Software Test Engineer

Optics11 Life; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fresh team lunches 3x/week

Team activities & company events

Competitive salary & benefits

Job summary

Optics11 Life in Amsterdam is seeking a hands-on Software Test Engineer to ensure quality of edge and cloud software, APIs, and UI across sensing systems. You will define test strategies, automate tests, and collaborate with data scientists, developers, and engineers to validate complex hardware-software ecosystems.

The role requires practical testing, attention to detail, and the ability to translate requirements into robust test plans and strategies.

Qualifications

• Experience with test management and bug tracking tools (e.g., Jira, TestRail).
• Proficiency in programming or scripting (Python, C++, JavaScript or similar).
• Experience developing automated tests using Pytest, Playwright, Cypress, Selenium or similar.
• Experience testing web-based graphical user interfaces and REST APIs.
• Experience with Docker, AWS, GitLab, Linux and CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to design structured, maintainable automated tests.
• Familiarity with BDD and Gherkin specifications.

Responsibilities

• Perform functional, integration, regression, system, and end-to-end testing across edge devices and cloud services.
• Define test strategies, plans, cases, and acceptance criteria for edge and cloud platforms.
• Identify, document, and track defects with clear reproduction steps.
• Collaborate with product owners, developers, and engineers to ensure test coverage.
• Develop and maintain automated test frameworks and pipelines.
• Test edge-cloud behavior under interrupted connectivity and synchronization issues.
• Validate performance, reliability, and stability under varied conditions.
• Support testing on edge hardware and hardware-software integration.
• Analyze results and provide actionable feedback to teams.
• Ensure traceability between requirements, tests, and results.
• Integrate automated tests into GitLab CI/CD and define quality gates.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of testing processes and standards.
• Participate in release readiness reviews and ensure quality before deployment.

Skills

Test management

Programming scripting

Automated testing

Web UI testing

API testing

CI/CD tooling

Test design

BDD (Gherkin)

Education

CS / Software engineering degree

Tools

Jira

TestRail

Pytest

Playwright

Cypress

Selenium

Docker

AWS

GitLab

Linux

Job description

We are looking for a hands-on Software Test Engineer to ensure the quality and reliability of software solutions used in real-world sensing and data processing systems.

Optics11 is a deep-tech company developing advanced fiber-optic sensing technologies for challenging environments and applications in energy and underwater security. Our systems enable high-performance sensing and monitoring through advanced photonics, signal processing, and data-driven intelligence.

We are expanding our R&D team with a Software Test Engineer who is passionate about quality, structured validation, and delivering robust software in complex engineering environments.

As a Software Test Engineer, you will be responsible for defining and executing practical software tests to validate software components (including algorithms, cloud back-end, and user interfaces) that process sensor signals generated by fiber-optic sensing systems. You will work closely with data scientists, signal processing specialists, back-end developers, and software architects to ensure that products meet functional and non-functional requirements.

This role requires a hands-on professional with a proactive mindset, a structured approach to software testing, strong attention to detail, and the ability to understand complex technical systems and translate requirements into effective test strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Perform functional, integration, regression, system, and end-to-end testing across edge devices, cloud services, APIs, databases, and graphical user interfaces.

• Define test strategies, test plans, test cases, acceptance criteria, and automated test scripts for an edge and cloud software platforms.

• Identify, document, and track software defects, ensuring clear reproduction steps and proper follow-up.

• Collaborate with product owners, developers and engineers to understand system requirements and ensure test coverage.

• Contribute to the development and maintenance of automated test frameworks and pipelines.

• Test edge-cloud behaviour under interrupted connectivity, delayed or duplicated messages, device restarts, software updates, and synchronization failures.

• Validate software performance, reliability, and stability under different operating conditions.

• Support testing of software running on edge hardware, including hardware-software integration in laboratory and field environments.

• Analyse test results and provide clear, actionable feedback to development teams.

• Ensure traceability between requirements, test cases, and test results.

• Integrate automated tests into GitLab CI/CD pipelines and help define appropriate quality gates.

• Contribute to continuous improvement of testing processes, tools, and quality standards.

• Participate in release readiness reviews and ensure software meets quality benchmarks before deployment.

• Join one of Europe's most promising deep-tech scale-ups.

• Shape the future of a rapidly growing multidisciplinary R&D organization.

• Competitive salary and benefits package.

• Enjoy regular team activities and company events.

• Fresh team lunches provided 3 times/week.

Requirements:

Technical skills

• Familiarity with test management and bug tracking tools (e.g., Jira, TestRail).

• Programming or scripting skills (e.g., Python, C++, Javascript or similar).

• Experience developing automated tests using tools such as Pytest, Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, or comparable frameworks.

• Experience testing web-based graphical user interfaces.

• Experience testing REST APIs, back-end services, or distributed software components.

• Experience with Docker, AWS, Gitlab , Linux and CI/CD pipelines.

• Ability to design structured, maintainable, and reproducible automated tests.

• Familiarity with behaviour-driven development and Gherkin specifications.

Qualifications:

• A degree in computer science, software engineering, embedded systems, or a related technical discipline or equivalent practical experience.

• Proven experience in software testing or quality assurance.

• Strong understanding of software testing methodologies and lifecycle.

• Experience with both exploratory/manual testing and automated testing.

• Experience testing integrated systems rather than only isolated software components.

• Proactive in identifying risks and gaps in requirements and investigating failures across multiple system components.

• Pragmatic and hands-on when working with hardware, software, test environments, and imperfect real-world data.

• Able to work independently while collaborating closely with different engineering disciplines.

• Able to communicate technical problems and quality risks clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with AWS or another cloud platform.

• Experience testing data-driven or signal-processing systems.

• Knowledge of embedded systems and hardware-software integration.

• Experience testing unreliable-network, offline, reconnection, synchronization, and recovery scenarios.

• Experience in high-tech, industrial, or defense-related environments.

• Experience with LabVIEW

Security & Compliance:

You'll be working with clients in the defense and security sectors, obtaining a Certificate of No Objection issued by the AIVD (Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service) is mandatory. This means you will need to undergo a security screening. For more information, please refer to details on security screening.