Senior Test Analyst / QA Consultant (Manual + Automation)
Location: [Insert Location / Remote / Hybrid] Employment Type: [Full-Time / Contract / Consultant] Experience Level: Senior (5–8+ years)
About the Role
We're looking for a Senior Test Analyst / QA Consultant who is equally comfortable designing thorough manual test strategies and building robust automated test suites. This is a hands-on role for someone who takes ownership of quality end-to-end — from requirement analysis through to production release — within a fast-moving, Agile engineering environment built on the MERN stack and deployed on AWS.
You'll work closely with developers, product managers, and DevOps engineers, so strong communication skills and the ability to clearly articulate risk, coverage, and quality trade-offs are just as important as your technical testing skills.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, write, and execute detailed manual test cases for functional, regression, integration, and exploratory testing.
- Build and maintain automated test scripts and frameworks, with a strong preference for Playwright.
- Develop and execute API testing and end-to-end test coverage across MERN stack applications (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js).
- Collaborate with developers and DevOps to integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
- Perform testing within cloud environments (AWS), including validating deployments, configurations, and integrations.
- Actively participate in Agile ceremonies (sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, backlog grooming) and contribute to sprint-level quality goals.
- Identify, log, and track defects clearly, working directly with engineering teams to drive issues to resolution.
- Analyze requirements and user stories to identify test scenarios, edge cases, and potential risk areas early in the development cycle.
- Own the end-to-end test strategy, planning, and reporting process, communicating quality status clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Continuously improve testing processes, tooling, and automation coverage across the team.
Required Skills & Experience
- 5–8+ years of experience in software testing/QA, with a strong mix of manual and automated testing.
- Proven hands-on experience with test automation frameworks, with Playwright strongly preferred (experience with Cypress, Selenium, or similar also considered).
- Must have hands-on experience with Pytest and Jest for test automation and unit/integration testing.
- Solid understanding of and testing experience with the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js).
- Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments and familiarity with DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines.
- Hands-on experience testing applications deployed on AWS (e.g., EC2, S3, Lambda, or similar services).
- Strong API testing experience (e.g., Postman, REST Assured, or similar tools).
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills — able to clearly explain technical issues to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
- Demonstrated ability to be highly hands-on, working independently to drive quality without heavy oversight.
- Strong analytical mindset with sharp attention to detail and a proactive approach to identifying risk.
- Experience with defect tracking and test management tools (e.g., Jira, TestRail, Zephyr, or similar).
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
Nice to Have
- Experience with performance or load testing tools (e.g., JMeter, k6).
- Familiarity with Docker/Kubernetes-based environments.
- Exposure to security testing basics.
- Prior consulting experience or client-facing QA delivery.
What We Offer
- Competitive compensation based on experience.
- Opportunity to work directly with a modern engineering stack (MERN + AWS) in an Agile, DevOps-driven culture.
- A high-trust, hands-on role with real ownership over quality outcomes.
- Flexible working arrangements.
- A collaborative team environment where your input directly shapes product quality and process.
