Director, Software Development Engineering in Test

Director, Software Development Engineering in Test

Country: United States of America

Your Journey Starts Here:

Santander is a global leader and innovator in the financial services industry. We believe that our employees are our greatest asset. Our focus is on fostering an enriching journey that empowers you to explore diverse career opportunities while nurturing your personal growth. We are committed to creating an environment where continuous learning and development are prioritized, enabling you to thrive both professionally and personally. Here, you will find ample opportunities to connect and collaborate with talented colleagues from around the world, sharing insights and driving innovation together. Join us at Santander, where you are supported by a culture of engagement and a commitment to your success.

An exciting journey awaits, if you are interested in exploring the possibilities We Want to Talk to You!

The Difference You Make:

The Director, Software Development Engineering in Test (SDET), is a hands-on technology and quality engineering leader responsible for ensuring the quality, reliability, and performance of applications across the enterprise. This role combines deep software engineering expertise with advanced quality engineering practices to design, build, and optimize automated test frameworks, tools, and test suites across UI, API, backend, mobile, and integrated systems for high-availability, secure, and regulated financial platforms.

The Director participates throughout the SDLC — from design to deployment — to ensure testability, accelerate releases, and drive an automation-first, quality-focused engineering culture. The role oversees creation of QA work products including test plans, test strategies, test cases, requirements traceability matrices, automation strategies, metrics, and project documentation. The Director partners with Product, Development, PM, BA, and architecture teams and provides leadership-level feedback to Managers and Senior Managers.

• Analyze requirements and oversee the design of test plans, test cases, and acceptance criteria.
• Lead and support a wide range of functional and non-functional testing, including automated feature testing, regression, integration, system, compatibility, API, and performance testing.
• Develop and maintain automated test scripts, reusable frameworks, tools, and utilities across UI/API/backend/mobile.
• Integrate automation into CI/CD pipelines and ensure continuous testing (shift-left and shift-right).
• Identify, log, prioritize, and report defects; oversee root-cause analysis; ensure critical manual or exploratory tests are executed when needed.
• Write and oversee SQL-based validation for backend, data flow, and API testing.
• Collaborate with developers, architects, product teams, and vendors to ensure application testability and quality engineering alignment.
• Oversee test environment setup, automated test data creation, and test-to-production migration processes.
• Prepare and review test documentation, quality metrics, dashboards, and audit-compliant reporting.
• Apply QA methodologies, best practices, risk-based testing, automation maturity models, and shift-left/right strategies.
• Leverage AI/LLM tools for test case generation, automation, impact analysis, optimization, and documentation.
• Develop deep understanding of supported business processes and applications.
• Support ongoing delivery of high-quality applications across multiple portfolios.
• Create and review test strategies, plans, schedules, cost estimates, and closure reports using standard methodologies.
• Communicate the quality and timeline impact of scope changes or project change requests.
• Provide hands-on support when needed to ensure teams meet project timelines and deliver reusable test assets.
• Chair defect triage and status calls; ensure timely resolution and retesting of defects.
• Provide daily reporting on test execution, planning, and defect status to project stakeholders.
• Develop and manage standardized QA processes across the portfolio; ensure QA practices align with enterprise delivery standards.
• Support intake, demand management, scheduling, and risk assessments.
• Communicate and negotiate testing timelines, budgets, staffing, scope, and milestones with project and business leaders.
• Act as a consultant to engineering and business teams; promote awareness of testing methodologies and QA standards.
• Ensure adherence to testing processes, timely issue escalation, and development of contingency plans.
• Ensure testing is executed safely without impacting production and in accordance with security and privacy policies.
• Provide testing estimates and revisions, track financial actuals, and forecast as needed.

What You Bring:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field — Required.
• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field — Preferred
• 9+ Years Designing and implementing Software Testing teams and capabilities from scratch. Banking experience is preferred but not required. - Required.
• 9+ Years Proven leadership in Software Testing, with a wide range of experience including manual, automated, and load / performance testing. - Required.
• 9+ Years Team management/ leadership experience. - Required.
• 9+ Years of experience in QA/testing/automation — required.
• Strong programming or scripting experience (Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, etc.).
• Expertise with automation frameworks/tools such as Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium, REST-Assured, JMeter, etc.
• Deep understanding of QA methodologies, SDLC, test lifecycle, and modern engineering practices.
• Experience supporting Agile delivery and DevSecOps environments; strong CI/CD tooling knowledge (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins).
• SQL proficiency; ability to validate backend systems, APIs, and data flows with minimal UI involvement.
• Experience with test management tools such as JIRA, ALM, Xray, or similar.
• Proficiency using AI-powered testing tools, copilots, and intelligent analysis utilities.
• Strong analytical thinking, communication, documentation, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to manage large workloads, collaborate effectively in Agile teams, and work independently.
• Proven ability to lead small to mid-sized QA/engineering teams.

Certifications:

• No Certifications listed for this job.

It Would Be Nice For You To Have:

• Established work history or equivalent demonstrated through a combination of work experience, training, military service, or education.
• Experience in Microsoft Office products.
• Cloud QA experience (AWS or Azure).
• Performance/load testing experience (JMeter, Gatling, k6).
• Security and accessibility testing exposure.
• Ability to influence engineering direction and lead cross-team quality initiatives.
• Knowledge of core banking concepts and payments is strongly preferred.

What Else You Need To Know:

The base pay range for this position is posted below and represents the annualized salary range. For hourly positions (non-exempt), the annual range is based on a 40-hour work week. The exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, training, licensure and certifications and location.

$120,000.00 USD$215,000.00 USD

Link to Santander Benefits:

Santander Benefits - 2025 Santander OnGoing/NH eGuide (foleon.com)

Risk Culture:

We embrace a strong risk culture and all of our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.

EEO Statement:

At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Working Conditions:

Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, standing and walking is required for this role. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required.

Employer Rights:

This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason.

What To Do Next:

If this sounds like a role you are interested in, then please apply.

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible application process for all candidates. If you require any assistance or accommodation due to a disability or any other reason, please contact us at TAOps@santander.us to discuss your needs.