Senior Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

Staff Engineer

Job Description:

The Staff Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) responsible for defining quality strategy, architecting scalable automation frameworks, and leading quality initiatives across complex, cloud-based analytical data platforms. This role operates as a technical leader embedded within engineering teams, driving modern testing practices across distributed and data-intensive systems.

• Define and implement comprehensive testing strategies for large-scale analytical data platforms, including ETL/ELT pipelines, APIs, and data models.
• Architect and maintain enterprise-grade automation frameworks supporting distributed data processing systems.
• Lead performance, scalability, and reliability testing initiatives across cloud-native and data-intensive environments.
• Establish best practices for data validation, schema evolution testing, and regulatory compliance assurance.
• Partner with engineering leadership to influence architecture decisions that improve system quality and testability.
• Mentor and provide technical leadership to SDET and QA engineers.
• Drive continuous improvement of automation frameworks, tooling, and quality engineering standards.
• Contribute to cross-team initiatives that improve release velocity, defect prevention, and platform resilience.
• Perform other duties that support the overall objective of the position.

Education Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering.
• Or, any combination of education and experience which would provide the required qualifications for the position.

Experience Required:

• 8+ years of experience in software quality engineering or SDET roles, including demonstrated leadership in automation architecture and test strategy for complex cloud-based systems.

Experience Preferred:

• AI/LLM Experience: Minimum 1+ years of hands-on experience in testing LLM-based applications, RAG pipelines, or Agentic workflows.
• Framework Experience: Proven experience with AWS Bedrock Agent Core and/or Strands. Equivalent experience with LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, or Google ADK (Agent Development Kit) is highly acceptable.
• Agentic Systems: Direct experience in building or testing systems involving multi-agent coordination, tool-use (function calling), and autonomous planning.
• Cloud Experience: Strong familiarity with AWS services (Lambda, CloudWatch, Bedrock) or equivalent Google Cloud/Azure AI services.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Knowledge of: Advanced automation framework architecture and design principles. Cloud-native architectures and distributed data systems. Data lakehouse platforms and modern analytical data environments
• ETL/ELT orchestration and data modeling validation techniques. CI/CD pipeline design and DevOps integration. Performance testing methodologies for high-volume data systems. Regulatory and compliance considerations within healthcare data ecosystems.
• Skill in: Advanced programming (Python strongly preferred; proficiency in additional languages such as Scala or Java a plus). Designing enterprise-scale test automation strategies. Validating complex data transformations and distributed processing logic. Performance engineering and bottleneck analysis for data systems. Technical mentorship and cross-functional engineering leadership. Influencing architectural decisions to improve system reliability.
• Ability to: Lead quality initiatives across multiple engineering teams. Translate business and regulatory requirements into scalable testing strategies. Identify systemic quality risks within complex data ecosystems. Mentor and elevate engineering quality practices organization-wide. Operate effectively in fast-paced, evolving technical environments. 

The company has reviewed this job description to ensure that essential functions and basic duties have been included. It is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described. It is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and the company reserves the right to change this job description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as the company may deem appropriate.

NextGen Healthcare is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Experience Level

Senior Level