Lead QA Engineer

Appfire; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in Appfire

26 paid vacation days annually

Wellness Days (1 day per month)

24 hours of paid volunteer time

Private healthcare plan

Life insurance provided by UNUM

MyBenefit Platform -150 PLN per month

Home Office Allowance -200 PLN net per

Lunch Card -300 PLN monthly

Job summary

Appfire is seeking a Lead QA Engineer to own top-tier IC work in a remote-first environment. You will shape Playwright automation, define quality standards, and mentor other QA engineers without people management responsibilities.

In this role you’ll collaborate with architects, engineers, and DevOps to improve CI/CD pipelines, test data patterns, and automation architectures that scale across SaaS products. Strong English and hands-on expertise are essential.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in QA/test engineering with Playwright automation on large SaaS products.
• Hands-on skills with Playwright (UI and API) and JavaScript/TypeScript and/or Python.
• Experience with AI-assisted development for test design, failure analysis, and coaching others; strong CI/CD experience with Docker.

Responsibilities

• Build and refactor Playwright automation (UI and API) and establish shared patterns and gates.
• Serve as technical escalation for unstable suites, CI bottlenecks, and test data issues.
• Define test data and environment patterns to scale automation in CI/CD.
• Advise on API, component, and E2E test strategy with architects and leads.
• Mentor QA engineers on Playwright, CI, and AI-assisted workflows; promote reusable approaches.
• Collaborate with DevOps on shift-left testing and maintainable test environments (Docker).
• Communicate quality trade-offs and risks to product and engineering leadership.

Skills

Playwright

JavaScript/TypeScript

Python

CI/CD

Docker

AI-assisted testing

Test data management

QA automation

Mentoring

E2E testing

Tools

Playwright

Docker

CI/CD tooling

Job description

At Appfire, we believe that great work happens when people get to choose how they work. After 20 years of creating software that empowers teams to break silos and collaborate seamlessly, we’ve learned that one size does not fit all. We’re a team of 800+ employees, working remotely across 28 countries. Our flagship products include: JXL, Comala Document Management, 7Pace Time Tracker, Jira Misc Workflow Extensions, and BigPicture.

Here you can read some of our customer stories: https://appfire.com/resources/resource-library/customer-stories

About the role:

Join a product engineering organization where Playwright is the standard for E2E and API automation and AI-assisted QA is part of everyday work. As Lead QA Engineer, you hold the top individual contributor level for QA: you stay hands-on, tackle the hardest quality problems, and set the bar for automation and responsible AI use in testing. You shape automation patterns and quality standards - not as a separate job title, but as the senior IC who makes good practices stick. You influence tools and quality practices as a technical advisor; broader strategy and technology choices are made with architects and engineering leadership - you recommend, you don’t decide alone. This is not a people-management role - impact comes through expertise, mentoring, and shared standards, not line management. If you want top-tier IC work, deep Playwright craft, and visibility across squads in a remote-first setup, this role is for you.

What you’ll do:

• Build and refactor critical Playwright automation (UI and API) and evolve shared patterns, standards, and quality gates across squads.
• Act as the primary technical escalation for unstable suites, CI bottlenecks, test data and environment issues, and critical-path regressions.
• Define and improve test data and environment patterns (isolation, parallelism, fixtures) so automation scales reliably in CI/CD.
• Advise on API, component-level, and E2E test strategy - layering, coverage, and what to automate - in collaboration with architects and engineering leads.
• Mentor QA engineers on Playwright, CI, and AI-assisted workflows (prompting, review, safe use of tools); champion reusable approaches team-wide.
• Work with DevOps and developers on shift-left testing, pipeline reliability, and maintainable test environments (Docker, modern CI/CD).
• Communicate quality trade-offs and risks to product and engineering leadership.

What you’ll need:

• 7+ years in QA/test engineering with a track record of evolving Playwright automation on large, long-lived SaaS products.
• Proven hands-on skills with Playwright (UI and API) and JavaScript/TypeScript and/or Python.
• Advanced daily use of AI-assisted development for test design, failure analysis, and coaching others; sound judgment on when human verification is required.
• Ability to diagnose and fix systemic quality issues (parallelism, test data, flakiness, pipeline design).
• Strong CI/CD experience running and improving automated suites and working with Docker in cloud-hosted delivery.
• Experience defining automation architecture and quality standards (framework patterns, gates, layering) used beyond a single squad.
• Excellent English and credibility with developers, architects, and leadership on risk and priorities.

What we offer:

• Contract of Employment (indefinite)
• Every Appfire team member is eligible for company equity, fostering a true sense of ownership and connection to our growth.
• 26 paid vacation days annually, regardless of tenure, Wellness Days (1 day per month, non-transferable), 24 hours of paid volunteer time to engage in meaningful activities outside of work.
• Fully covered Luxmed private healthcare plan. You can extend coverage to your partner or opt for additional upgrades tailored to your needs. Life insurance provided by UNUM and fully paid by Appfire.
• MyBenefit Platform -150 PLN per month to spend on a Multisport card or on a variety of experiences such as shopping, restaurants, and entertainment.
• Home Office Allowance -200 PLN net per month added to your salary to support your electricity and internet costs while working remotely.
• Lunch Card -300 PLN monthly for groceries or dining out, available via a virtual pre-paid Pluxee card.

#LI-Remote

Market recognition

Appfire has been consistently recognized for company growth, culture, corporate social responsibility, and product excellence and has been included among the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Inc. Best Workplaces, BuiltIn Best Places to Work, and Inc. 5000. Learn more about our accomplishments, which would not be possible without our team members, partners, and customers: https://appfire.com/awards.

Equal Employer Opportunity (EEO)

Appfire is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as defined by applicable law. Our commitment extends to all employment practices, including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, compensation, benefits, and termination.