenkins

REST Assured / RestEasy

Jira

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) DevOps

Azure DevOps

Additional Requirements

Strong verbal and written communication skills.

Ability to multitask and successfully manage competing priorities.

Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in cross-functional teams.

Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.

U.S. Citizenship required.

What Would Be Nice To Have:

Advanced Quality Engineering

Experience implementing shift-left testing strategies.

Experience with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) using Cucumber, SpecFlow, or similar frameworks.

Experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD) environments.

Familiarity with risk-based testing methodologies.

DevSecOps and Continuous Delivery

Experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.

Understanding of DevOps, DevSecOps, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) concepts.

Experience supporting release trains, continuous deployment, and modern software delivery practices.

Familiarity with containerized environments such as Docker and Kubernetes.

Cloud and Modern Architecture

Experience testing cloud-native applications hosted in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.

Knowledge of microservices architecture and distributed systems.

Experience testing RESTful and event-driven architectures.

Performance, Security, and Observability

Experience with performance and load testing tools.

Familiarity with application monitoring and observability platforms such as Datadog, Splunk, Dynatrace, or New Relic.

Understanding of security testing concepts, vulnerabilities, and secure software development practices.

Industry and Domain Knowledge

Insurance industry experience.

Understanding of customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX) principles.

Experience supporting highly regulated business environments.

Emerging Technologies

Familiarity with AI-assisted testing tools and test generation capabilities.

Experience leveraging machine learning-enhanced testing platforms and intelligent test automation solutions.

Understanding of test analytics and quality metrics dashboards.

Professional Certifications (Preferred)

ISTQB Certified Tester

Certified Agile Tester (CAT)

Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)

SAFe Practitioner or SAFe Agile Certification

Relevant cloud certifications (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

What We Offer:

Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace.

Benefits include:

• Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance

• Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays

• Parental Leave

• 401(k) Retirement Plan

• Group Term Life and Travel Assistance

• Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance

• Health Savings Account, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts

• Transit and Parking Commuter Benefits

• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability

• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development, Certifications & Learning Opportunities

• Employee Referral Program

• Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach

• Care.com annual membership

• Employee Assistance Program

• Supplemental Benefits via Corestream (Critical Care, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance and ID theft protection, etc.)

• Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is an Equal Opportunity Employer-Protected Veterans, Individuals with Disabilities or any other basis protected by law, ordinance, or regulation.

Guidehouse will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable law or ordinance including the Fair Chance Ordinance of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

If you have visited our website for information about employment opportunities, or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Guidehouse Recruiting at 1-571-633-1711 or via email at RecruitingAccommodation@guidehouse.com. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodation.

All communication regarding recruitment for a Guidehouse position will be sent from Guidehouse email domains including @guidehouse.com or guidehouse@myworkday.com. Correspondence received by an applicant from any other domain should be considered unauthorized and will not be honored by Guidehouse. Note that Guidehouse will never charge a fee or require a money transfer at any stage of the recruitment process and does not collect fees from educational institutions for participation in a recruitment event. Never provide your banking information to a third party purporting to need that information to proceed in the hiring process.

If any person or organization demands money related to a job opportunity with Guidehouse, please report the matter to Guidehouse's Ethics Hotline. If you want to check the validity of correspondence you have received, please contact recruiting@guidehouse.com. Guidehouse is not responsible for losses incurred (monetary or otherwise) from an applicant's dealings with unauthorized third parties.

Guidehouse does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies. All unsolicited resumes will be considered the property of Guidehouse and Guidehouse will not be obligated to pay a placement fee.