About TEGNA

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA) helps people thrive in their local communities by providing the trusted local news and services that matter most. With 64 television stations in 51 U.S. markets TEGNA reaches more than100 million people monthly across the web mobile apps streaming and linear television. Together we are building a sustainable future for local news.

Were looking for a Technical Lead of QA Automation to own the technical direction standards and frameworks that power test automation across our engineering this role youll be the technical authority on how we automate quality across web native mobile connected TV and backend platforms working hands on to design build and scale automation solutions while guiding engineering teams toward an automation-first delivery model.

This role reports to the QA Team Lead and leads through technical influence rather than people management. Youll partner with development pods platform teams and engineering leadership to ensure quality is built into every stage of delivery not added at the end. Youll shape how automation integrates into our sprint flow CI/CD pipelines and release process directly improving release confidence and reducing manual effort across the organization.

Our automation strategy is built around native platform-aligned tooling: Playwright with TypeScript for web Espresso (Kotlin) for Android and XCUITest (Swift) for iOS/tvOS. Youll own the continued evolution and adoption of these frameworks ensuring they scale with our growing platform footprint.

This is a hybrid position based in Knoxville TN with regular collaboration across mobile web backend CTV and infrastructure teams.

Responsibilities:

Automation Strategy and Technical Direction

• Own the technical direction and standards for test automation across all platforms: web iOS Android CTV and backend services
• Lead the native automation strategy: Playwright with TypeScript for web Espresso with Kotlin for Android and XCUITest with Swift for iOS and tvOS
• Define and enforce automation patterns framework architecture and best practices across teams
• Drive adoption of auto-waiting built-in synchronization and native tooling capabilities to eliminate flaky tests and reduce maintenance overhead
• Evaluate and recommend tools frameworks and approaches that align with our platform-native philosophy and reduce reliance on wrapper-based abstractions

Hands-On Automation Engineering

• Design build and maintain scalable automated test frameworks across platforms
• Implement and refine page object patterns test data management and parallel execution strategies
• Write and maintain automated tests that cover critical user journeys regression paths and edge cases
• Identify and eliminate flaky tests reducing false negatives and increasing trust in CI/CD pipeline results

CI/CD Integration and Sprint Flow Alignment

• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines via GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps to support reliable continuous releases
• Align automation execution with the teams sprint operating model supporting mid-sprint QA handoffs and sprint lock discipline
• Ensure automation results provide fast actionable feedback that enables developers to resolve issues within the same sprint cycle
• Partner with infrastructure teams on test environment stability observability and pipeline performance

Cross-Team Enablement and Shift-Left Quality

• Champion a shift-left testing culture where developers can read write and maintain automated tests alongside feature code
• Partner with development pods to improve testability coverage and automation effectiveness across their platforms
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to QA engineers and developers on automation best practices framework usage and test design
• Collaborate with product and engineering leadership to align quality strategy with delivery goals and platform priorities
• Provide visibility into automation coverage quality risks and release readiness across teams

CTV and Device-Specific Automation

• Extend automation strategy to cover CTV platforms including Roku Fire TV Apple TV Samsung and LG addressing device fragmentation and platform-specific constraints
• Develop approaches for validating video playback behavior remote navigation (DPAD) ad insertion and lean-back UI patterns across CTV devices
• Partner with streaming application teams on post-release validation playback metrics and regression coverage for CTV releases

AI-Assisted Automation

• Use AI tools such as Claude Code and other AI-assisted development tools to accelerate test scaffolding generate edge case coverage and draft test documentation
• Evaluate emerging AI capabilities for test generation maintenance and intelligent test selection
• Ensure all AI-generated test code is reviewed validated and meets the same quality standards as manually authored tests

Requirements:

• 5 plus years of experience in quality engineering and test automation
• 3 plus years of experience leading automation strategy or serving as a technical lead for QA teams
• Strong hands-on experience with Playwright and TypeScript for web test automation
• Hands-on experience with native mobile automation frameworks: Espresso with Kotlin for Android and XCUITest with Swift for iOS
• Deep understanding of why native frameworks outperform wrapper-based tools like Appium in execution speed synchronization reliability and maintainability
• Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions Azure DevOps or similar tools
• Strong understanding of Agile delivery sprint-based workflows and automation-first QA practices
• Ability to lead through technical influence guiding teams without direct management authority
• Clear communication skills with the ability to articulate technical tradeoffs and quality risks to both engineering and non-engineering stakeholders

Bonus Points

• Experience automating tests for CTV platforms such as Roku Fire TV Apple TV or web-based Smart TV environments (Tizen webOS)
• Experience testing video playback streaming workflows ad insertion and media-related user journeys
• Familiarity with performance load or reliability testing tools and approaches
• Experience with BrowserStack or similar cloud device testing platforms
• Experience with observability tools such as New Relic for monitoring test environments and production quality signals

Why Join Us

Youll join an engineering organization that treats quality as a core capability built into the delivery process not a gate at the end. At TEGNA youll shape how automation scales across web mobile CTV and backend platforms directly influencing delivery speed release confidence and product reliability for applications used by millions of users.

Youll have the opportunity to define the technical standards for automation across the organization drive adoption of modern native frameworks and work alongside engineers who are building the future of digital media experiences.

Relocation assistance available for qualified candidates.

Benefits:

TEGNA offers comprehensive benefits designed to safeguard the physical mental and financial health of our employees and their families. TEGNA offers two medical plan options for full and part-time employees through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas as well as access to dental and eye care coverage; fertility surrogacy and adoption assistance; disability and life insurance.

Our 401(k) program offers full part-time and temporary employees the opportunity to contribute 1% - 80% of their pay on a pre-tax basis to TEGNAs 401(k). Contributions made up to the first 4% of pay are eligible for a 100% match from the company and are 100% vested from day one.

Regardless of participation in TEGNA medical plans ALL employees and their eligible family members receive nine free virtual doctors appointments with a physician through Teladoc and 12 free annual therapy sessions with a licensed clinician through Spring Health.

TEGNA offers a generous Paid Time Off (PTO) benefit as well as nine paid holidays per year.

* Some jobs are covered by a collective bargaining agreement and thus some or all of the benefits described herein may not apply. For example some newsroom bargaining unit employees receive health and retirement benefits under plans administered by the union.

EEO statement:

TEGNA Inc. is a proud equal opportunity employer. We areproud to be an equal opportunity employer hiring and developing individuals from diverse backgrounds and experiences to add to our collaborative culture. We value and consider applications from all qualified candidates without regard to actual or perceived race color religion national origin sex gender age marital status personal appearance sexual orientation gender identity or expression family responsibilities disability medical condition enrollment in college or vocational school political affiliation military or veteran status citizenship status genetic information or any other basis protected by federal state or local law. TEGNA will reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilitiesin accordance with applicable law. If you are in need of an accommodation in order to submit your application please email

Recruiting Fraud Alert:

To all candidates: your personal information and online safety are important to us. Only TEGNA Recruiters or Hiring Managers will reach out to you regarding consideration of your application or background. Communications with TEGNA employees will either come from a TEGNA email address with a domain of or one of our affiliate station domains.

Recruiters or Hiring Managers will never request payments ask for financial account information or sensitive information such as social security numbers.