Senior Automation Engineer

American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company is a leading provider of annuity solutions designed to help clients protect and grow retirement income. Part of Brookfield Wealth Solutions, we partner with more than 40,000 financial professionals and help fund over half a million retirements nationwide. Recognized by Newsweek as one of America’s Most Trustworthy Companies and named a Top Workplace in Iowa, American Equity fosters a collaborative and purpose-driven culture where employees are empowered to ignite their passion and help shape the future of financial services.

Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, with satellite offices in New York, NY, American Equity provides opportunities for employees to support work across the enterprise, including our sister company, American National, headquartered in Houston, Texas.

GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE JOB:   

The Senior Automation Engineer is responsible for providing different architecture solutions and coding of projects targeted for automation.  Under minimal supervision, the incumbent codes, tests, and debugs automation scripts; and provides guidance and expertise to Automation Engineers and provides feedback to help them create the best automated solutions.   Designs and develops QA test tooling and test automation infrastructure.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:  

Administration Items (10%)
•    Provides weekly status report of all completed, on-going and future projects in order to keep management updated on progress.
•    Proficient in quality processes in qTest, JIRA.

Automation Items (70%)
•    Sets direction for automation frameworks and disseminates to the team.
•    Establishes and maintains automation project timelines.
•    Codes and prepares unit test data.
•    Codes, tests and debugs automation scripts.
•    Evaluates and modifies existing automation scripts.
•    Subject matter expert of automation testing techniques and tools.
•    May create and execute performance tests.
•    Assists with documentation of procedures used for completed automation scripts.
•    Interfaces with users and programmers to develop automation procedures and technology solutions.
•    Ensures adherence to department standards.
•    Drives projects with minimal supervision.
Mentors Automation Team members with questions regarding area of domain expertise.
•    Advocates for quality processes, utilizing testing tooling and test automation
•    Works with team in estimating effort.
•    Documents procedures used for competing work in area of discipline.

 Support Items (20%)
•    Provides guidance to Quality Assurance Automation Engineer with questions regarding project design, concept, and automation execution errors.
•    Assists Quality Assurance, Development, and Users with questions regarding automation.
•    May develop/support QA test automation and tooling infrastructure.
•    Interfaces with outside resources for problem solving.
•    May back up Release Engineer with DevOps pipeline and production deployments.
•    Assists other QA members, BA’s BRM’s or Scrum teams with researching complex problems and questions.
•    Mentors other Automation personnel, BA’s, and Programmers on effective automated testing procedures.
•    Assists/leads with resolution and retesting of production issues.
•    Provides coverage for Leads, Managers and AVP of Insurance Systems Operations as needed.
•    Interfaces with other IT and business areas for identification of opportunities and to plan project deliveries.
•    Completes project management tasks as assigned.

Performs other related work as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Direct Reports: 0

General Description of Indirect Reports (2 and 3-downs):  0

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE:  

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science or related field of study; plus four (4) years of related experience; or equivalent combination of education and/or experience.  

Seeking two (2) or more years of skills and experience with:
•    Experience with SpecFlow, BitBar, QuerySurge (DB automation), Quality Assurance principles, MS SQL and Microsoft Office products
•    Experience creating SQL queries and data structures needed for testing
•    Ability to understand test plans and apply automation techniques to create automated test scripts
•    Experience with performance and load testing
•    Experience with manual and automated testing
•    Experience with industry standard DevOps practices.

Experience with Life Insurance and Annuities preferred. 

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, PROFESSIONAL DESIGNATIONS: None required for this position.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

•    Comprehensive knowledge of automated testing tools and processes.
•    Ability to possess domain expertise in two systems.
•    Ability to work cooperatively and successfully with co-employees within the company and customers and other outside third parties.
•    Ability to successfully handle pressure and meet deadlines in a fast-paced work environment.
•    Ability to make quick decisions with available information.
•    Effective verbal and written communication skills.
•    Knowledge of principles of superior customer service.
•    Attention to detail.
•    Analyzes and synthesizes complex information.
•    Presents numerical information effectively.
•    Understands business implication of work.
•    Ability to work effectively in team environment.
•    Possesses professionalism and ability to follow-through.
•    Adaptable to change, delays and unexpected events.
•    Self-motivated.
•    Ability to provide second level support for other team members.

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This description covers the major purpose and essential functions of the job.  It is not intended to give all details or a step-by-step account of the way each task is to be performed.  Employees may receive other job related instructions and be required to perform other job related work requested by their manager.  All requirements are subject to possible modification to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities.

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