Software Engineer Sr - Backend Quality Engineer/Automation

Position Overview

At PNC, our people are our greatest differentiator and competitive advantage in the markets we serve. We are all united in delivering the best experience for our customers. We work together each day to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all of our employees feel respected, valued and have an opportunity to contribute to the company's success. As a Software Engineer Sr- Backend Quality Engineer/Automation within PNC's Technology organization, you can be based in Birmingham, AL; Strongsville, OH; Dallas, TX; Pittsburgh, PA; Cleveland, OH; or Phoenix, AZ.

The Lending Payments platform delivers business-critical money movement capabilities. Quality Engineering is a proactive, end-to-end discipline that integrates quality principles throughout the delivery lifecycle (not just late-stage testing). This role focuses on building and scaling automated testing capabilities, strengthening quality gates, and reducing defect leakage through disciplined test strategy, automation frameworks, and reliable execution in CI/CD.

PNC is an in-office company that fosters a supportive culture where employees can thrive and achieve balance. We encourage candidates to connect with their recruiter and hiring manager to understand workplace expectations and ensure the role aligns with their goals.

PNC will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.

Job Description

Preferred experience in:

• Strong experience in test automation engineering (building and maintaining automation frameworks and suites).

• Experience designing layered test strategies and integrating automated tests into CI/CD with meaningful quality gates.

• Comfort partnering with developers on testability, defect prevention, and release readiness; evidence-based communication style.

• Experience testing APIs/services and validating data flows; working familiarity with SQL and data validation concepts is a plus.

• Experience in regulated or high-integrity domains (payments, banking, money movement) with strong focus on correctness and auditability.

• Experience with BDD-style executable specifications and/or API automation tools commonly used in enterprise environments (tool-agnostic).

• Experience with performance testing concepts and test data management practices.

Core Responsibilities:

• Hands-on ownership of automation frameworks and suites for one or more services/products.

• Drives automation coverage and reliability improvements; owns triage workflows and reduces flakiness and runtime.

• Partners with engineers to ensure stories are testable and quality gates are met before promotion.

• Design, build, and maintain automated test frameworks and suites for APIs and services; expand coverage while keeping tests deterministic and fast.

• Create reusable automation patterns (data builders, helpers, stubs/mocks where appropriate) to reduce duplication and improve maintainability.

• Own regression automation health: flake reduction, runtime optimization (parallelization where appropriate), and clear failure triage signals.

• Define and implement a layered test strategy (unit, component/service, integration, end-to-end) aligned to change risk and payment criticality.

• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD and define/enforce quality gates for merge and promotion readiness (evidence-based Definition of Done).

• Drive defect prevention: analyze defect leakage trends, run retrospectives on escapes, and implement systemic fixes (test gaps, unclear requirements, missing validations).

• Partner with Engineers, Architects, and Business Systems Analyst/Product Owners early to clarify acceptance criteria, edge cases, and testability; translate behavior into executable checks where appropriate.

• Provide quality feedback during design and product review cycles; promote testability, observability, and safe change patterns.

• Support release readiness by validating test evidence and coordinating with change/release processes as needed.

• Contribute to performance and resiliency validation approaches where appropriate (test data, scenarios, and automation hooks).

• Ensure monitoring and diagnostic artifacts exist for failures (logs/metrics/traces) and that test failures are actionable.

PNC Employees take pride in our reputation and to continue building upon that we expect our employees to be:

• Customer Focused - Knowledgeable of the values and practices that align customer needs and satisfaction as primary considerations in all business decisions and able to leverage that information in creating customized customer solutions.

• Managing Risk - Assessing and effectively managing all of the risks associated with their business objectives and activities to ensure they adhere to and support PNC's Enterprise Risk Management Framework.

Qualifications

Successful candidates must demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities for a role. Listed below are skills, competencies, work experience, education, and required certifications/licensures needed to be successful in this position.

Preferred Skills

Application Development, Automation Engineering, Backend Testing, Business Management, CI/CD, Continuous Integration (CI) Tools, Customer Solutions, Design, Group Problem Solving, Process Improvements, Release Management, Software Solutions, User Experience (UX) Design

Competencies

Application Delivery Process, Application Design, Architecture, Application Development Tools, Application Testing, Packaged Application Integration, System Development Life Cycle, Technical Troubleshooting, Technical Writing/Documentation

Work Experience

Roles at this level typically require a university / college degree, with 3+ years of relevant / direct industry experience. Certifications are often desired. In lieu of a degree, a comparable combination of education, job specific certification(s), and experience (including military service) may be considered.

Education

Bachelors

Certifications

No Required Certification(s)

Licenses

No Required License(s)

Pay Transparency

Base Salary: $55,000.00 - $152,375.00

Salaries may vary based on geographic location, market data and on individual skills, experience, and education. This role is incentive eligible with the payment based upon company, business and/or individual performance.

Application Window

Generally, this opening is expected to be posted for two business days from 04/13/2026, although it may be longer with business discretion.

Benefits

PNC offers a comprehensive range of benefits to help meet your needs now and in the future. Depending on your eligibility, options for full-time employees include: medical/prescription drug coverage (with a Health Savings Account feature), dental and vision options; employee and spouse/child life insurance; short and long-term disability protection; 401(k) with PNC match, pension and stock purchase plans; dependent care reimbursement account; back-up child/elder care; adoption, surrogacy, and doula reimbursement; educational assistance, including select programs fully paid; a robust wellness program with financial incentives.

In addition, PNC generally provides the following paid time off, depending on your eligibility: maternity and/or parental leave; up to 11 paid holidays each year; 9 occasional absence days each year, unless otherwise required by law; between 15 to 25 vacation days each year, depending on career level; and years of service.

To learn more about these and other programs, including benefits for full time and part-time employees, visit pncthrive.com .

Disability Accommodations Statement

If an accommodation is required to participate in the application process, please contact us via email at [email protected] . Please include "accommodation request" in the subject line title and be sure to include your name, the job ID, and your preferred method of contact in the body of the email. Emails not related to accommodation requests will not receive responses. Applicants may also call 877-968-7762 and say "Workday" for accommodation assistance. All information provided will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.

At PNC we foster an inclusive and accessible workplace. We provide reasonable accommodations to employment applicants and qualified individuals with a disability who need an accommodation to perform the essential functions of their positions.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

PNC provides equal employment opportunity to qualified persons regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or other categories protected by law.

This position is subject to the requirements of Section 19 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act (FDIA) and, for any registered role, the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act of 2008 (SAFE Act) and/or the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which prohibit the hiring of individuals with certain criminal history.

California Residents

Refer to the California Consumer Privacy Act Privacy Notice ( CCPA\ Privacy\ Disclosure\ Employee.pdf) to gain understanding of how PNC may use or disclose your personal information in our hiring practices.