QA Automation Engineer

Role Overview

Lead QA Automation Engineer (hands-on leadership)

Own and evolve the quality assurance processes across web and mobile platforms (including media websites and the Drops app). You’ll maintain and enhance the automated testing infrastructure, expand test coverage, and lead/coordinate manual QA efforts while collaborating with engineering leadership to define scalable QA strategy.

Responsibilities

• Own, maintain, and enhance automated testing pipelines for web and mobile applications.
• Develop and maintain automated tests using Playwright (or similar frameworks).
• Improve test reliability by reducing flaky tests and optimizing execution time.
• Maintain and refine CI test workflows using GitHub Actions.
• Expand automation coverage for critical user flows, regression, and high-risk functionalities.
• Define and enforce standards for writing/reviewing/organizing automated tests.
• Collaborate with Engineering to ensure applications are testable and automation-friendly.
• Investigate failed runs, determine root causes, and coordinate fixes with Engineering.
• Define QA processes such as defect triage, regression planning, and release validation.
• Create QA guidelines for feature validation, regression testing, and release readiness.
• Manage, support, and mentor manual QA testers; coordinate manual QA across development cycles and releases.
• Use Testiny to manage test cases, runs, and documentation.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional QA experience, including hands-on testing of web applications.
• 3+ years developing and maintaining automated test suites for production applications.
• 2+ years with modern browser automation frameworks: Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium (strong preference for Playwright).
• 1+ year leading QA initiatives, mentoring, or managing QA processes.
• Proficiency writing automated tests in JavaScript or TypeScript.
• Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD, preferably GitHub Actions.
• Familiarity with test management tools such as Testiny, TestRail, Zephyr, or similar.
• Experience with cross-browser/cross-device testing tools such as Sauce Labs or BrowserStack.
• Strong knowledge of regression testing, smoke testing, exploratory testing, and defect lifecycle management.
• Strong troubleshooting for failed tests and environment issues.
• Excellent cross-functional communication and ability to operate independently.

Nice-to-Haves / Preferred

• Preference for Playwright over other frameworks.
• Ability to bring structure to a small but growing QA function.