Job Description

JOB SUMMARY

The Director, Software Quality Enablement & Developer Productivity is an engineering transformation leader responsible for evolving quality from a traditional testing function into an integrated engineering capability. Rather than measuring success by automation coverage or the number of test cases executed, this role will improve engineering effectiveness by building quality into software architecture, development, and deployment from the beginning.

This leader will partner closely with Software Engineering, Architecture, Platform Engineering, DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Security, Product, and UX teams to improve testability, observability, reliability, deployment confidence, and developer productivity across Walgreens Digital.

The ideal candidate is first and foremost a software engineering leader who has successfully built or transformed engineering quality organizations. Candidates should have a strong software engineering foundation, with experience in areas such as backend development, distributed systems, APIs, middleware, cloud platforms, infrastructure, or software architecture before moving into quality engineering leadership.

This leader will establish modern engineering practices, including developer-owned quality, API-first validation, contract testing, service virtualization, CI/CD quality gates, continuous testing, and engineering observability. They will also help define how AI can transform software engineering through AI-assisted development, intelligent quality engineering, improved developer productivity, and defect prevention.

LOCATION
This position is based in Deerfield, Illinois, and follows a hybrid schedule of four days in the office and one remote day each week.

This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Engineering Leadership
• Lead a high-performing Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) organization focused on engineering enablement rather than downstream testing.
• Define and execute Walgreens' engineering quality strategy in alignment with enterprise software modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
• Establish the operating model for how SDETs partner with engineering teams to build quality into software rather than inspect quality after development.
• Build organizational capability through the hiring, coaching, mentoring, and succession planning of highly technical SDETs.

Engineering Quality
• Influence software architecture and engineering design decisions to improve testability, reliability, observability, resilience, and long-term maintainability.
• Lead engineering design reviews with a focus on APIs, service boundaries, dependency management, failure modes, and quality-by-design principles.
• Establish engineering standards for developer-owned quality, unit testing, API-first testing, contract testing, integration testing, and production readiness.
• Reduce reliance on end-to-end UI automation by improving engineering practices, system testability, and intelligent automation strategies.
• Lead root-cause analyses of escaped defects and drive systemic improvements that prevent recurrence.

Software Engineering Enablement
• Build and maintain scalable engineering quality platforms, frameworks, and tools that improve developer productivity.
• Ensure automation frameworks are treated as production-quality software, with strong engineering standards for maintainability, versioning, performance, and reuse.
• Partner with Platform Engineering and DevOps to integrate quality gates, automated validation, and continuous testing into CI/CD pipelines.
• Establish engineering practices for test data management, environment strategy, service virtualization, and deployment confidence.

AI-Enabled Engineering
• Define and drive the adoption of AI-assisted software engineering practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies for code generation, automated testing, code review, defect prevention, engineering productivity, and software delivery.
• Help evolve the role of Quality Engineering as AI changes how software is designed, developed, tested, and released.

Metrics and Continuous Improvement
• Define engineering quality metrics focused on defect prevention, deployment confidence, escaped defects, change failure rate, release quality, and overall engineering effectiveness.
• Use data to identify systemic engineering issues and prioritize quality improvements.
• Communicate the engineering quality strategy, risks, and progress to senior technology leadership.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Within the first 12-18 months, this leader will:
• Transform Quality Engineering from a testing organization into an engineering enablement organization.
• Increase developer ownership of quality throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Improve software testability, observability, and deployment confidence through stronger engineering design.
• Reduce dependence on UI-heavy regression testing by strengthening unit, API, integration, and contract-testing strategies.
• Improve engineering productivity through AI-assisted software development and modern engineering workflows.
• Establish engineering quality metrics centered on defect prevention rather than defect detection.

Job Responsibilities:

• Leads and develops a team of Software Development Engineers in Test, including managers and senior technical leaders, fostering a culture of engineering excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Defines and executes the SDET and quality engineering strategy aligned to enterprise software delivery and platform modernization initiatives.
• Establishes the operating model for how SDETs partner with product and engineering teams, ensuring quality is built into design and development rather than inspected after the fact.
• Builds organizational capability through hiring, coaching, succession planning, and skills development in test automation and quality engineering.
• Oversees the design, development, and maintenance of scalable, reusable automated testing frameworks and tools across UI, API, integration, performance, and security testing.
• Ensures test automation is treated as production quality code, with strong standards for maintainability, performance, and reliability.
• Drives consistent engineering practices for test code reviews, versioning, and reuse across teams.
• Reduces reliance on manual testing by increasing automation coverage and test execution efficiency.
• Partners with DevOps and Platform teams to embed automated testing into CI/CD pipelines, enabling fast, reliable, and repeatable releases.
• Establishes standards for continuous testing, test data management, and environment readiness.
• Drives shift left testing practices, ensuring quality considerations are addressed early in the software development lifecycle.
• Improves release confidence and cycle time through early defect detection and automated quality gates.
• Defines and tracks quality metrics that provide visibility into code quality, test effectiveness, defect trends, and release readiness.
• Uses data and insights to identify systemic quality issues and drive targeted improvement initiatives.
• Leads root cause analysis for escaped defects and partners with engineering teams to prevent recurrence.
• Continuously evaluates and evolves tools, frameworks, and practices based on industry trends and organizational needs.
• Collaborates closely with Software Engineering, Product, Architecture, SRE, Security, and Vendor partners to align on quality standards and delivery expectations.
• Influences engineering design decisions to improve testability, reliability, and long term maintainability.
• Communicates quality posture, risks, and improvement progress to senior technology leadership.

External Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field OR equivalent work experience.
• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, test automation, or quality engineering roles with increasing scope and complexity.
• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including leading managers or senior technical leaders.
• Strong background in automated testing frameworks, software development practices, and modern SDLC methodologies.
• Demonstrated experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines at scale.
• At least 5 years of experience contributing to financial decisions in the workplace.
• At least 5 years of direct leadership, indirect leadership and/or cross-functional team leadership.
• Willing to travel up to/at least 10% of the time for business purposes (within state and out of state).

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related discipline.
• Experience leading Engineering Quality or SDET organizations supporting large-scale cloud-native platforms.
• Experience transforming traditional QA organizations into engineering enablement organizations.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems, microservices, event-driven architectures, APIs, and cloud-native engineering practices.
• Experience influencing principal engineers, architects, and senior engineering leaders through technical credibility.
• Experience applying AI to software engineering, developer productivity, code quality, engineering workflows, or quality engineering.
• Experience improving engineering effectiveness through testability, observability, quality-by-design, and modern software delivery practices.

#LI-JW1