Principal Quality Assurance Analyst #293

Target Hiring Range: $149,000-$159,000

Department: Chief Information Officer
Posting Date Range: 2/25/2026-3/11/2026
Pay Grade Range: $130469-$181570
Work Hours: 8:30am-5:30pm
FLSA Status: Exempt
Remote Work Status: Hybrid
Hybrid Schedule: 6 days per month onsite with specific scheduled days and times subject to the operational needs of the team as well as manager approval.
All remote or hybrid work arrangements must be performed from within the continental United States, subject to Sergeant at Arms approval.

The Senate Sergeant at Arms does not pay for relocation expenses.

This vacancy announcement closes at 7pm EST. Late applications will not be accepted.

JOB OVERVIEW

Job Description

The Target Hiring Range for this position is: $149,000-$159,000

The U.S. Senate is seeking a Principal Software Quality Assurance Analyst to lead quality efforts for Agile software projects in the Legislative Systems (LS) program. This program is part of the Enterprise Applications and Development (EAD) department within the Sergeant at Arms’ (SAA) Chief Information Officer (CIO).

About EAD and the Legislative Systems Team

The EAD department provides commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and custom software solutions for the U.S. Senate, supporting members, committees, leadership, and offices such as the Sergeant at Arms and the Secretary of the Senate. EAD includes LS, Systems Engineering and Integration (SEI), Administrative Systems (AS), Financial Systems (FS), Quality Assurance (QA), and Product Experience (PE).

The Role

This role is ideal for a passionate, analytical problem-solver with a growth mindset who is committed to continuous improvement. The successful candidate will serve as a dedicated champion for quality assurance, collaborating with experienced development teams to deliver high-quality business applications. The candidate will play a critical role in the team’s evolution by strengthening quality processes, mentoring team members, and shaping long-term testing strategies.

The LS team consists of nine full-time staff and is in the early stages of adopting Agile principles and practices. This transition aligns with the CIO’s goal of continuously delivering value to Senate customers. The Principal QA Analyst will play a critical role in this evolution by strengthening quality processes, mentoring team members, shaping testing strategy, helping guide the organization’s transition toward modern Agile practices, and ensuring that LS products meet the Senate’s high standards for reliability, accessibility, and security.

Key Accountabilities/Essential Job Duties
Designs, builds, and implements test plans and test cases for software applications. Builds, executes, and maintains test data and test scripts. Selects and implements test techniques/methods appropriate for each application. Identifies, tracks, and reports system defects to internal development team (e.g., developers, product owners, and managers). Designs, builds, and executes accessibility and section 508 testing to ensure staff and other users with disabilities can access and use the software. Identifies, proposes, and implements improvement throughout the QA process using Agile methods. Analyzes business requirements/user stories for completeness and testability. Advocates for final product quality and customer satisfaction. Designs, builds, and executes the automation test scripts to facilitate continuous and repeated testing of previously built features as new, high-priority, customer-requested features are incrementally added on. Prepares, configures, and manages test data and automation scripts for multi-browser and systems requirements. Creates and implements regression test suites during the active development period of an application. Implements use of new testing tools for execution of QA testing activities.

JOB SPECIFICATIONS

Required Education
High School Diploma, GED.

Required Work Experience

• GED with at least 12 years of relevant work experience; Bachelor's with 8-10 years of relevant work experience; Master's with at least 3 years of relevant work experience.

Required Special Skills/ Knowledge

• As part of our hiring process, we may conduct a skills assessment to better understand an applicant’s proficiency in key areas relevant to the role.
• Test planning, design, and implementation including selection of test techniques/methods appropriate for each application and associated test scenarios, implementation of functional and regression tests.
• Experience in developing the overall QA strategy for automation scripts including the design and implementation of end-to-end testing of software applications.
• Experience with writing in scripting languages related to building test automation scripts.
• Experience in utilizing automated functional and frontend testing tools.
• Experience with accessibility testing including designing, building, and executing section 508 compliance test scripts.
• Preparing technical QA documentation such as test plans, test cases, test reports, and defect reports.
• Working effectively in an Agile environment.
• Effective communication both orally and in writing.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience and familiarity with legislative processes in Congress or the Senate.
• Experience in developing and implementing automated test scripts for web applications using tools such as Playwright.
• Familiarity with Test-Driven Development (TDD), Continuous Integration (CI), and defect tracking/source control via GitLab.
• Experience conducting code reviews, debugging, and troubleshooting.
• Agile or Scrum certification (e.g., CSM, SAFe Agilist, PMI-ACP).

Working Conditions

• The U.S. Senate network cannot be taken offline for maintenance during the workday, or while the Senate is in session. As such, maintenance windows may only occur at night, on weekends, and occasionally on holidays. Employees who perform systems upgrades, maintenance, wiring, backups, support our alternate data centers will have schedules that include working nights, weekends, and holidays.
• This position directly supports essential services of the U.S. Senate. As such, this position requires the employee be available and prepared to work during a lapse, in inclement weather, on holidays, weekends, and during late nights to ensure essential services to the Senate continue without interruption. In the context of government furloughs, this position is considered excepted.

Security Clearance

• This position requires that the applicant obtain and maintain a Secret U.S. Government security clearance.
• Applicants must be U.S. citizens in order for the SAA to submit your application for a security clearance.

CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

To be employed by a Senate employing office in a paid position in the continental United States an individual must:
1. Be a U.S. citizen;
2. Be lawfully admitted for permanent residence and seeking citizenship as outlined in 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3)(B);
3. Be (i) admitted as a refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157 or granted asylum under 8 U.S.C. § 1158 and (ii) have filed a declaration of intention to become a lawful permanent resident and then a citizen when eligible; or
4. Owe allegiance to the U.S. (i.e., qualify as a non-citizen U.S. national under federal law).

Employment is contingent on background / security investigation results.

BENEFITS AT-A-GLANCE

The SAA provides a highly competitive benefits package for all SAA staff. Our benefits extend beyond health care coverage to help provide employees with student loan reimbursement, professional development, transportation subsidy, TSP/retirement savings, access to our Employee Assistance Program, and more! For more information regarding SAA’s benefits, please visit https://sen.gov/OPPW.

ACCOMMODATIONS

As an Equal Opportunity Employer, the SAA is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment with SAA and need special assistance or an accommodation to complete the application process, please submit your request to employment@saa.senate.gov with “Accommodation” in the subject line.

VOLUNTARY SELF-IDENTIFICATION FOR VETERANS' PREFERENCE

If you are identifying as veterans' preference eligible under the VEOA, please use this link to complete your application for Veterans' Preference AFTER you apply for this position. The link will also be available on the "Thank You" page after you have submitted your job application.

Candidates only need to apply one time for veterans’ preference to be considered for all future veterans’ preference positions within the Senate Sergeant at Arms.

• All supporting documents must ONLY be provided within the Veterans’ Preference Application and within the stated deadline of the job announcement.
• Late applications for veterans’ preference will not be considered.
• Documentation to obtain veterans’ preference will not be considered if attached to the job application.
• If you need to revise or resubmit your Application for Veterans' Preference/documents, please withdraw your previous Application for Veterans' Preference and resubmit. If you require assistance, please email SAARecruitment@saa.senate.gov.

An applicant who declines to self-identify as a disabled veteran and/or to provide information and documentation regarding his/her disabled veteran’s status will not be subjected to an adverse employment action, but the individual may be ruled ineligible for veterans’ preference.