PC-1451-QA Engineer

ESP Engineered; Ernakulam; Hybrid; INR 800,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Professional development support

Flexible working arrangements

Job summary

ESP Engineered is hiring a skilled QA Engineer in Ernakulam, India, to support the Pickles web transformation project. You will design and execute test strategies including manual, automation, API, regression, and release validation testing.

The ideal candidate will have robust experience in both manual testing and automation frameworks. Competitive compensation and flexible working arrangements are offered.

Qualifications

• 4–7 years of hands-on QA experience in manual and automation testing.
• Strong experience in building automation frameworks.
• Hands-on API testing experience is mandatory.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute comprehensive test strategies.
• Collaborate with developers and product managers.
• Act as the quality gate for each release.

Skills

Manual Testing

Automation Framework (Playwright, Cypress)

API Testing

CI/CD Integration

Defect Management (Jira)

Test Management (TestRail)

Regression Testing

Release Validation

Performance Testing (JMeter)

Security Testing

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Jira

Postman

Selenium

Cypress

AWS or Azure

Job description

We are looking for a skilled QA Engineer (Manual + Automation) to join the engineering team at Softobiz supporting the Pickles web transformation project. You will be responsible for designing and executing comprehensive test strategies that span manual, automation, API, regression, and release validation testing across the platform.

The ideal candidate brings strong hands‑on experience with both manual testing practices and modern test automation frameworks, with a solid understanding of CI/CD integration, API testing, and end‑to‑end quality assurance across web applications. You will collaborate closely with developers, product managers, and DevOps engineers to ensure the highest levels of product quality and a reliable, release‑ready codebase throughout the development lifecycle.

Manual Testing

• Design, write, and execute detailed test cases and test plans for functional, regression, integration, and exploratory testing of web applications.
• Conduct end‑to‑end manual validation of user stories and acceptance criteria, working closely with product and design stakeholders.
• Identify, document, and track defects using issue‑tracking tools (e.g., Jira), ensuring clear reproduction steps, severity classification, and timely resolution.
• Participate in sprint ceremonies including backlog grooming, sprint planning, and retrospectives to ensure quality is built into every stage of the process.

Automation Testing

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable test automation frameworks for web applications using tools such as Playwright, Selenium, Cypress, or equivalent.
• Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions) to enable continuous testing on every build.
• Monitor and analyse automated test results, investigate flaky tests, and maintain a high level of automation coverage across critical user journeys.
• Contribute to test strategy discussions and advocate for automation‑first approaches where appropriate.

API Testing

• Design and execute comprehensive API test suites for RESTful services using tools such as Postman, RestAssured, or equivalent.
• Validate request/response payloads, status codes, authentication flows, and error handling across API contracts.
• Collaborate with backend developers to review API specifications and flag potential issues before implementation.
• Automate API test collections and integrate them into the CI/CD pipeline for continuous API quality validation.

Regression Testing

• Own and maintain the regression test suite, ensuring comprehensive coverage of core platform functionality.
• Execute full and targeted regression cycles ahead of each release, clearly documenting scope, results, and sign‑off status.
• Identify areas of the application most susceptible to regression risk and prioritise automation coverage accordingly.
• Track and report regression metrics over time to support continuous quality improvement.

Release Validation

• Act as the quality gate for each release, coordinating release validation activities across environments (dev, staging, production).
• Prepare and execute release checklists, smoke tests, and sanity checks to confirm production readiness.
• Work with DevOps and engineering leads to validate deployments and sign off on go‑live readiness.
• Document release test outcomes and communicate clearly to stakeholders on quality status and any outstanding risks.

Quality Engineering & Collaboration

• Collaborate with developers, product managers, and designers to define acceptance criteria and establish a shared definition of done.
• Champion a quality‑first culture within the team through proactive defect prevention, shift‑left testing practices, and continuous feedback.
• Maintain up‑to‑date test documentation, including test plans, test reports, and traceability matrices.
• Mentor junior QA team members and contribute to QA best practices and internal knowledge sharing.

Required Technical Skills

• Manual Testing – Test case design, exploratory testing, UAT, regression, cross‑browser testing (Must)
• Automation Framework – Playwright, Cypress, Selenium; Page Object Model (POM); reusable test architecture (Must)
• Languages – TypeScript, JavaScript (Must)
• API Testing – Postman, RestAssured or equivalent; REST API validation, contract testing (Must)
• CI/CD Integration – GitHub Actions or equivalent; integrating test suites into build pipelines (Must)
• Defect Management – Jira or equivalent; defect lifecycle, severity classification, reporting (Must)
• Test Management – TestRail, Zephyr, or equivalent; test plans, traceability matrices, test reporting (Must)
• Regression Testing – Regression suite ownership, coverage strategy, scheduled regression cycles (Must)
• Release Validation – Release checklists, smoke/sanity testing, environment validation, go‑live sign‑off (Must)
• Performance Testing – JMeter, k6, or equivalent for load and performance validation (Preferred)
• Security Testing – Basic OWASP awareness, vulnerability scanning basics (Preferred)
• Cloud & DevOps – AWS or Azure – deployment environments; Docker basics for local test environments (Preferred)
• AI / Dev Tools – AI‑assisted test generation (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) (Preferred)
• Observability – Log analysis, AppInsights, or ELK stack for identifying failures post‑deploy (Preferred)

Qualifications & Certifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 4–7 years of hands‑on QA experience covering both manual and automation testing in production web application environments.
• Demonstrable experience building and maintaining automation frameworks using Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium.
• Hands‑on experience with API testing using Postman or equivalent – this is a mandatory requirement.
• Proven ownership of regression test suites and release validation activities in an agile delivery context.
• Experience working in agile, cross‑functional product teams – ideally in a global or client‑facing delivery context.

Preferred Certifications

• ISTQB Foundation Level or Advanced Level (Test Analyst / Technical Test Analyst)
• Playwright or Cypress official certifications (where available)
• Any relevant cloud or DevOps certifications (AWS, Azure, GitHub Actions)

Soft Skills & Cultural Fit

• Strong written and verbal communication skills – able to articulate test findings, risk assessments, and quality status clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable working independently during IST hours while collaborating with international clients and team members across different time zones.
• High sense of ownership over quality outcomes – proactively identifies gaps and drives issues to resolution without constant supervision.
• Collaborative team player who actively participates in sprint ceremonies, code reviews, and cross‑functional quality discussions.
• Curious, growth‑oriented mindset – proactively upskills on new testing tools, frameworks, and AI‑enabled QA practices.

What We Offer

• Opportunity to work on real‑world product engineering for Pickles – one of Australia’s leading vehicle remarketing platforms.
• Exposure to modern web architectures and the full software delivery lifecycle in a fast‑moving, collaborative engineering team.
• Technically strong team with a culture of code quality, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing.
• Competitive compensation, professional development support, and access to emerging AI development tools.
• Flexible working arrangements – hybrid options available depending on location.