Staff Software QA Specialist

Have you ever looked at a software development environment and thought: "This could be better!"? Our QA team is seeking someone with a balance of cloud environment experience, development environment knowledge, and an aptitude for breaking things. The applicant will be testing a cloud environment designed for development teams. Will communicate regularly with helpdesk and infrastructure engineering teams to ensure the platform we provide is stable, functional, provides a good user experience, and adheres to contractual security requirements.

Staff Software QA Specialist Required Skills:

• Must be a US citizen and eligible to apply for and hold a US security clearance (selected applicants will undergo a security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements atthe time of employment)
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent along with 2 to 4 years of related experience OR8 to 10 years of experience will be fine in lieu of a degree
• Experience with cloud environments like AWS
• Experience with Terraform, python, and scripted automated testing
• Experience with Windows and Linux environments
• Security+ Certification, or willingness to get it

Staff Software QA Specialist Preferred Skills:

• Troubleshooting network connections in a cloud environment
• Splunk
• Permissions testing
• Infrastructure Monitoring
• Familiarity with the DevSecOps pipelines

Staff Software QA Specialist Responsibilities:

• Plan and run tests against:


• Cloud development environments
• Network changes
• Workspace and EC2 Instance Configuration changes
• AD changes
• Server updates
• Tenant issue reports
• New/updated AMIs
• New/updated Workspace Bundles


• Help implement and maintain infrastructure monitoring
• Monitor CCB and daily standups to maintain awareness of upcoming testing needs
• Create Jira tickets for issues found during testing or environment use
• Implement and maintain a suite of automated tests to monitor server configuration, security controls, and EC2 configurations
• Advocate for the best possible user experience, across the project
• Review processes in place linking Tenants/Operations/Engineering/Security
• Suggest improvements to smooth the processes and implementations

About Us:

Applied Research Associates, Inc. (aka ARA) is an employee-owned international research and engineering company known for providing technically superior solutions to complex and challenging problems in the physical sciences. We were founded in Albuquerque, NM in 1979 as the disco era was, thankfully, closing out and the personal computer era was beginning. We employ over 1,500 professionals and continue to grow. ARA offices throughout the U.S. and Canada provide a broad range of technical expertise in defense, civil, and health technologies, computer software, and simulation, systems analysis, environmental technologies, and testing and measurement.

ARA also prides ourselves on having a challenging culture where innovation & experimentation are the norm. At ARA, employees are our greatest assets, so we give our employees the tools, training, and opportunities to take active roles as owners. The motto, "Engineering and Science for Fun and Profit" sums up the ARA experience. The company realizes employee ownership spawns greater creativity and initiative along with higher performance and customer satisfaction levels. We are also very proud of our Women's Initiative Network (WIN) whose purpose is to motivate, support, and encourage professional career development for women to maximize career and professional accomplishments.

To find out more about the Software Enterprise Division visit our website at: https://www.ara.com/raleigh/

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)