DevOps / QA & Deployment Engineer (Contract)

Overview

The project is the development of a structured web-based platform "on a budget".

About the Opportunity

We are seeking a highly capable DevOps / QA & Deployment Engineer (Contract) to support the build, release readiness, quality assurance, deployment, scalability, monitoring, and operational stability of a modern web-based software platform.

This role is ideal for an individual (freelance or on-the-side project) who can bridge software engineering, infrastructure, testing, automation, and production operations. You will play a key role in ensuring the platform is stable, secure, scalable, and ready for launch.

This is a project-based independent contractor opportunity with flexible remote work arrangements.

Role Summary

You will be responsible for helping bring a multi-contributor software product into production-ready condition. This includes establishing environments, deployment pipelines, automated testing processes, system monitoring, release controls, backup/recovery readiness, and overall technical quality assurance.

You will work closely with developers, designers, and project leadership to ensure all components integrate effectively and perform reliably under real-world usage.

Key Responsibilities

Deployment & Infrastructure

• Configure and manage development, staging, and production environments
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines
• Manage release workflows and rollback procedures
• Support cloud hosting environments and deployments
• Ensure secure credential, access, and environment management
• Coordinate go-live readiness and production launches

Quality Assurance & Testing

• Develop and execute testing strategies across frontend, backend, APIs, and workflows
• Create automated regression / smoke testing processes
• Validate integrations between system components
• Conduct functional, edge case, and user acceptance support testing
• Identify defects, document findings, and coordinate remediation
• Verify bug fixes and release readiness

Performance & Scalability

• Conduct load and response-time testing
• Identify bottlenecks in application, API, or database layers
• Recommend caching, indexing, scaling, and optimization strategies
• Support horizontal / vertical scaling planning
• Improve resilience and uptime readiness

Monitoring & Reliability

• Implement logging, alerting, and observability tools
• Monitor system uptime, errors, incidents, and anomalies
• Create incident response procedures
• Ensure backup and disaster recovery readiness
• Support post-launch operational stability

Security & Controls

• Support secure deployment practices
• Review common web security vulnerabilities (OWASP mindset)
• Assist with access controls, secrets management, and audit readiness
• Ensure environment separation and least-privilege access practices

Required Technical Skills

• Strong experience with modern web application deployments
• CI/CD pipeline experience (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, etc.)
• Cloud platform experience (AWS, Azure, GCP, DigitalOcean, etc.)
• Docker / containerization knowledge
• Linux server administration comfort
• API testing tools (Postman, Insomnia, Swagger)
• Automated testing frameworks familiarity
• Performance/load testing tools
• Monitoring/logging platforms
• Git / version control workflows

Preferred Experience

• Startup or early-stage product launch environments
• Multi-contributor contractor-based development teams
• SaaS platform deployments
• React / Node.js ecosystem familiarity
• Database performance tuning (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, etc.)
• Authentication / role-based systems
• AI-enabled or API-heavy platforms

Soft Skills

• Highly organized and methodical
• Strong ownership mentality
• Able to work independently with limited oversight
• Strong communication across technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Balances speed with reliability

Deliverables / Success Measures

• Stable staging and production environments
• Functional CI/CD pipeline
• Testing coverage and release checklist process
• Successful integrated deployment
• Performance/scalability readiness plan
• Monitoring and alerting live
• Reliable launch execution

Engagement Type

• Independent Contractor
• Part-time / Project-based / Milestone-based (flexible)
• Remote

Ideal Candidate Profile

A hands-on technical operator who knows how to take a product from "it works in dev" to stable, scalable, secure, and launch-ready in production.

Selection Process

Shortlisted candidates will participate in:

• Initial screening discussion
• Collaborative session with other team members
• Potential system/design-focused exercise
• Final selection based on alignment, contribution, and your proposal

Additional Notes

• All design, structure, architecture, and code will be original; the company owns IP
• NDA and IP assignment required before full project details are shared
• This is NOT a salaried role — project-based with defined deliverables
• Candidate may have a full-time/part-time job as long as they can commit to the deliverables, and have no conflict of interest
• Final candidates will complete a pilot test (tech challenge) either individually or as a small team
• Candidates may be part of a team-based delivery model
• Scope, deliverables, and compensation finalized with selected candidate(s)

Eligibility

Candidates must be Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents

How to Apply

If you feel you are an excellent candidate, have the required skills and experience indicated above, please send your attached resume through this link and send any additional important details to info@potenco.ca

Only qualified candidates who are eligible to work in Canada without restrictions will be contacted. Thank you in advance for your interest.

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(AI may have been used to write parts of this job posting*)