QA Automation Engineer (Hybrid)

Ocho People; Belfast City District; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Hybrid working in Belfast

Job summary

Ocho People is seeking a QA Automation Engineer to lead Playwright-based automation efforts within a global financial services testing team in Belfast. You will drive test strategy, mentor peers, and integrate AI-augmented testing into CI/CD pipelines.

You will design scalable automation frameworks, apply BDD/TDD practices, and balance functional, API, and performance testing in a fast-paced Agile environment.

Qualifications

• Extensive QA automation experience in Agile environments.
• Hands-on Playwright automation and API testing leadership.
• Strong Java/JavaScript skills and scripting capability.
• Experience embedding tests in CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins/GitLab/TeamCity).
• BDD with Cucumber and shift-left, test framework design.
• AI-assisted testing with Copilot/ChatGPT usage in workflows.
• Non-functional testing knowledge (performance/load with JMeter/K6).
• Mentorship across distributed teams and global stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design and coordinate test strategies with global teams.
• Build and maintain automated tests in CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop scalable Playwright-based automation frameworks.
• Incorporate AI tooling to accelerate script creation.
• Identify performance bottlenecks and provide improvements.
• Promote QA best practices and mentor engineers.
• Own deliverables end-to-end and manage priorities.
• Communicate progress, risks and impediments clearly.

Education

ISTQB / Agile Testing qualification

Tools

Playwright

WebDriverIO

Selenium

Cypress

TestComplete

Jenkins

GitLab

TeamCity

K6

JMeter

Copilot

ChatGPT

Job description

QA Automation Engineer | Playwright | Financial Services

At a Glance

• Senior QA Automation role within a world-leading financial markets infrastructure and data business
• Playwright-led automation, AI-augmented testing (Copilot/ChatGPT) and CI/CD-embedded QA on a global engineering team
• Belfast, hybrid working
• Competitive salary
• Genuinely varied scope: automation strategy, API and non-functional testing, and mentoring across a distributed Agile team

About the Company

Our client is a world-leading provider of market infrastructure, connecting clients to global financial and commodities markets through responsible, innovative technology. Operating from more than 60 offices across 27 countries with over 5,000 people, they are the largest interdealer broker in the world by revenue and a leading provider of OTC data and liquidity solutions. Their engineering teams sit at the heart of that mission, building the platforms that power global trading and data distribution.

The Role

As QA Automation Engineer, you will be a key advocate for quality within an Agile team, driving BDD and TDD practices to ensure high-quality, business-aligned outcomes. Working closely with Product Owners and Developers, you will provide in-sprint QA aligned to the team's Definition of Done, helping ensure deployable software at the end of every sprint. You will lead on test strategy, balancing manual, automated and performance testing with a strong emphasis on shift-left methodologies and API-first automation, while contributing to the evolution of scalable, robust test frameworks. This is a role for someone who has led automation frameworks before, is comfortable modernising and migrating legacy testing stacks, and enjoys mentoring engineers around them.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with global BA, development and QA teams to design and coordinate effective test strategies
• Design, build and maintain automated and functional tests within CI/CD pipelines
• Develop and maintain scalable, self-healing automation frameworks using Playwright
• Integrate AI-driven tooling (Copilot, ChatGPT, MCP) into automation workflows to speed up script creation and maintenance
• Identify performance bottlenecks and provide actionable recommendations
• Champion quality across the Agile team, promoting best practice in unit testing and code review
• Mentor and coach team members to raise QA standards across the team
• Own deliverables end-to-end, managing priorities effectively and raising risks early
• Drive clear, proactive communication on progress, risks and impediments

What You'll Need

Essential:

• Extensive QA automation experience within Agile teams, ideally at Senior or Lead level
• Strong hands-on automation experience with Playwright (WebDriverIO also considered), plus exposure to Selenium, Cypress or TestComplete
• Strong Java or JavaScript (or similar scripting language) skills
• Proven track record designing, building and maintaining scalable automation frameworks, including migrating legacy stacks onto modern tooling
• Experience embedding automated and functional testing within CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab or TeamCity)
• Hands-on BDD experience (Cucumber) and comfortable applying shift-left, TDD/BDD practices
• Practical experience using AI tools (Copilot, ChatGPT, Amazon Q or similar) to speed up test creation and maintenance
• Strong API, functional and end-to-end testing background
• Working knowledge of non-functional testing (performance/load, using tools such as K6 or JMeter)
• Confident operating in Agile/SAFe environments with distributed, global teams, with the communication skills to challenge design decisions and mentor others

Desirable:

• Experience within financial services or trading platforms (including FIX/API)
• Experience with AWS, microservices and serverless architectures
• Formal testing qualifications (e.g. ISTQB, Agile Testing)

Why Apply?

• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working, Belfast
• Work on platforms powering global financial markets, at genuinely large scale
• Lead automation strategy and framework design, not just execution
• Real investment in AI-augmented testing tooling and modern automation practice
• Mentor and shape a growing QA function within a global engineering team