Hybrid Senior Software Test Engineer, Backend - FCM

at NinjaTrader

• Job title: Senior Software Test Engineer, Backend - FCM
• Job type: Full Time
• Experience level: Senior
• Salary: $100,000 - $150,000 per year
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: Ansible, Cloud, Distributed Systems, Google Cloud Platform, Jenkins, Linux, Oracle, Python, SDLC, Terraform
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Chicago, United States

About the role

• Senior Software Test Engineer designing and maintaining Python-based test automation frameworks for NinjaTrader. Collaborating with developers to enhance services observability and testability.

Responsibilities

• Design, architect, and maintain a scalable, extensible Python-based test automation framework using PyTest
• Define automation strategy and quality gates for back-office services and workflows
• Write and maintain robust functional test suites for backend and service-layer applications
• Evaluate existing test coverage, identify systemic gaps, and implement additional functional and integration tests
• Develop integration tests across Python-based services, GCP Pub/Sub messaging systems, and Oracle databases
• Design test data management strategies for complex distributed workflows
• Implement mocks and stubs for middleware, databases, and third-party dependencies to enable isolated and deterministic testing
• Partner with developers to build automation-friendly services and improve system observability and testability
• Improve overall test reliability by identifying, debugging, and eliminating flaky tests
• Lead code reviews for automation and proactively drive improvements in test coverage, maintainability, and engineering standards
• Integrate automated test execution into CI/CD pipelines with single-click batch execution and automated reporting
• Define and implement build certification and deployment validation processes across environments
• Debug production issues using logs, database traces, and service telemetry to enhance test coverage and prevent regressions
• Contribute to performance, resilience, and fault-tolerance testing strategies for distributed systems
• Mentor QA engineers and developers on automation design principles, framework usage, and best practices
• Enforce adherence to NinjaTrader SDLC and information security standards
• Work ahead of feature delivery to ensure test architecture evolves alongside system complexity

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in QA automation and software testing, with demonstrated senior-level ownership of automation initiatives
• Strong expertise in Python test automation frameworks such as PyTest (Robot Framework experience is a plus)
• Proven experience designing automation frameworks from the ground up
• Deep experience testing backend services, REST APIs, and distributed systems
• Hands-on experience validating event-driven architectures using messaging platforms such as GCP Pub/Sub
• Strong experience with relational databases (Oracle preferred), including data validation and complex query verification
• Solid understanding of system testing methodologies, SDLC/STLC, and automation best practices
• Experience designing and implementing integration testing strategies across asynchronous systems
• Proficiency with Linux command-line tools and log analysis
• Experience integrating automation into CI/CD tools such as Jenkins or GitHub Actions
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or Ansible
• Experience testing cloud-native applications (GCP preferred)
• Exposure to performance, load, or resilience testing in distributed systems
• Financial trading systems experience is a plus
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and analytical problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and influence quality practices across teams

Benefits

• Generous PTO
• 7 Paid Holidays Annually + 5 Conditional Holidays Annually
• 1 Service Day Annually
• 401k with 3.5% Company Match
• Paid Parental Bonding Leave
• Health, Vision, Dental Coverage
• Life and Disability Insurance Covered 100% by NinjaTrader