Software Quality Assurance Engineer and Tester (SME)

Position Overview

The Software Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer and Tester – SME provides technical and leadership support for testing and validation of enterprise Human Resources and Payroll systems under the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Human Resources Directorate (HRD).

This position plays a key role in ensuring the quality, reliability, and compliance of mission-critical federal HR systems such as FPPS, NextFPPS, Quicktime, and WebTA, by developing, executing, and managing test plans across multiple environments and technologies.

The SME will work collaboratively with software developers, database administrators, system engineers, and functional analysts to ensure full life-cycle system testing-from requirements validation through deployment and sustainment-meets DOI standards, Section 508 accessibility, and Agile best practices.

Key Responsibilities

Software Quality Assurance and Testing

• Develop, maintain, and execute manual and automated test plans for complex HR and payroll applications.
• Perform functional, regression, performance, and load testing across distributed and mainframe-based systems (e.g., Natural/ADABAS, web, and service layers).
• Identify, log, and document software defects and anomalies in tracking systems (e.g., ServiceNow, JIRA, or similar).
• Collaborate with development teams to analyze root causes, propose corrective actions, and validate fixes.
• Conduct peer reviews of test cases, scripts, and results to ensure accuracy, completeness, and repeatability.
• Support continuous integration and automated testing within Agile and DevOps pipelines.