Senior Software Development Engineer in Test

vCluster Labs; Toronto; Remote; CAD 100,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

A growing technology startup is seeking an experienced QA engineer to design and maintain automated test frameworks. You will collaborate with engineering teams to ensure high-quality software in a fast-moving environment. The ideal candidate has over 5 years in QA, strong programming skills in Go or Python, and a deep understanding of CI/CD systems. Competitive compensation and flexible working arrangements are offered.

Benefits

Competitive Salary

Platinum-Level Insurance

Flexible Working Schedule

Workplace Flexibility

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in QA or Software Testing, with at least 1+ year in a senior capacity.
• Working knowledge of Kubernetes environments and distributed systems.
• Strong programming skills in at least one language such as Go or Python.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks for backend and UI testing.
• Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams to influence features.
• Mentor peers and junior engineers on quality mindset and test automation best practices.

Skills

Automated test frameworks

Kubernetes

Programming (Go, Python)

CI / CD systems

Strong communication skills

Debugging skills

Job description

Job Description

About vCluster Labs

We are a venture-backed tech startup striving to be the leading force in enabling platform engineers. We raised +$30M from top-tier VCs such as Khosla Ventures (first investor in OpenAI, GitLab, Stripe, Doordash) and are in a hyper-growth phase looking for motivated people to complement our team. Our headquarters are in San Francisco (Salesforce Tower), but our team is distributed around the globe and we have a remote-first work culture.

We're the company behind vCluster, an open-source technology for virtualizing Kubernetes (+10k GitHub stars). Open source is part of our DNA.

The adoption of our commercial product based on vCluster has grown extremely fast (multi-million dollar revenue) and our customer base includes some of the biggest companies in the world, including 6 Global Fortune 500 companies as well as some of the fastest-growing tech unicorns.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks for backend and UI testing.
• Own and drive test strategy across features or product area, ensuring thorough coverage and alignment with product goals.
• Collaborate closely with engineering and product teams to influence features, advocate for testability, and align on quality standards.
• Integrate automated tests into CI / CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.) to ensure high-confidence, fast feedback during development.
• Mentor peers and junior engineers on quality mindset and test automation best practices.
• Conduct exploratory testing to identify usability issues, edge cases, and potential regressions not covered by automation.
• Work across multiple parallel projects in a fast-moving, startup environment with shifting priorities.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in QA or Software Testing, with at least 1+ year in a senior capacity.
• Working knowledge of Kubernetes environments and distributed systems - hands-on experience preferred; familiarity with AWS / GCP / Azure is a plus.
• Proven ability to thrive in a startup environment - adaptable, calm under ambiguity, and capable of juggling multiple responsibilities.
• Strong programming skills in at least one language such as Go, Python - used for automation and tooling.
• Deep understanding of CI / CD systems and experience integrating automated test suites in pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
• Strong communication and collaboration skills - able to advocate for quality across teams.
• Strong initiative and ownership mindset - able to identify what needs to be done and follow through independently.
• Excellent analytical and debugging skills, especially in diagnosing backend or infrastructure-related issues.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary : We offer a competitive compensation package, including equity.
• Platinum-Level Insurance : Health, dental, vision, and life Insurance, including plans for you and eligible dependents (benefits vary depending on country).
• Flexible Working Schedule : You have a doctor’s appointment or need to head to the supermarket to get groceries at 2pm? We won’t have an issue with that. To us, results matter more than clocking in and out at the same time every day.
• Workplace Flexibility : We’re very flexible about where you work. We know things can change in life and we’re happy to adjust the work environment for you along the way.

Why join a startup like vCluster Labs?

Since we are a fast-moving startup, you will not be number 14,589 in our company but rather become an essential part of our team right from the start :

Fast Application Process : We will typically get back to you within a week. No need to polish your resume for us. Just send us some links (e.g. LinkedIn, etc.), answer a few questions about your previous experiences, and hop on a quick Zoom call with one of our team members to see if you’re a good fit. We will respond quickly and make hiring decisions within days rather than months.

Open-Minded Work Environment : You can always speak your mind - no company politics or unnecessary formalities. We are operating in a lean, honest, and efficient way and we are looking for different perspectives, constructive feedback and creative, motivated people who want to make a difference.

Grow With The Company : We are a small company right now but we are growing incredibly fast because we work on something that has a lot of value to engineering teams in large enterprises. Joining vCluster Labs early will give you the chance to advance much faster to the next step on the career ladder than in any larger company.

Responsibility From Day 1 : You will see right from the start that your work will immediately have an impact in our company and you can shape the future of this company together with the rest of our team. Grow with us and benefit from being part of this journey from the start.

Culture & Values

At vCluster Labs, we value and stand for :

Technical Excellence : We are determined to build best-in-class technology and ship high-quality software because we know that our users are engineers themselves.

Customer Obsession : We are going above and beyond to make our customers and users happy, which means striving for great usability, excellent documentation and support as well as fast response times for feature requests and bug reports.

Impressive Speed : From user feedback to shipping a new feature to address this feedback, we usually take less than a week in most cases and our users absolutely love us for this.

Bold Innovation : We are constantly questioning the state-of-the-art to find and address important issues in our space, even if that means abandoning any existing technologies and starting from scratch again.

Open Source & Open Mind : We are actively contributing and maintaining open-source projects and we believe that building an open-minded team culture that respects different perspectives and welcomes constructive feedback is equally paramount to our success.

vCluster Labs provides equal opportunities for all candidates. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive work environment for everyone who becomes part of our team. We are also actively promoting measures to reduce bias throughout our hiring process to ensure that everyone gets the same opportunities.

Compensation Range : CA$100K - CA$145K