Lead SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) — Roche

Full description

At Roche you can show up as yourself, embraced for the unique qualities you bring. Our culture encourages personal expression, open dialogue, and genuine connections, where you are valued, accepted and respected for who you are, allowing you to thrive both personally and professionally. This is how we aim to prevent, stop and cure diseases and ensure everyone has access to healthcare today and for generations to come. Join Roche, where every voice matters.

The Position Roche / GenMark Diagnostics’ mission is to revolutionize patient care by providing high-value, simple-to-perform, and clinically relevant multiplex molecular diagnostics, specifically targeting infectious disease testing. We aim to improve patient outcomes, enhance laboratory efficiency, and reduce total cost-of-care through rapid, sample-to-answer solutions.

Roche/Genmark Diagnostics is seeking a Lead Software Development in Test (SDET) to join our team. In this role, the Lead SDET will architect the next generation of our automated verification strategy. This is a high-impact "Player-Coach" role where you will balance hands-on framework development with the leadership of a dedicated team of Software Quality Engineers.

You will lead the technical evolution of our testing capabilities for FDA-regulated diagnostic instruments. Your mandate is to champion a culture of automation—architecting robust C#/.NET test harnesses, integrating them into modern CI/CD pipelines, and mentoring the team to ensure high-velocity, high-quality releases.

The Opportunity

Automation Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Technical Debt Remediation: Act as the specialist in reducing our manual testing burden. Identify and automate "High-Value/Low-Effort" manual tests first to rapidly buy the team breathing room and accelerate feedback cycles.
• Framework Design: Architect and build scalable, maintainable test automation frameworks (using C#, Playwright, Appium, or similar) to support both UI and backend logic, utilizing advanced object-oriented programming.
• Hardware & Integration Testing: Design test strategies that account for hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) testing and software interactions with physical diagnostic instruments and sensors.
• Continuous Integration & Security: Partner with the DevOps/Architecture team to integrate automated suites into Azure DevOps pipelines. Lead the automation of vulnerability scanning and static/dynamic analysis (SAST/DAST) to align with modern FDA cybersecurity guidelines.
• Tooling Selection & Modernization: Evaluate, select, and continuously modernize the right tools for performance profiling, load testing, and security scanning to ensure comprehensive coverage while proactively deprecating legacy testing dependencies.

Team Management & Mentorship

• Technical Mentorship: Act as the technical anchor for the SW Quality team, lead and mentor Quality Engineers on coding best practices, automation scripting, and source control management.
• Team Growth: Foster a collaborative environment where manual testing expertise is complemented by growing technical skills. Lead code reviews for test scripts to ensure they meet production-quality standards.
• Resource Management: Balance hands-on coding (the "Player") with team leadership (the "Coach"). Align team activities with the software roadmap, ensuring that verification activities happen in parallel with development rather than lagging behind.

Regulatory & Process Compliance

• Tool Validation: Collaborate closely with Regulatory Affairs (RA) to formally validate automated testing tools, ensuring they meet strict regulatory compliance standards.
• V&V Modernization: Enhance Master V&V Plans to support automated evidence generation, ensuring strict compliance with FDA 21 CFR Part 820 and ISO 13485 standards.
• Metrics Driven: Define and track key quality metrics (e.g., Defect Density, Automation Coverage) to drive continuous improvement and transparency.
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