Lead Software Test Engineer - Prime Online

About this role

Career Area: Technology, Digital and Data Job Description:

Your Work Shapes the World at Caterpillar Inc.

When you join Caterpillar, you're joining a global team who cares not just about the work we do – but also about each other.  We are the makers, problem solvers, and future world builders who are creating stronger, more sustainable communities. We don't just talk about progress and innovation here – we make it happen, with our customers, where we work and live. Together, we are building a better world, so we can all enjoy living in it.

Cat Digital is the digital and technology arm of Caterpillar Inc., leveraging the latest technologies to build industry leading digital solutions for our customers and dealers. With over 1.5 million connected assets worldwide, our teams use data, technology, advanced analytics, telematics, and AI capabilities to help our customers build a better, more sustainable world.

Job Summary:

We are seeking a highly motivated Lead Software Test Engineer to drive quality engineering practices across our Cat.com/Prime Online applications. This role is responsible for defining test strategy, leading automation initiatives, improving release quality, and ensuring reliable, scalable customer experiences across web, API, and integrated enterprise systems.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in software testing with strong leadership skills, enabling them to influence quality practices across cross-functional teams while remaining hands-on in automation, performance testing, and release readiness activities. This role will serve as a champion for AI-first quality engineering practices, helping teams maximize productivity through responsible adoption of AI-assisted development and testing tools.

What You Will Do:

Quality Leadership & Governance • Lead and mentor software test engineers, fostering technical growth and continuous improvement within the quality engineering organization.

• Establish testing standards, quality metrics, and governance practices across multiple product teams.

• Drive defect prevention initiatives through root-cause analysis, quality reviews, and process improvements.

• Provide quality status reporting, release readiness assessments, and risk evaluations to stakeholders.

• Champion an AI-first approach to quality engineering, leveraging generative AI and intelligent automation tools to accelerate test design, test data creation, defect analysis, and test maintenance.

Test Strategy & Execution • Define and execute comprehensive test strategies for web, mobile, API, and enterprise platform solutions.

• Lead functional, integration, regression, system, user acceptance, and end-to-end testing efforts.

• Utilize risk-based testing methodologies to prioritize testing efforts for business-critical functionality.

• Ensure quality validation across multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android environments.

Test Automation & Continuous Testing • Design, develop, maintain, and scale automated testing frameworks for UI, API, and end-to-end validation.

• Integrate automated quality gates into CI/CD pipelines to improve deployment confidence and reduce production defects.

• Drive automation strategy using modern tools and frameworks such as Playwright, WebdriverIO, Selenium, Appium, and API automation tools.

• Continuously improve regression coverage, execution efficiency, and testing reliability.

Cross-Functional Collaboration • Partner closely with Product Managers, Software Engineers, Architects, and DevOps teams to refine requirements and establish acceptance criteria.

• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, and design discussions to promote shift-left quality practices.

• Support production releases through validation, monitoring, defect analysis, and continuous feedback.

What You Will Have:

Decision Making and Critical Thinking: Knowledge of the decision-making process and associated tools and techniques; ability to accurately analyze situations and reach productive decisions based on informed judgment. Software Development: Knowledge of software development tools and activities; ability to produce software products or systems in line with product requirements. Software Development Life Cycle: Knowledge of software development life cycle; ability to use a structured methodology for delivering and managing new or enhanced software products to the marketplace. Software Product Design/Architecture: Knowledge of software product design; ability to convert market requirements into the software product design. Software Product Technical Knowledge: Knowledge of technical aspects of a software products; ability to design, configure and integrate technical aspects of software products. Software Product Testing: Knowledge of software product testing; ability to design, plan, and execute testing strategies and tactics to ensure software product quality and adherence to stated requirements.

Considerations For Top Candidates:

Required Qualifications • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Information Technology, or equivalent experience.

• 7+ years of experience in software testing, quality engineering, or test automation.

• We are specifically seeking candidates with strong experience in test automation, defining and driving test strategy across large teams, and applying modern QA best practices, including the effective use of AI-enabled testing approaches.

• Demonstrated experience leading quality initiatives and mentoring software test engineers.

• Extensive experience testing web applications, mobile applications, APIs, and integrated enterprise systems.

• Proven experience designing and implementing automated testing frameworks and strategies.

• Strong understanding of Agile software development and DevOps practices.

• Experience working with CI/CD pipelines and continuous testing methodologies.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, and leadership

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