Junior Software Engineer - QA

Talon Hiring Solutions; Birmingham (AL); On-site; USD 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Talon Hiring Solutions is assisting a client in the greater Birmingham, AL area in recruiting a Junior Software Engineer - QA with hands-on coding experience. You will act as the independent quality gate for customer-facing applications, partnering with developers to learn automated testing tools and to identify and resolve issues.

The ideal candidate has 3+ years of QA experience in an Agile SDLC, tests web, mobile, and Windows apps, and can translate requirements into test cases while

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on software QA experience.
• Experience in an Agile, sprint-based SDLC.
• Ability to test web, mobile, and Windows applications.
• Strong knowledge of functional, exploratory, regression, and risk-based testing.
• Ability to translate requirements into test cases and testing strategies.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the independent quality gate for customer-facing applications.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, developers, and stakeholders to refine requirements.
• Validate features against requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Develop test plans and execute functional, regression, and exploratory tests.
• Own and manage the QA environment and build promotions.
• Review automated test coverage and results to identify gaps and risks.
• Perform hands-on manual testing across web, mobile, and Windows apps.
• Document defects with clear reproduction steps and evidence.
• Utilize automated UI and API testing to reduce regression risk.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and collaborate with Dev teams.

Tools

Playwright

Postman

Bruno

Azure DevOps

Git

Job description

Talon Hiring Solutions has a client in the greater Birmingham, AL area that is seeking a Junior Software Engineer - QA with hands-on coding experience. This is an excellent opportunity for someone early in their career who understands how code works, enjoys troubleshooting and problem-solving, and wants to build their career in software quality and testing. The ideal candidate will be comfortable working alongside developers, learning automated testing tools, and using their coding knowledge to identify and resolve application issues.

What You'll Do

• Serve as the independent quality gate for customer-facing applications, accepting or rejecting work items based on defined quality standards.
• Collaborate with Product Owners, developers, and stakeholders to refine requirements and ensure work items meet the Definition of Ready before development begins.
• Validate features, enhancements, and bug fixes against business requirements, acceptance criteria, and the Definition of Done.
• Develop test plans and execute functional, regression, negative, boundary, end-to-end, exploratory, and risk-based testing.
• Own and manage the QA environment, including promoting builds from Development to QA for validation.
• Review automated test coverage and results to identify gaps, regressions, and quality risks.
• Leverage approved AI/agentic workflows to support test planning, requirements analysis, exploratory testing, investigation, and documentation.
• Perform hands-on manual testing of critical workflows across web, mobile, and Windows applications.
• Investigate legacy applications and unfamiliar functionality, even when documentation or automated coverage is limited.
• Document defects with clear reproduction steps, supporting evidence, and actionable details for development teams.
• Utilize automated UI and API testing to validate application functionality and reduce regression risk.
• Participate in Agile meetings, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• Collaborate with development teams throughout the SDLC while maintaining an independent perspective on quality.
• Raise quality concerns when requirements are not satisfied and confidently block acceptance when necessary.

What You'll Bring

• 3+ years of hands-on software QA experience or equivalent demonstrated capability.
• Experience working in an Agile, sprint-based SDLC environment.
• Demonstrated experience independently testing customer-facing web, mobile, and Windows applications.
• Strong knowledge of functional, exploratory, regression, negative, boundary, and risk-based testing.
• Ability to translate requirements and acceptance criteria into effective test cases and testing strategies.
• Experience making and defending evidence-based accept/reject decisions.
• Experience using AI coding agents or strong aptitude for incorporating AI-assisted/agentic workflows into QA practices.
• Ability to investigate unfamiliar, complex, or poorly documented legacy applications.
• Strong defect documentation skills with clear, reproducible, and actionable reporting.
• Working knowledge of SPA web applications, REST APIs, relational databases, and modern identity management.
• Familiarity with automated UI testing frameworks such as Playwright.
• Experience with API testing tools such as Bruno or Postman.
• Experience testing mobile applications.
• Working knowledge of Azure DevOps, Git, and CI/CD test results.
• Strong written communication, critical thinking, organization, and time-management skills.
• Confidence to challenge assumptions, raise quality concerns, and block acceptance when quality or requirements are not met.