Senior Quality Engineer - Automation, Python, Playwright

Optum is a global organization that delivers care, aided by technology to help millions of people live healthier lives. The work you do with our team will directly improve health outcomes by connecting people with the care, pharmacy benefits, data and resources they need to feel their best. Here, you will find a culture guided by inclusion, talented peers, comprehensive benefits and career development opportunities. Come make an impact on the communities we serve as you help us advance health optimization on a global scale. Join us to start Caring. Connecting. Growing together.  

About the Role

At Optum, quality is built in - not tested in at the end. We are seeking a Quality Engineer with an AI first mindset who approaches testing as an engineering discipline and a force multiplier for product velocity and reliability.

This role requires strong automation, system level thinking, and modern AI assisted development practices. You will design and implement automated quality strategies that scale across cloud platforms and complex distributed systems.

This is not a manual testing role.

Primary Responsibilities

• AI First Quality Engineering
  • Leverage AI assisted tools (e.g., Copilot style models, agents, prompt driven workflows) to accelerate test design, automation, and analysis
  • Apply spec driven development principles to derive tests directly from requirements and system intent
  • Use AI to explore edge cases, generate automation scaffolding, and improve test coverage and reliability
• Test Automation & Engineering
  • Design, build, and maintain Playwright based automation, including:
    • UI functional testing
    • Visual inspection and visual regression testing
    • Browser and device emulations
  • Implement and maintain a balanced test strategy across:
    • Unit tests
    • Integration tests
    • End to end (E2E) tests
    • Ensure automation is stable, maintainable, and integrated into CI/CD pipelines
• Cloud & Platform Quality
  • Test and validate applications deployed on AWS, GCP, and Azure
  • Apply strong understanding of:
    • HTTP protocols and status codes
    • Network behavior, latency, and failure modes
  • Partner closely with engineering teams to identify quality risks early in the development lifecycle
• Quality Mindset & Systems Thinking
  • Ask clarifying questions before writing tests to understand:
  • Application type and architecture
  • Core user journeys and business critical flows
  • Non functional requirements such as performance and resilience
  • Think beyond test cases to overall product quality and user experience
• Comply with the terms and conditions of the employment contract, company policies and procedures, and any and all directives (such as, but not limited to, transfer and/or re-assignment to different work locations, change in teams and/or work shifts, policies in regards to flexibility of work benefits and/or work environment, alternative work arrangements, and other decisions that may arise due to the changing business environment). The Company may adopt, vary or rescind these policies and directives in its absolute discretion and without any limitation (implied or otherwise) on its ability to do so

Required Qualifications

• Core Technical Skills
  • Solid hands on experience with Playwright
  • Proven experience in:
    • UI automation testing
    • Unit, integration, and E2E testing
    • Visual testing approaches
  • Experience testing applications in AWS, GCP, and Azure environments
  • Solid understanding of HTTP status codes and web protocols
  • Solid networking fundamentals
  • AI & Modern Engineering Practices
  • Practical experience using AI development tools (e.g., Copilot, Codex style models)
  • Ability to write effective instructions, prompts, and agent workflows
  • Familiarity with spec driven development approaches
  • Comfort using AI as a daily engineering aid, not an experiment
• Note: Lack of experience with AI assisted development and spec driven workflows will be considered a non starter for this role

Interview Expectations

• As part of the technical interview, candidates will be expected to:
  • Build a simple web application
  • Create Playwright automation to test the application
  • Explain testing and design decisions clearly
  • Demonstrate working output within a short, time boxed session
  • We will specifically assess:
  • Whether the candidate asks clarifying questions before starting
  • Understanding of application context and user flows
  • Ability to think at a system and product level, not just execute tasks

What Success Looks Like

• You think like a quality engineer, not a script executor
• You naturally use AI tools to improve speed and quality
• You focus on intent, outcomes, and system behavior
• You proactively identify quality risks and address them early

At UnitedHealth Group, our mission is to help people live healthier lives and make the health system work better for everyone. We believe everyone-of every race, gender, sexuality, age, location and income-deserves the opportunity to live their healthiest life. Today, however, there are still far too many barriers to good health which are disproportionately experienced by people of color, historically marginalized groups and those with lower incomes. We are committed to mitigating our impact on the environment and enabling and delivering equitable care that addresses health disparities and improves health outcomes - an enterprise priority reflected in our mission.