Software Development Engineer

A Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) is a hybrid role that combines software development and quality assurance. SDETs are responsible for ensuring the quality and reliability of software through automated testing and close collaboration with development teams. We are seeking a detail-oriented and experienced Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to develop and execute automated test plans, maintain test frameworks, and ensure high-quality software delivery. The ideal candidate will have strong coding skills, a deep understanding of testing methodologies, and experience with Agile and DevOps practices.

The SDET is responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining comprehensive test strategies for Amtrak s Transportation platform.

This platform operates within a complex, workflow-driven, distributed microservices ecosystem that supports Amtrak s workforce management platforms.

In this role, you will ensure the reliability, scalability, and performance of mission-critical systems by building robust testing frameworks and driving quality across services and integrations. As a senior member of the team, you will provide technical leadership by championing a quality-first mindset, mentoring engineers, influencing cross-functional stakeholders, and driving the evolution of testing practices to enhance engineering excellence, system resiliency, and operational reliability.

Essential Responsibilities

• Design and execute end-to-end test strategies for workflow-driven and state-heavy systems.
• Develop and maintain automated test frameworks for UI and API testing (Playwright, Selenium, REST-assured, Karate, or similar).
• Validate REST APIs for functional and NFRs
• Validate REST REST API authn and authz security and role-based access, integration points, and distributed microservices.
• Perform database record and element validations to ensure data integrity, referential consistency, and correct state transitions.
• Validate event-driven process flows and message-based integrations (Kafka or similar technologies).
• Develop tests for resilience scenarios including retries, failure handling, and idempotency.
• Conduct performance and load testing to validate behavior under peak operational conditions.
• Integrate automation suites into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub, Bitbucket, or equivalent).
• Analyze logs and monitoring data (CloudWatch, Dynatrace, AppDynamics, ELK/EFK or similar) to validate system behavior.
• Collaborate with product owners, developers, and architects to define test strategy and quality gates during design and implementation phases.

• Bachelor s degree or 7+ years relevant work experience.
• 5+ years of experience in manual and automated testing of enterprise systems.
• Strong experience in UI and API automation.
• Proficiency in Java and TypeScript for automation scripting.
• Experience testing microservices-based architecture.
• Strong SQL skills and experience validating relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• Experience working in Agile environments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills., * Experience testing complex workflow-driven or operational systems (e.g., logistics, transportation, rail, financial transaction platforms).
• Experience with event-driven or message-based systems (Kafka preferred).
• Experience with performance testing tools (JMeter or similar).
• Familiarity with AWS or other cloud environments.
• Familiarity with legacy mainframe or green-screen systems (e.g., 3270), batch processing, and legacy-to-modern system integration validation.

Work Arrangement :

1. Mandatory PI planning travel with no exception (Amtrak will provide Rail Voucher, Hotel Coverage, Breakfast and Lunch options during PI Planning only)
2. Hybrid may be subject to change based on Amtrak policies. Should project requirements necessitate in-person participation, contractors will be expected to travel to an Amtrak office in Washington DC, Wilmington, or Philadelphia.