Quality Assurance Automation Engineer

About the Role

Our Client in the United Kingdom is looking for a highly skilled and results-driven QA Automation Engineer to join our engineering team. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining robust automated test frameworks and pipelines that ensure the highest quality of our software products. You will work closely with developers, product managers, and DevOps engineers to embed quality throughout the entire software development lifecycle.

This is a pure automation role. You will be expected to think in code, architect scalable test solutions, and champion a culture of quality-first engineering.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable and reusable automated test frameworks from scratch.
• Write automated test scripts for functional, regression, integration, API, performance, and end-to-end testing.
• Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing.
• Collaborate with developers to implement shift-left testing practices and embed quality early in the development cycle.
• Analyze test results, identify root causes of failures, and work with engineering teams to resolve defects.
• Define and track quality metrics and KPIs (e.g., defect escape rate, test coverage, test execution time).
• Conduct code reviews for test scripts and ensure adherence to coding standards.
• Maintain and improve existing test automation infrastructure and tooling.
• Participate in sprint planning, technical design discussions, and architectural reviews.
• Mentor junior QA engineers and promote automation best practices across the team.

Technical Skills & Requirements

Test Automation Frameworks & Tools

• Proficiency in one or more automation frameworks: Selenium WebDriver, Cypress, Playwright, TestNG, JUnit, pytest, RestAssured
• Experience with BDD frameworks such as Cucumber, SpecFlow, or Behave
• Hands-on experience with mobile automation tools: Appium, Espresso, or XCUITest

Programming Languages

• Strong proficiency in at least one of: Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and reusable test code following software engineering principles

API & Web Services Testing

• Deep experience testing REST and SOAP APIs using tools like Postman, RestAssured, or Karate
• Familiarity with GraphQL API testing
• Understanding of HTTP protocols, request/response cycles, authentication mechanisms (OAuth, JWT, API Keys)

CI/CD & DevOps Integration

• Hands-on experience integrating tests into Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, or Azure DevOps
• Familiarity with containerization using Docker and orchestration using Kubernetes
• Experience with version control systems — Git (branching strategies, pull requests, code reviews)

Performance & Load Testing

• Experience with performance testing tools such as JMeter, Gatling, Locust, or k6
• Ability to define performance benchmarks and analyze results

Test Management & Reporting

• Experience with test management tools: Jira, Zephyr, TestRail, or Xray
• Proficiency in generating test reports using Allure, ExtentReports, or similar
• Familiarity with test coverage analysis tools

Cloud & Infrastructure

• Experience testing applications deployed on AWS, GCP, or Azure
• Knowledge of Selenium Grid, BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, or LambdaTest for cross-browser/cross-platform testing

Database & Backend Testing

• Ability to write SQL queries for data validation and backend testing
• Familiarity with NoSQL databases (MongoDB, DynamoDB) for test data management

Security & Accessibility Testing (Advantage)

• Basic knowledge of OWASP security testing principles
• Familiarity with accessibility testing tools such as Axe or WAVE

Qualifications

• Minimum 7 years of hands-on QA Automation experience in a professional software engineering environment
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• Strong understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail
• Strong communication skills — ability to clearly articulate quality risks and test strategies to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Certifications (Preferred but not required)

• ISTQB Advanced Level – Test Automation Engineer
• AWS Certified Developer or equivalent cloud certification
• Certified Agile Tester (CAT)

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge products at scale
• A collaborative, engineering-driven culture
• Professional development budget and learning opportunities
• Remote work flexibility