Senior Technical Engineering Manager, Software Development Engineer in Test

Position Overview

As a Senior Technical Engineering Manager, SDET at Alkami, you will lead, mentor, and scale a team of Software Development Engineers in Test (SDETs) responsible for delivering high-quality, scalable, and reliable automation frameworks and testing solutions.

This role blends technical leadership with hands-on execution — you’ll spend approximately 20–30% of your time coding, reviewing frameworks, and contributing to automation architecture. You will own and evolve Alkami’s quality engineering strategy, driving quality-first practices across multiple product domains.

Partnering closely with Engineering, Product, DevOps, and Security, you will embed quality early in the lifecycle through shift-left testing, continuous validation, and observability-driven feedback loops. As a senior leader, you’ll focus on scaling people, processes, and platforms to enable reliable, fast, and secure software delivery at enterprise scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of SDETs focused on automation across Web, Mobile, and API layers.
• Contribute hands-on (20–30%) to the design, architecture, and development of automation frameworks, tools, and libraries.
• Architect and evolve scalable automation frameworks and testing infrastructure to enhance reliability, maintainability, and execution velocity.
• Define and execute enterprise-level quality strategies covering functional, regression, integration, exploratory, and performance testing.
• Collaborate with cross-functional leaders to design and implement holistic testing strategies that support rapid, high-quality releases.
• Integrate automation into CI / CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins or GitHub Actions to enforce quality gates and early defect detection.
• Drive performance, load, and scalability testing (e.g., JMeter, Gatling) and incorporate observability metrics into quality dashboards.
• Define and monitor key quality KPIs (e.g., defect escape rate, automation coverage, stability).
• Champion modern testing practices such as shift-left testing, mocking, service virtualization, and risk-based validation.
• Ensure test environment reliability, test data management, and automation scalability for rapid delivery cycles.
• Lead hiring, onboarding, and upskilling initiatives for SDETs, fostering a culture of inclusion, ownership, and continuous learning.
• Represent Quality Engineering in enterprise programs, influencing architecture and design decisions to strengthen reliability and customer trust.

Qualifications

Required

Preferred

Why Join Alkami