JobsAmerican Family Insurance

Lead Engineer

American Family Insurance · Madison, WI

Posted Sep 16, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Sep 20, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

Behavioral

Tell me about a time you set the test automation strategy for a team. What did you choose, why, and how did adoption go?

whether the candidate can actually own and drive a strategic decision rather than just execute someone else's plan

Describe a situation where testing was blocking a release. What did you do to unblock it?

escalation judgment and whether they can move blockers without just waiting on others

Tell me about a time you had to get buy-in from developers or another team for a change in testing practice they weren't excited about.

influence without authority, since this role sets standards across teams that don't report to them

Tell me about a time your automated tests caught something that would have caused a real production problem, or a time they didn't and something slipped through.

honesty about failure and whether they learn from gaps in coverage

Describe how you've worked within an Agile, product-based team structure. What changes about your role as the quality owner in that setup versus a traditional QA structure?

whether they understand product team dynamics versus a siloed QA mindset

Technical

Walk me through how you'd design an automated test framework for a product team that currently has almost no test coverage.

depth of hands-on knowledge of test automation architecture, not just familiarity with tool names

What metrics would you put in place to track quality and automation progress across multiple teams, and how would you use them to change behavior, not just report status?

whether they think about metrics as a management lever versus a vanity dashboard

You've got Terraform and Ansible scripts standing up test environments in AWS, and one environment keeps failing intermittently. How would you go about diagnosing it?

real infrastructure-as-code troubleshooting experience versus surface-level tool exposure

Explain the difference between how you'd use EC2, S3, and CloudWatch together in a test environment you're responsible for.

whether cloud services listed on the resume reflect actual working knowledge

How do you approach patching and server maintenance in a way that doesn't collide with active testing cycles?

real system administration experience, not just familiarity with the concept

Situational

If you inherited a Jenkins pipeline that's slow, flaky, and everyone routes around it manually, what would your first three moves be?

prioritization instinct and practical CI/CD fixing experience

How do you decide what to automate versus what stays manual, especially with limited engineering time?

pragmatic prioritization rather than a one-size-fits-all automate-everything mindset

Say two teams disagree on whose responsibility it is to maintain a shared integration test suite. How do you resolve that?

conflict resolution and clarity around ownership across team boundaries

Practice this interview out loud.

Offer builds a real interview for this exact role at American Family Insurance from your resume and this job description, asks the questions one at a time, and tells you what landed. The first one is free.

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The full job description

As published by American Family Insurance.

This position transforms our data systems and architecture to support greater variety, volume, and velocity of data and data sources. Extracts data from a variety of sources and find ways to connect them and make them suitable for use in software systems and for the development of models and algorithms. Position Compensation Range: $99,000.00 - $167,000.00 Pay Rate Type: Salary Compensation may vary based on the job level and your geographic work location. Relocation support is offered for eligible candidates. Primary Accountabilities •Owns quality standards, policies, and metrics for delivery with a focus ontechnology. •Sets the standard for test automation technology. •Crafts and drives automated test strategy. •Collaborates and drives the strategic path for planning and executing test cases. •Enhances test case coverage through automation. •Drives metrics across automation teams. •Demonstrates strong management skill in understanding project goals, individual role operations, the delivery process, identifying problems, and unblocking testing through effective escalation. •Demonstrates strong personal discipline in goal setting and achieving results. Specialized Knowledge & Skills Requirements •Demonstrated  knowledge and understanding of application development methodologies (e.g. Agile) and product based teams. •Demonstrated knowledge & understanding of key Cloud services (EC2, S3, Cloud Watch, Containers). •Demonstrated experience with System Administration (configuration, installations, patch management, server maintenance, etc.) and Network Management (firewalls, proxies, IP management, routing, DNS). •Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of multiple IT subject areas (e.g. development, testing, configuration, deployment, monitoring etc.). •Demonstrated experience building automation for cloud environments using tools such as Cloudformation, Terraform & Ansible. •Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following: Java, Python, Linux, Shell, Bash or other programming languages. •Demonstrated experience with continuous integration tools such as Jenkins, BitBucket, Gitlab, etc. •Demonstrated experience establishing, using and supporting integration and communication protocols between applications, databases, and technology platforms. Licenses: •Not Applicable. Travel Requirements •Up to 10%. Physical Requirements •Work that primarily involves sitting/standing. Working Conditions •Not Applicable. Additional Information • To ensure a strong start, all employees participate in our New Employee Orientation during their first week.  This experience is held in person at our Madison, WI Headquarters or one of our AmFam core locations to help you connect with our mission, meet key team members and build relationships that support your growth.  At times, sessions may be delivered virtually based on scheduling and availability.  • Offer to selected candidate will be made contingent on the results of applicable background checks • Offer to selected candidate is contingent on signing a non-disclosure agreement for proprietary information, trade secrets, and inventions • Sponsorship will not be considered for this position unless specified in the posting In this hybrid role, you will be expected to work a minimum of 10 days per month from the office. Candidates should reside within approximately 35-50 miles of one of the following office locations: Madison, WI 53783; Boston, MA 02210 We provide benefits that support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. You will have access to comprehensive medical, dental, vision and wellbeing benefits that enable you to take care of your health. We also offer a competitive 401(k) contribution, a pension plan, an annual incentive, 9 paid holidays and a paid time off program (23 days accrued annually for full-time employees). In addition, our student loan repayment program and paid-family leave are available to support our employees and their families. Interns and contingent workers are not eligible for American Family Insurance Group benefits. We are an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws pertaining to non-discrimination, non-harassment and equal opportunity. We also consider qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. American Family Insurance is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please email AskHR@AmFam.com to request a reasonable accommodation. #LI-SK1

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