8371 - SDET QA Automation

### Job Title: Software Development Engineer in Test (Junior - Senior)

Department: Engineering / Quality Assurance Reports To: QA Manager / Engineering Lead

### Role Summary

We are looking for Engineers who specialize in Quality. You will not be "writing scripts" for manual cases; you will build the infrastructure, tools, and automated safety nets that allow our development teams to ship faster with confidence. This role ranges from Junior to Senior levels, with expectations scaling from test implementation to system architecture.

### Core Responsibilities (All Levels)

• Test Automation: Design, develop, and maintain automated test scripts for functional, regression, and performance testing.
• Pipeline Integration: Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions) to enable continuous delivery.
• Bug Lifecycle: Identify, document, and track defects. More importantly, perform root cause analysis to prevent recurrence.
• Code Review: Participate in code reviews for both feature code and test automation code to ensure testability and maintainability.

### Level-Specific Expectations

#### Junior SDET

• Focus: Execution & Learning.
• Scope: You will work primarily on existing frameworks, adding test coverage for new features and fixing flaky tests.
• Requirement: Ability to write clean code in at least one language and understand basic testing concepts (positive/negative testing, boundary analysis).
• Mentorship: You will receive guidance on architectural decisions but are expected to own your code quality.

#### Mid-Level SDET

• Focus: Design & Ownership.
• Scope: You own the quality of specific features or microservices. You design the test strategy for new epics from scratch.
• Requirement: Proficient in API testing, database validation, and mocking dependencies. You can set up a test environment without hand-holding.
• Mentorship: You mentor Junior SDETs on coding standards and review their PRs.

#### Senior SDET

• Focus: Architecture & Strategy.
• Scope: You build the frameworks others use. You define the company-wide quality strategy (e.g., determining the right balance of Unit vs. Integration vs. E2E).
• Requirement: Expert in system design. You understand how to test complex distributed systems, implement observability (tracing/monitoring), and optimize pipeline performance.
• Mentorship: You drive technical initiatives, evaluate new tools, and act as a technical lead for the QA organization.

### Technical Requirements (Language Agnostic)

Foundational Skills

• Computer Science: Solid understanding of Data Structures, Algorithms, and O(n) notation.
• Programming: Fluency in any modern object-oriented language (e.g., Java, C#, Python, TypeScript, Go).
• Version Control: Deep understanding of Git (branching, merging, rebasing, pull request workflows).

Test Engineering

• Frameworks: Experience building or significantly extending automation frameworks (not just record/playback tools).
• API Testing: Comprehensive understanding of REST/gRPC protocols, HTTP status codes, and payload validation.
• Databases: Ability to write complex SQL queries for data validation and test data seeding.

DevOps & Infrastructure

• CI/CD: Experience configuring build pipelines and understanding "Quality Gates."
• Containerization: Practical experience with Docker (spinning up containers for test execution).

### Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Cloud Platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Knowledge of Non-Functional Testing (Load, Stress, Security).
• Experience with Service Virtualization / Mocking (e.g., WireMock).
• Understanding of Microservices Architecture.

### Success Metrics

• Junior: Test stability and coverage increase.
• Mid: Reduction in escape defects and improved regression cycle time.
• Senior: Reduction in "Time to Detect" and "Time to Recovery" for production issues; adoption rate of internal quality tools.