Engineering, Specialist

Education First; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Education First English Live is seeking a Senior QA Automation Engineer for a fixed-term contract of 4 to 6 months. The role blends hands-on testing across Salesforce and Web tickets with risk-based coverage, and a growing automation focus in collaboration with the existing QA lead.

The position is genuinely hybrid, enabling practical manual testing now while contributing to automation roadmap and extending AIO automation for better coverage and maintainability.

Qualifications

• Hands-on manual and exploratory testing across web apps and CRM/Salesforce.
• Experience automating tests with Javascript/Typescript frameworks.
• Experience with API/integration testing and data flows between Salesforce, web applications and third-party systems.
• Ability to split time between manual testing and automation work.

Responsibilities

• Provide thorough manual and exploratory testing across Salesforce and Web tickets, applying risk-based testing according to the nature and impact of each change.
• Prioritise regression testing, not just happy-path checks, to reduce shipping risk.
• Extend and complement our existing AIO automation, identifying where additional tooling or approaches would provide better coverage.
• Work alongside the QA lead and engineering to raise the overall QA bar across tooling and process.

Skills

Manual testing

Exploratory testing

Regression testing

Automation

JavaScript/TypeScript

Web testing

CRM Salesforce

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Nightwatch.js

Cypress

Playwright

API testing

Job description

The Opportunity

Today, EF English Live does not consistently apply appropriate QA coverage to relevant Salesforce and Web tickets before release. Volume has outpaced our current QA capacity, so coverage gaps happen, and where testing does happen it often leans towards happy-path checks rather than risk-based regression testing. We already use AIO for automation and want to build on it further, and more hands are needed to close the coverage gap in the meantime.

This role is about adding real capacity: hands-on testing across relevant Salesforce and Web tickets, with risk-based coverage applied according to the nature and impact of each change, plus active support extending and complementing our existing AIO automation. Our existing QA lead will continue to own and drive the automation strategy; this hire works alongside them, splitting time between hands-on testing and helping extend that automation over time.

Role Overview

This is a fixed-term contract engagement, initially for 4 to 6 months. The Senior QA Automation Engineer will provide thorough, hands-on testing across relevant Salesforce and Web tickets, applying risk-based coverage according to the nature and impact of the change, while also helping extend and complement our existing AIO automation. This is a genuinely hybrid role: meaningful hands-on testing capacity now, and a growing share of automation work over time, done in close partnership with our existing QA lead rather than in place of them.

Within 3 months, success looks like:

• All relevant Salesforce and Web tickets receiving appropriate QA coverage before release, with risk-based testing applied according to the nature and impact of the change.
• Regression testing meaningfully expanded beyond happy-path checks.
• Our existing AIO automation extended and complemented, with additional tooling or approaches identified where they would provide better coverage or maintainability.
• The existing QA lead measurably better supported, with more capacity across the team rather than the load resting on one person.

Main Responsibilities

Hands-On QA Coverage (Salesforce & Web)

• Provide thorough manual and exploratory testing across relevant Salesforce and Web tickets, applying risk-based testing according to the nature and impact of each change.
• Prioritise regression testing, not just happy-path checks, to reduce the risk of shipping undetected issues.

Test Automation & Tooling

• Extend and complement our existing AIO automation, identifying where additional tooling or approaches would provide better coverage or maintainability.
• Work alongside the existing QA lead, who owns the overall automation strategy and roadmap, contributing hands-on automation build where needed.

Collaboration & Capability Building

• Work alongside the existing QA lead and engineering team to raise the overall QA bar, across both tooling and process.
• Partner with Business Systems and engineering leads to prioritise coverage based on commercial risk.

Reporting

• Report to Business Systems Engineering leadership, with visibility on release risk and quality metrics shared with the wider team.

Technical Background & Skills

Core Experience

• Strong hands-on manual and exploratory testing experience across web applications and, ideally, CRM/Salesforce environments.
• Experience in automating tests using Javascript/Typescript frameworks (e.g. Nightwatch.js, Cypress, Playwright).
• Experience with API and integration testing, including validating data flows between Salesforce, web applications and third‑party systems.
• Comfortable splitting time between hands-on ticket testing and automation work, rather than being purely one or the other.

Ways of Working

• Genuinely hybrid: as comfortable manually testing a ticket as contributing to an automation framework.
• Collaborative: complements and supports the existing QA lead's automation strategy rather than working around it.
• Pragmatic about what to automate first, while making sure day‑to‑day coverage across Salesforce and Web doesn't slip in the meantime.