SENIOR QA ENGINEER

We are seeking a Senior QA Engineer to join our AI engineering team and own quality assurance across our growing portfolio of intelligent, data-driven applications. You will be the quality champion within a team of full-stack AI engineers, ensuring that every feature, from data pipeline to user interface, meets a high bar for correctness, reliability, and performance. This role combines hands-on test engineering with QA strategy: you will design test plans, build and maintain automated test suites, perform exploratory and manual testing, and partner closely with developers and product management to embed quality throughout the development lifecycle. This is a contract position with long-term engagement potential. Key Responsibilities Test Strategy and Planning

• Define and maintain the overall QA strategy, test plans, and test coverage matrix for AI-powered applications.
• Translate product requirements and acceptance criteria into comprehensive test cases, including edge cases and failure modes.
• Establish quality gates and definition-of-done standards in collaboration with the Tech Lead.
• Assess risk for each release and prioritize testing effort accordingly.

• Design, build, and maintain automated test suites for API, backend, and frontend layers (e.g., pytest, Playwright, Cypress, or similar).
• Perform thorough manual and exploratory testing for new features, integrations, and regression areas (including mobile devices).
• Validate data pipeline correctness, including ETL/ELT outputs, data quality, and model integration points.
• Test AI/ML-specific functionality: LLM outputs, RAG retrieval accuracy, prompt response quality, and edge-case handling.
• Conduct performance, load, and stress testing where appropriate.
• Verify UI/UX implementation against design specs across browsers and devices.

• Log, triage, and track defects with clear reproduction steps, severity assessment, and impact analysis.
• Maintain a defect dashboard and communicate quality metrics to the team and leadership.
• Work with developers to prioritize bug fixes and verify resolutions.
• Perform root cause analysis on recurring defects and recommend process improvements.

• Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming, and design reviews to provide QA perspective early.
• Partner with the Tech Lead to integrate quality checks into the CI/CD pipeline.
• Coach developers on testability, unit testing, and self-testing practices.
• Advocate for the end user in all quality decisions.

• 5+ years of professional QA engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a senior or lead QA role.
• Proven experience performing manual QA testing across web applications, APIs, mobile, and data systems.
• 3+ years of experience working closely with a software development team in an Agile/Scrum environment.
• Strong experience building and maintaining automated test suites (API and UI automation).
• Proficiency with at least one automation framework: pytest, Playwright, Cypress, or equivalent.
• Experience in using LLM tooling to test LLMs.
• Experience testing RESTful APIs and backend services (Postman, REST Client, or similar).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar) and integrating tests into deployment workflows.
• Basic understanding of data pipelines, databases (SQL), and data validation techniques.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Detail-oriented with a methodical, risk-based approach to testing.

• Experience testing AI/ML-powered features: LLM integrations, RAG systems, or model-driven applications.
• Can build and maintain test suites the developers can run on their own.
• Experience with performance and load testing tools.
• Experience in a startup or high-growth environment.
• Experience with billing and multi-tenant isolation testing.
• Experience with security focused testing experience.
• Experience establishing QA processes from scratch in a small team.

• Full-time position.
• Fully remote work environment.
• Collaboration with international clients and teams.
• Occasional business travel may be required based on project needs.

• Opportunity to work on high-impact projects with fast-growing technology companies.
• Exposure to international clients and business environments.
• Professional development and career growth opportunities.
• Flexible and remote-first work culture.
• Collaborative, innovative, and learning-oriented environment.

This is a nearshore contractor position. Team members should be comfortable collaborating across time zones in a fast-moving, highly connected environment.