McKesson

Principal Quality & DevOps Engineer

McKesson$120K — $200K *
Information Technology
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field; 12 years of software engineering or quality engineering experience.
  • Proven experience architecting unified software delivery lifecycles and governance frameworks.
  • Skilled in automated testing solutions for full-stack applications using modern frameworks.
  • Expertise with CI/CD pipeline establishment using tools like Git, Jenkins, Azure DevOps.
  • Deep understanding of cloud-native platforms, including microservices and containerized applications.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the quality governance strategy across software and data products.
  • Design frameworks that embed quality into the software development lifecycle.
  • Establish standards and accountability models to ensure engineered software quality.
  • Guide the architecture of production environments and deployment pipelines.
  • Implement monitoring and observability frameworks for proactive incident detection.

Benefits

  • Remote eligibility for flexible work-life balance.
  • Comprehensive healthcare coverage for employees and dependents.
  • Professional development opportunities to enhance skills and career growth.
  • A supportive work environment that encourages collaboration and innovation.
Full Job Description
COMPANY: McKesson Corporation

POSITION: Senior Quality & DevOps Engineer

LOCATION: Richmond, VA (Remote Eligible)

JOB DUTIES:

This role represents the evolution of modern quality engineering from a testing-centric discipline to an engineering architecture and governance function. The successful candidate will establish the frameworks, controls, validation systems, and accountability mechanisms that enable engineering teams to deliver high-quality software with speed, predictability, and transparency.

Strategic Leadership

Lead the quality architecture, engineering effectiveness, and delivery governance strategy across multiple data and software products. Design and govern frameworks that embed quality directly into the software development lifecycle, integrating requirements, specifications, development, validation, testing, release management, traceability, and production operations into a unified delivery system. Establish organizational standards, quality controls, and accountability models that ensure software quality is engineered into the process rather than inspected after implementation.

Serve as the organizational authority for software delivery governance, defining how code moves from specification through production release. Establish validation gates, traceability requirements, release controls, audit mechanisms, and engineering standards that create predictable, transparent, and compliant software delivery processes suitable for highly regulated and enterprise environments.

Drive adoption of modern engineering practices including Spec-Driven Development, automated quality gates, AI-assisted development workflows, and continuous delivery. Establish engineering accountability frameworks that distribute ownership of quality across development teams. Mentor engineers and technical leaders in the adoption of standards, automation, specifications, validation practices, and delivery controls that enable consistent production-ready software delivery.

Production Environment & Platform Leadership: Guide or direct the operational lifecycle and architecture of production environments. Establish self-service deployment pipelines, infrastructure as code (IaC) governance, and production readiness standards that empower development teams while maintaining high availability and compliance.

Observability & Monitoring Strategy: Define and implement end-to-end monitoring, logging, and observability frameworks to ensure proactive incident detection, quick telemetry feedback loops, and rapid mean time to resolution (MTTR).

Continuous Delivery & Operations Integration: Bridge quality engineering and platform operations by standardizing deployment validation, progressive delivery mechanisms (canary/blue-green deployments), automated rollback strategies, and automated health checks across all environments.

Organizational Impact

Analyze development workflows and implement scalable solutions that improve engineering productivity, delivery confidence, and product reliability.

Technical Execution

Partner with software engineers, product managers, DevOps engineers, cloud engineers, and technical leadership to embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle. Architect and maintain automated testing strategies spanning API, UI, integration, performance, and end-to-end validation. Develop and enhance release management processes, deployment governance, and quality metrics to support enterprise-scale product delivery.

AI & Future-State Engineering

Lead the design and governance of AI-assisted engineering workflows, agentic development practices, and autonomous validation systems. Establish structured human-in-the-loop review models, agentic validation loops, prompt-driven development patterns, automated quality feedback mechanisms, token-efficient execution strategies, and specification-driven delivery frameworks that improve engineering productivity while maintaining quality, traceability, and compliance standards.

Lead the adoption and governance of AI-assisted software engineering practices, including agentic coding workflows, automated validation frameworks, specification-driven execution models, and engineering effectiveness metrics. Establish repeatable patterns for human-agent collaboration that improve software quality, reduce delivery risk, and maximize the efficiency of AI-generated outputs.

Technical Domains

Support cloud-native application development and full-stack solutions through quality engineering leadership, test architecture, data validation, and operational excellence practices.

Support and guide enterprise cloud deployment architectures, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD automation pipelines, container orchestration, production environment lifecycle management, real-time monitoring, telemetry, APM, and more.

REQUIREMENTS:

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field and Twelve (12) years of experience in software engineering, quality engineering, DevOps engineering, or a related technical field.

Applicant must have demonstrated experience in the following skills:

  • Architecting and governing enterprise engineering frameworks that integrate specifications, development, validation, testing, release management, traceability, accountability, and operational controls into a unified software delivery lifecycle;
  • Designing and developing automated testing solutions for full-stack applications using modern frameworks and technologies including React, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Flask APIs, Cypress, Playwright, Postman, and Web Services;
  • Building and maintaining manual and automated validation strategies including unit, integration, API, regression, end-to-end, smoke, and performance testing across distributed systems;
  • Establishing CI/CD pipelines and DevOps delivery practices using Git, GitHub, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitLab, or equivalent platforms to improve software quality and deployment consistency;
  • Developing and implementing release management processes, quality gates, deployment governance controls, and engineering standards to support scalable software delivery;
  • Working with cloud-native platforms and modern software architectures including microservices, containerized applications, cloud infrastructure, and distributed systems;
  • Utilizing SQL, relational databases, data validation techniques, and data modeling concepts to verify application integrity, business rules, and data quality across complex systems;
  • Applying Agile methodologies, test-driven development, specification-driven development, and continuous improvement practices to increase engineering effectiveness and delivery predictability;
  • Leveraging AI-assisted and agentic coding platforms to accelerate software delivery, automate quality workflows, improve developer productivity, and enhance engineering outcomes;
  • Monitoring software quality, operational performance, and delivery metrics through observability, reporting, analytics, and engineering effectiveness measurements;
  • Proven track record leading DevOps initiatives, managing cloud-native production environments, configuring automated deployment pipelines, and establishing observability standards (metrics, logs, traces) in high-scale enterprise ecosystems;
  • Leading cross-functional technical initiatives, mentoring engineers, influencing engineering standards, and driving organization-wide adoption of quality engineering best practices;
  • Collaborating with software engineering, product, architecture, security, and operations teams to deliver highly reliable, scalable, and compliant technology solutions;
  • Lead the adoption and governance of AI-assisted software engineering practices, including agentic coding workflows, automated validation frameworks, specification-driven execution models, and engineering effectiveness metrics. Establish repeatable patterns for human-agent collaboration that improve software quality, reduce delivery risk, and maximize the efficiency of AI-generated outputs;
  • Designing and governing engineering effectiveness systems that leverage agentic development practices, structured validation loops, AI-assisted software delivery, context management, token-efficiency optimization, automated quality gates, specification-driven execution models, and human-in-the-loop and manual checkpoints to improve productivity, predictability, and software quality.


PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
  • Experience leading quality strategy for enterprise software platforms and data products.
  • Experience establishing organization-wide engineering effectiveness programs.
  • Strong understanding of software architecture, system design, and cloud engineering principles.
  • Experience creating and sustaining automated testing frameworks and manual testing practices at scale.
  • Experience supporting regulated industries including healthcare, life sciences, financial services, or other compliance-driven environments.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction without direct management authority.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills with executive-level stakeholders.
  • Proven track record of delivering high-quality software products with minimal production defects.
  • AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI Certified Cloud Architect demonstrating foundational expertise in designing, deploying, and maintaining secure, scalable cloud environments.


CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS:
  • Acts as a force multiplier across engineering teams by improving how software is designed, developed, tested, and released.
  • Develops and operationalizes agentic engineering practices that enable developers and AI systems to work together effectively through structured specifications, validation loops, automated quality controls, and token-efficient execution patterns.
  • Drives quality ownership throughout the engineering organization rather than functioning as a traditional testing or DevOps resource.
  • Establishes scalable frameworks and governance that reduce operational and delivery risk.
  • Balances strategic leadership with hands-on technical contribution.
  • Enables predictable, audit-ready, and high-confidence software delivery in support of organizational growth objectives.
  • Establishes organizational frameworks that make quality an engineered outcome of the software delivery process, reducing reliance on downstream inspection and increasing developer ownership, accountability, and delivery confidence.
  • Creates scalable governance systems that provide traceability from business requirements and technical specifications through development, validation, deployment, and production operations.


We are proud to offer a competitive compensation package at McKesson as part of our Total Rewards. This is determined by several factors, including performance, experience and skills, equity, regular job market evaluations, and geographical markets. The pay range shown below is aligned with McKesson's pay philosophy, and pay will always be compliant with any applicable regulations. In addition to base pay, other compensation, such as an annual bonus or long-term incentive opportunities may be offered. For more information regarding benefits at McKesson, please click here.

Our Base Pay Range for this position

$120,000 - $200,000

McKesson has become aware of online recruiting-related scams in which individuals who are not affiliated with or authorized by McKesson are using McKesson's (or affiliated entities, like CoverMyMeds or RxCrossroads) name in fraudulent emails, job postings or social media messages. In light of these scams, please bear the following in mind:

McKesson Talent Advisors will never solicit money or credit card information in connection with a McKesson job application.

McKesson Talent Advisors do not communicate with candidates via online chatrooms or using email accounts such as Gmail or Hotmail. Note that McKesson does rely on a virtual assistant (Gia) for certain recruiting-related communications with candidates.

McKesson job postings are posted on our career site: careers.mckesson.com.

About McKesson

McKesson Corporation provides medicines, pharmaceutical supplies, information and care management products and services across the healthcare industry. The Company operates in two segments. The McKesson Distribution Solutions segment delivers ethical drugs, medical-surgical supplies and equipment and health and beauty care products throughout North America. This segment also provides specialty pharmaceutical solutions for biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers, sells financial, operational and clinical solutions for pharmacies (retail, hospital, long-term care) and provides consulting, outsourcing and other services. The McKesson Technology Solutions segment delivers enterprise-wide clinical, patient care, financial, supply chain, strategic management and software solutions. In July 2011, the Company acquired Portico Systems from Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. On March 25, 2012, it acquired the independent banner and franchise businesses of Katz Group Canada Inc. McKesson Distribution Solutions delivers pharmaceuticals to retail pharmacies and institutional providers like hospitals and health systems. They operate pharmaceutical distribution centers across the country, serving customers in all 50 states. They also deliver a comprehensive offering of health care products, technology, equipment and related services to the alternate site market, including physician offices, surgery centers, long-term care facilities and home care businesses across the country. McKesson is currently the largest pharmaceutical distributor in North America. McKesson also operates McKesson Canada and has an equity holding in Nadro, a leading distributor in Mexico.

McKesson Careers

Join McKesson, a leading global healthcare company, and be part of a team that is redefining the future of healthcare. With a variety of job opportunities available, McKesson is the perfect place to advance your career, whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out. Work You’ll Do At McKesson, we are committed to improving care in every setting—one product, one partner, one patient at a time. We’re seeking talented professionals to join our team and contribute to a culture of innovation, diversity, and leadership. Our employees are driven by a deep sense of purpose and a desire for continuous growth and improvement. Empower Your Future in Healthcare With positions ranging from internships to leadership roles, McKesson offers unparalleled employment opportunities to develop your skills and advance your career. Our commitment to diversity training ensures that all team members have the opportunity to thrive. Join a team where your skills will be honed, your professional growth will be supported, and where you can genuinely see the difference you make in the lives of patients around the world. Innovative Work Environment McKesson is at the forefront of healthcare innovation. Our team is constantly exploring new ways to improve patient outcomes and streamline care processes. This commitment to innovation is what sets us apart and what makes McKesson an exciting place to work. Career Development and Benefits McKesson believes in nurturing the potential of its employees through robust career development programs and comprehensive benefits designed to support your life and well-being. From leadership training to health and wellness benefits, we ensure our team members are equipped to meet their professional and personal goals. Explore Job Opportunities Whether you’re looking for an internship to kickstart your career, or a senior position to utilize your extensive experience, McKesson offers a range of opportunities. Explore our open positions and find where you can make a difference at McKesson. Stay Connected Join Our Team Search for open positions that match your skills and interests. We are looking for passionate, curious, and solution-driven team players who are ready to take the next step in their careers. Keep Up to Date Stay ahead with career tips, insider perspectives, and industry-leading insights you can put to use today—all from the people who work here. Networking and Professional Growth At McKesson, networking and professional growth are part of our everyday environment. We encourage our employees to connect, share, and learn from each other to foster personal and professional development. Job Alert Emails Personalize your subscription to receive job alerts, latest news, and insider tips tailored to your preferences. Discover the exciting and rewarding career opportunities that await you at McKesson. Join McKesson today and be part of a team that is dedicated to shaping the future of healthcare.
Learn more about McKesson
Size
58,000 employees
Market Cap
$53.7 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$4.1 billion
Founded
1833
5 Year Trend
+5.9%
Revenue
$237.6 billion
NASDAQ

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