Software Engineer in Test - Lead

About Codem

Codem is a managed services and eCommerce transformation company working with enterprise clients across cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, and digital commerce. We place senior engineers into long-term embedded roles where they own real technical scope alongside the client's own engineering teams — not staff augmentation on the margins.

The SET function described here is being built inside the client's engineering organization; You would be Codem engineer owning that scope on the ground.

Overview

Codem is hiring a Software Engineer in Test Lead — the first hire into a net-new SET function at one of our enterprise clients, a high-transaction-volume supply chain technology platform serving major consumer brands.

You'll set framework standards and tooling decisions before any embedded SETs are hired. That sequencing is deliberate: without a lead owning those decisions upfront, embedded SETs make independent tooling choices and diverge within two quarters.

The client already has a solid service-level unit testing foundation. Your mandate is the next layer — AI-assisted, automated load testing — while owning E2E, regression, and contract standards across every product group as their SETs come online. You'll also partner with SRE on test environment strategy: a dedicated Test environment now, ephemeral per-PR environments in the mid-term.

This is for an engineer who's built a test automation practice from zero before — chosen the frameworks, set the standards, and watched other teams actually adopt them.

Why This Role

• First hire into a brand-new function: every standard, tool, and pattern for how this platform tests software runs through your decisions.
• Real budget, not a rubber stamp — you scope the AI-assisted test generation spend post-hire.
• Cross-org scope immediately, and direct infrastructure influence: you co-design test environment strategy with SRE.

What You'll Build

Strategy & standards

• Framework and tooling decisions for E2E, regression, and contract testing across all product groups
• Standards established before the first embedded SETs are hired, so tooling doesn't diverge
• A definition of what good coverage means org-wide, and how it's measured

AI-assisted test infrastructure

• Own the AI-assisted test generation budget and roadmap post-hire
• Build tooling that converts acceptance criteria into automated scripts, usable by every embedded SET

Load & performance program

• Lead an automated, AI-assisted load testing practice layered on the existing unit testing foundation
• Set org-wide performance thresholds and testing cadence with EMs and PMs

Environment & infrastructure partnership

• Partner with SRE on a dedicated Test environment with schema/config parity to Production
• Co-design the ephemeral per-PR environment architecture once Test and the E2E framework mature

Org enablement

• Ramp and mentor embedded SETs across each product group as they're hired
• Own coverage dashboard and regression register standards used across all groups

What We're Looking For

Required

• Test automation architecture — You've designed and rolled out a framework (Playwright or equivalent) at org level, not just within one team.
• CI/CD pipeline ownership — Deep experience configuring release gates in GitHub Actions or equivalent.
• AI-assisted test tooling — You've built or integrated AI-assisted test generation, not just used AI coding assistants day-to-day.
• Load/performance at scale — Experience designing load testing programs, ideally layered on existing service-level testing.
• Cross-team technical leadership — A track record of setting standards multiple teams adopt, without formal authority over those teams.
• Infrastructure partnership — Comfortable working directly with SRE on environment strategy, not just consuming environments someone else provisions.

How you work

• You own things end-to-end and follow through from design to production.
• You explain technical trade-offs clearly to engineers, PMs, and leadership, and you listen well.
• You think about failure modes, monitoring, and operational concerns as part of design, not after.

Bonus

• Stood up a test automation or QA engineering function from zero
• Partnered with SRE or platform teams on environment strategy or infrastructure-as-code
• High-transaction-volume, logistics, or supply-chain platform background
• Presented a technical investment case to leadership

What Success Looks Like

30 days: Framework and tooling standards documented for E2E, regression, and contract testing; AI-assisted test generation budget scoped with an initial build-vs-buy decision.

90 days: First automated load testing pilot live; Test environment live with SRE, at schema/config parity with Production; first embedded Senior SET ramped against these standards.

6 months: AI-assisted load testing in active use across an additional product group; ephemeral per-PR environment architecture scoped with SRE; org-wide regression register and coverage dashboards live and reviewed quarterly.

About Codem

Codem is a managed services and eCommerce transformation company working with enterprise clients across cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, and digital commerce. We place senior engineers into long-term embedded roles where they own real technical scope alongside the client's own engineering teams — not staff augmentation on the margins.

The SET function described here is being built inside the client's engineering organization; you'd be a Codem engineer owning that scope on the ground.