Senior Quality Engineer (QA)

Frontiers; Madrid; On-site; EUR 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Office presence emphasis

Wellbeing days

Volunteer days

Employee Assistance Program

Learning Hub access

Healthcare & pension benefits

Job summary

Frontiers is rebuilding its Publishing Platform with a manuscript-first approach and embedded AI agents. We seek a Senior Quality Engineer to own validation strategy across the lifecycle, drive testing left, and coach the team on best practices.

You’ll build automated tests, run CI/CD integrated validation, and make risk-based release decisions. Join a diverse, collaborative team shipping high-quality software."

Qualifications

• 5+ years in Quality Engineering / QA with independent validation strategy experience.
• Strong systems thinking to identify risks across component interactions.
• Experience with API testing (REST Assured, Postman) and CI/CD automation.
• Experience with performance testing (k6, JMeter).
• Curiosity about AI-assisted testing tools.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive validation strategy independently: what to test, at what level, and how — starting before development begins.
• Define test scenarios covering key flows, edge cases, and risk areas; challenge non-functional requirements (performance, reliability, security).
• Build and maintain automated tests (API, integration, end-to-end) running continuously in CI/CD.
• Own release-readiness calls and post-release checks, using production signals (errors, logs, metrics) to close the loop.
• Coach the team on testing practices, shared quality ownership, and effective use of AI tools.
• Contribute to the wider Quality Engineering community and standards.

Skills

Quality Engineering

Validation strategy

Risk assessment

API testing

CI/CD automation

Performance testing

AI testing tools

Test automation

Tools

REST Assured

Postman

k6

JMeter

CI/CD tooling

Job description

We're rebuilding Frontiers' Publishing Platform — a manuscript-first architecture with embedded AI agents replacing legacy systems with modular, scalable services.

As a Senior Quality Engineer, you'll work independently to embed quality throughout the development lifecycle, not just validate it at the end. You'll shift testing left — spotting risks before code is written, building validation into CI/CD, and making autonomous calls on risk, coverage, and release readiness — while coaching the wider team to raise their own testing practices and use AI tools effectively.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive validation strategy independently: what to test, at what level, and how — starting before development begins
• Define test scenarios covering key flows, edge cases, and risk areas; challenge non-functional requirements (performance, reliability, security)
• Build and maintain automated tests (API, integration, end-to-end) running continuously in CI/CD
• Own release-readiness calls and post-release checks, using production signals (errors, logs, metrics) to close the loop
• Coach the team on testing practices, shared quality ownership, and effective use of AI tools
• Contribute to the wider Quality Engineering community and standards

Requirements

• 5+ years in Quality Engineering / QA, with experience defining validation strategy independently
• Strong systems thinking — able to spot risks and failure points across component interactions
• Experience with API testing (REST Assured, Postman), integration/E2E testing, and CI/CD-integrated automation
• Experience with performance testing (k6, JMeter)
• Comfortable working with minimal oversight and making risk trade-off calls
• Curiosity about AI-assisted testing tools

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Contract testing (Pact), Playwright, BDD, large-scale migrations
• Comfortable reviewing pull requests and contributing to test code when needed

Benefits

• We prioritise office presence and emphasise in-person collaboration, but also offer appropriate adjustments where needed, in line with company policy
• Extra wellbeing days on top of your annual leave allowance
• Up to 3 paid volunteering days each year
• 24/7 confidential Employee Assistance Programme (wellbeing, mental health, legal & financial support)
• Learning & development support via the Frontiers Learning Hub
• Competitive local benefits country dependent (e.g. healthcare and pension/retirement provision)

Frontiers actively embraces diversity and is a safe and welcoming workplace. Recruitment is free from discrimination - including based on race, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. With employees from more than 50 different nations, our diversity creates vibrant teams and constantly challenges us to appreciate multiple perspectives.