Lead QA Automation Engineer - On-Site Irvine

Applaudo Studios; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Applaudo Studios is seeking a hands-on QA Automation Engineer to design and implement scalable automation across mobile, backend, and cloud environments. You will own framework design, reusable components, and testing infrastructure to support reliable end-to-end validation.

Responsibilities include building mobile automation with Appium, validating Android APKs, and automating REST APIs in AWS/S3/docker-based ecosystems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in Software Quality Engineering, Automation Engineering, SDET, or similar technical automation roles.
• Strong experience designing and building automation frameworks, reusable libraries, test infrastructure, reporting, and CI/CD integration.
• Hands-on mobile automation experience with Appium and Android APKs, including physical or virtual device validation.
• Strong experience with REST API automation, AWS/cloud services, S3, Docker/containerized applications, and end-to-end data validation.
• Ability to work on-site in Irvine, California, operate independently, communicate progress and risks clearly, and deliver against defined project milestones.
• Advanced English proficiency, with strong verbal and written communication skills for effective collaboration with US-based stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain reusable automation frameworks and test components across API, backend, cloud, container, and mobile/tablet layers.
• Develop mobile automation using Appium and Android technologies, including APK installation, device interaction, synchronization, app state validation, and troubleshooting.
• Build end-to-end automation that validates data and functionality across AWS services, S3, REST APIs, Docker/containerized services, and mobile/tablet applications.
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and improve test reliability, execution speed, coverage, reporting, and maintainability.
• Investigate automation and application failures by analyzing APIs, cloud services, S3 data, container behavior, logs, and device behavior.
• Partner with QE, Engineering, and Product teams to identify quality risks, improve testability, and align automation with project priorities.
• Provide documentation, demos, and knowledge transfer so automation assets can be maintained by the internal QE team after the engagement.

Skills

Automation frameworks

Test infrastructure

CI/CD integration

Appium

Android automation

REST API automation

AWS

S3

Docker

Data validation

English communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / IT / Engineering

Tools

Appium

Android

Jenkins

GitLab CI/CD

Azure DevOps

Job description

Applaudo Studios is seeking a hands-on QA Automation Engineer to design and implement scalable automation across mobile, backend, and cloud environments. You will own framework design, reusable components, and testing infrastructure to support reliable end-to-end validation.

Responsibilities include building mobile automation with Appium, validating Android APKs, and automating REST APIs in AWS/S3/docker-based ecosystems.