Principal Software Development Engineer in Test Lead

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Principal Software Development Engineer in Test Lead based in Canada. This role sits within a platform engineering team focused on building and scaling cloud-based microservices. You will lead the development of sophisticated automated testing solutions that help ensure reliability, quality, and performance. The position combines hands-on software development, test architecture, cloud infrastructure, and technical leadership. You will collaborate closely with engineering teams to define effective testing strategies for complex platform changes. The role offers the opportunity to troubleshoot challenging issues across different architectures and environments. You will also mentor engineers and promote engineering and testing best practices across the organization. This is a remote position in Canada with a strong focus on technical excellence, innovation, and collaborative problem-solving. Accountabilities: - Partner with engineering teams to determine appropriate testing strategies and approaches for proposed platform and software changes. - Design, develop, maintain, and enhance automated test frameworks and pipelines covering unit, integration, and end-to-end testing. - Create comprehensive test plans and test cases for cloud compute services, ensuring relevant scenarios, edge cases, and failure conditions are covered. - Develop and maintain automation scripts supporting deployments, migrations, rollbacks, and other operational workflows. - Investigate complex test failures and system issues, reproduce problems across environments, identify root causes, and recommend effective solutions. - Debug failures across different CPU architectures and environments, including x86 and ARM, whether running natively or through emulation. - Evaluate whether failures are architecture-specific and develop appropriate testing and troubleshooting strategies. - Contribute to reliable, scalable, and maintainable testing infrastructure for cloud-native services.

- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior engineers, encouraging strong testing practices and consistent quality standards. - Collaborate across engineering and platform teams to improve development, testing, deployment, and validation processes. Requirements - 12 years of relevant professional experience combined with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or an equivalent qualification. - Strong proficiency in Python and Pytest, with a solid understanding of modern software testing methodologies. - Working knowledge of Perl and Go. - Demonstrated experience debugging across multiple environments and CPU architectures, particularly x86 and ARM, using native or emulated environments. - Strong understanding of Debian packaging and QEMU, including the differences between TCG and KVM acceleration. - Deep knowledge of cloud-native infrastructure, system internals, and performance considerations. - Experience with automation and CI/CD tools and frameworks such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and SaltStack. - Strong Linux fundamentals, including system performance tuning and troubleshooting. - Proficiency with Bash and general scripting practices. - Understanding of modern software development lifecycle processes, service-level objectives, monitoring, and alerting. - Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with the ability to diagnose complex technical issues systematically. - Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to provide technical guidance and influence engineering practices. - Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with distributed, cross-functional engineering teams. Benefits - Competitive base salary of CAD $140,400–$252,800 per year , depending on factors such as experience, skills, and certifications.