SDET!!

Location: Hybrid onsite - Hartford CT or Wellesley MAContract to hire

Pay rate: $55-$60/hr Manager notes: Project Scope: YAVA is "Your Aetna Virtual Assistant", which is a virtual assistant within their contact center, designed to support self-service capacity. It aims to reduce calls to human agents by providing solutions through a service bot. Transforming how they do their work. Instead of just QA's, adding engineers (automation). Building this in their team/YAVAWhy is req open? New headcount to add engineering/automation to environment High-

Level Individual Duties: Adding Engineering functionality to QA and automation Mentor others, lead the junior resources/QA's on engineering/automation Design and Implementation of Automation Needs to be able to do the architecture work and design and needs to have implemented this before Must-Haves (Concepts & Tools):Language - Java and Node. JSSelenium/Playwright – Bruno for API testing (Rest Assured or Karate or other modern API testing tool is okay)Dabbled in AI/LLM's, Must have used AI agents, conversational AI ideally What Will Win (formerly known as "Nice-to-Haves"):Strong Bruno experience for API Testing

Role Overview: We are seeking two mid to senior-level Software Development Engineers in Test (SDET) for a contract-to-hire opportunity. These roles are focused on transitioning from traditional QA to an engineering-centric approach by architecting and implementing testing frameworks and tools, particularly for AI agents and conversational AI systems. The ideal candidates will have five or more years of hands-on experience, capable of mentoring others and leading design and development efforts.

Key Responsibilities: Architect and implement testing solutions, including tools, test harnesses, and frameworks for AI agents and conversational AI systems. Collaborate with Product, Architecture, and Engineering teams to define test strategy, coverage goals, and acceptance criteria. Design, build, and maintain reusable test harnesses and frameworks. Develop and automate test plans for Voice and Chat channels, including validation of complex multi-turn conversations and intent recognition. Provide test infrastructure to enable engineering teams to test and own the quality of their services across Java/Node.js backends and APIs. Mentor team members on test-driven development, automation patterns, and best practices. Monitor and report on test execution and quality metrics to ensure the customer experience is protected and improved. Contribute to automated test implementation and general development tasks when harness work is complete.

Required Qualifications: 5+ years of total software engineering experience, with 3+ years focused on test automation or SDET work. Hands-on experience architecting and implementing testing solutions. Proficiency in at least one backend language: Java or Node.js, with object-oriented design experience.

Technical Skills: API testing expertise (REST, validation, mocking) with tools such as Bruno, Postman, SoapUI, Karate, or Rest Assured. Experience with UI testing tools like Selenium or Playwright. Knowledge of test frameworks such as JUnit, Jest, or Cucumber; experience building custom frameworks is a plus. Experience with testing LLM/AI responses, using approaches such as LLM-as-a-judge. Understanding of test data strategy, including synthetic data creation and provisioning mock data. Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, such as Git Hub Actions.

Other Requirements: On-site availability in Hartford, CT, or Wellesley, MA is required. Must be a US Citizen or Green Card holder able to convert to full-time employment.

Preferred Qualifications: Deep hands-on technical expertise in automation, developing test frameworks, tools, and APIs. Experience with conversational AI platforms. Experience with contract testing or API mocking tools. Knowledge of performance or load testing frameworks. Experience testing AI agents and understanding deterministic vs. non-deterministic responses.

Work Environment: The new hires will join existing scrum pods of approximately eight members each. These are critical roles within the team, created to enhance engineering and testing capabilities.