Lead Software Development Engineer in Test

Organization Overview:

At Lilly, we believe in the talent of our workforce. One of the best ways to utilize and develop that talent is to use our existing workforce to fill new and/or open positions. If you are looking for a new position within Lilly, you can view and apply to open roles posted in the internal job posting system. You must meet the minimum qualifications outlined in the job description and have/obtain work authorization in the country the position is to be considered. When applying internally for a position, your current supervisor will receive notification that you have applied to the position. We encourage employees to discuss the opportunity with their supervisor prior to applying.   
  
Note:  Roles are posted at the lowest level of a band, however, employees should search across all levels of the band to identify all opportunities.  Employees hired on banded positions (ex: P1-P3, R1-R2, B1-B3, etc.) transfer at their current level, despite the level indicated on the job posting.  For example, if a P2 candidate is selected for a P1-P3 banded position, the candidate will remain a P2 in the new role. 

About the Team:

At Lilly, our Test Automation Center of Excellence (TACoE) brings modern tools and practices together to improve the quality, speed, and reliability of software delivery. We embed automated testing into the core of our engineering processes — supporting innovation, reducing manual effort, and delivering sustainable value to our operations and customers within regulated healthcare and pharmaceutical environments. 

The Role:

As a Lead SDET, you will shape Lilly's enterprise automation strategy and oversee the delivery of scalable, high-quality automation solutions. You will resolve complex testing challenges, lead critical framework enhancements, and modernise our automation practices so they stay aligned with business objectives. 

This is a hands-on engineering role. You will write, review, and optimise automation code, contribute to framework architecture, build reusable components, and embed automation within CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing at scale. 

What You'll Do 

• Architect, design, and implement robust, maintainable automation frameworks that adapt to evolving technologies and platforms. 

• Contribute directly to automation code development, debugging, refactoring, and performance optimisation, taking technical ownership of complex challenges. 

• Apply software engineering principles, design patterns, and clean coding practices. Conduct code reviews and ensure automation code meets production-grade standards. 

• Partner with development, DevOps, product, and business teams to integrate testing into every phase of the software development lifecycle. 

• Evaluate emerging tools, AI-driven testing platforms, and industry trends to modernise testing processes and improve speed, reliability, and coverage. 

• Establish metrics and KPIs to monitor automation performance, reduce manual effort, and accelerate release cycles without compromising quality. 

• Define and own test strategies across enterprise-level projects, working with the Test Automation Architect to ensure platforms meet standards for stability, scalability, security, and performance. 

• Mentor engineers at all career stages, sharing practical expertise and coding best practices to build SDET capability across teams. 
  

What You'll Bring 

• Substantial experience as an SDET, with a track record of building and maintaining automation frameworks for enterprise applications. 

• Strong coding ability in JavaScript (required); working knowledge of Python or Pytest is a plus. 

• Production-quality automation code, applying design patterns and clean code principles. 

• Experience designing scalable automation frameworks from scratch and integrating them into CI/CD pipelines. 

• Hands-on testing across UI and functional (Cypress, Playwright), API, performance, i and BDD frameworks (Cucumber, SpecFlow); familiarity with AI-driven testing approaches. 

• Breadth across testing types: functional, integration, regression, mobile, data, security, component, and UI/UX. 

• Proven technical leadership — influencing strategic direction and driving implementation across multiple projects. 

• Strong understanding of Agile delivery (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe) and the ability to communicate technical decisions clearly to senior stakeholders. 

• Familiarity with change-control processes including CAPA management (preferred for regulated environments). 

• Exposure to Power BI, Splunk, or similar monitoring and reporting tools is a plus. 
  

Basic Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience). 

• 12+ years of experience in software testing and automation, including substantial coding experience as an SDET delivering scalable solutions across enterprise applications. 

• Demonstrated technical leadership across multiple projects.