Lead QA Engineer (AI native)

Social Discovery Ventures; United States; Remote; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Vacation 28 days

Wellness days 7

Referral bonus

Training reimbursement

English lessons discount

Health benefits up to $1k

Workplace stipend

Gratitude bonuses

Job summary

Social Discovery Group (SDG) is seeking a Lead QA Engineer (AI Native) to own testing strategy for an AI-driven product with significant financial implications. You will join a small senior team and guide end-to-end quality, using automation and AI agents to shape robust verification.

This remote, individual contributor role emphasizes ownership, fast decision-making, and collaboration with engineers and DevOps to balance speed and safety. Fluency in Russian is required.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building and owning testing processes in large, complex products with high reliability requirements.
• Strong engineering background: understanding of system architecture, backend services, CI/CD and deployment processes.
• Hands-on experience with test automation and integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines.
• Daily use of AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or similar) as a core part of your work.
• High autonomy and ownership: ability to take loosely defined problems, propose solutions and drive them to completion without detailed specs.
• Willlingness to work as a hands‑on individual contributor in a small senior team.
• Fluent Russian.

Responsibilities

• Design and build the end-to-end testing pipeline for a product largely written by AI agents: pre-merge checks, nightly test runs, release and production gates.
• Define the quality strategy for AI-generated code: where risks are highest, what coverage is needed, and how to keep it sustainable at scale.
• Set up continuous automated UI testing across browsers and mobile devices, including AI-agent-driven testing; evaluate, choose and integrate external tools and services.
• Own product reliability from a technical perspective, with special focus on critical financial flows.
• Work closely with engineers and DevOps to embed quality into the development process and find the right trade-offs between speed and safety.
• Use AI agents daily to create, maintain and evolve tests and testing tooling.
• Drive quality initiatives proactively and share best practices with the team.

Skills

QA architecture

CI/CD

Test automation

AI-first testing

SDET

Ownership

Remote collaboration

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

Cursor

Job description

Social Discovery Group (SDG) is a group of social discovery companies. SDG solves the problems of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection - transforming virtual intimacy into the new normal. SDG’s products redefine the way people interact and connect with one another.

Our portfolio includes social entertainment platforms designed to connect people online across different cultures and regions of the world.

We bring together a team of like-minded people and IT professionals who specialize in creating and developing globally impactful social discovery products. Our international team of digital nomads works remotely from all over the world.

We’re proud to be a two-time “Great Place to Work” winner (USA & Japan, 2024–2025) and a Top-5 Company for Work-From-Anywhere Jobs (FlexJobs, 2025).

We are looking for an Lead QA Engineer (AI Native) to join a new product in our portfolio.

Your will join a small senior team of four, and we build in a truly AI-first way: almost all of our code is written by AI agents (Claude Code, Codex), while we design the processes, set the tasks and verify the results. The codebase already spans millions of lines, with complex components and integrations, and the product works with real money. Ensuring its reliability is a challenge no textbook covers yet. That's why we need someone to own it.

This is an individual contributor role in a flat team, with no people management. Your leverage comes from processes, automation and AI agents, not team size.

Your main tasks will be:

• Design and build the end-to-end testing pipeline for a product largely written by AI agents: pre-merge checks, nightly test runs, release and production gates;
• Define the quality strategy for AI-generated code: where risks are highest, what coverage is needed, and how to keep it sustainable at scale;
• Set up continuous automated UI testing across browsers and mobile devices, including AI-agent-driven testing; evaluate, choose and integrate external tools and services;
• Own product reliability from a technical perspective, with special focus on critical financial flows;
• Work closely with engineers and DevOps to embed quality into the development process and find the right trade-offs between speed and safety;
• Use AI agents daily to create, maintain and evolve tests and testing tooling;
• Drive quality initiatives proactively and share best practices with the team.

We expect from you:

• Proven experience building and owning testing processes in large, complex products with high reliability requirements, as a QA Architect, senior QA/SDET, or a senior engineer responsible for testing strategy;
• Strong engineering background: understanding of system architecture, backend services, CI/CD and deployment processes;
• Hands‑on experience with test automation and integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines;
• Daily use of AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or similar) as a core part of your work, and genuine interest in AI-first development;
• High autonomy and ownership: ability to take loosely defined problems, propose solutions and drive them to completion without detailed specs;
• Willingness to work as a hands‑on individual contributor in a small senior team.
• Fluent Russian

What do we offer:

• REMOTE OPPORTUNITY to work full-time;
• The initial pay level or pay range for this role will be shared with candidates during the recruitment process and before the commencement of employment;
• Vacation 28 calendar days per year;
• 7 wellness days per year (time off) that can be used to deal with household issues, to lie down and recover without taking sick leave;
• Bonuses up to $5000 for recommending successful applicants for positions in the company;
• 50% payment for professional training, international conferences, and meetings;
• Corporate discount for English lessons;
• Health benefits. According to the paychecks, if you are not eligible for corporate medical insurance, the company will compensate you with up to $ 1,000 gross per year per employee. This can be spent on self-purchase of health insurance or on doctor’s fees for yourself and close relatives (spouse, children);
• Workplace organization. The company provides all employees with an equipped workplace and all the necessary equipment (table, armchair, wifi, etc.) in our offices or co-working locations. In the other locations, the company provides reimbursement of workplace costs up to $ 1000 gross once every 3 years, according to the paychecks. This money can be spent on the rent of the co-working room, on equipping the working place at home (desk, chair, Internet, etc.) during those 3 years;
• Internal gamified gratitude system: receive bonuses from colleagues and exchange them for our merchandise, team building activities, massage certificates, etc.