Manual Test Engineer

Steampunk; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Steampunk seeks a Manual Test Engineer to join our DevSecOps practice, delivering QA across applications, cloud, and data systems in an Agile setting.

You will develop test plans and cases, validate AI outputs, and perform functional, regression, and performance testing across the stack. Collaboration with engineering and data science teams is essential, with opportunities to mentor teammates and improve processes.

Qualifications

• Ability to obtain a U.S. government Security Clearance.
• Bachelor's Degree in an IT field OR Bachelor's in a non-IT field and 2 years related IT experience.
• 3 years of experience with Git SCM providers such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket.
• 3 years of experience with one or more programming or scripting languages.
• 3 years of application DevSecOps experience in an Agile environment.
• Experience utilizing docker containers and utilizing platforms such as Kubernetes.
• Experience with performance and load testing.
• Experience in one or more cloud computing environments (e.g. AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Experience with LLM-specific evaluation frameworks.
• Familiarity with responsible AI and bias-testing practices.

Responsibilities

• Understand stakeholder needs and convey to developers.
• Meet with product design team to determine testing parameters.
• Create test plans, test cases, procedures, defects, and QA reports.
• Manage test data architecture definition and requests.
• Perform data validation, functional, performance/load, usability, accessibility, and AI model verification tests.
• Validate AI-generated output for accuracy and bias-free results.
• Test dynamic UI rendering of AI content and edge cases.
• Conduct API testing to isolate model vs UI issues.
• Document defects and collaborate with engineering and data science teams.
• Mentor junior team members and drive DevSecOps process improvements.

Skills

GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket

Scripting languages

DevSecOps experience

Cloud platforms

LLM eval frameworks

Responsible AI bias testing

Education

Bachelor's in IT

2+ years IT exp with non-IT degree

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Cloud tooling

Job description

Overview

As a Manual Test Engineer, you will work with our growing DevSecOps practice delivering quality assurance services to support application, cloud, and data systems development. We are looking for candidates with experience with quality assurance practices in an Agile/DevSecOps work environment.

Contributions

Responsibilities include:

• Understand the needs of stakeholders and convey to developers
• Meet with product design team to determine testing parameters
• Create test plans, create test cases, test procedures, defects, defect reports and final QA reports for products
• Manage test data architecture definition and requests
• Ability to perform the following types of testing and analysis:
  • Data validation testing
  • Functional testing
  • Performance and load testing
  • Usability testing
  • Accessibility (508) testing
  • AI model verification
• Provide validation testing of different system and data sets for cloud migrations
• Validate AI-generated output for accuracy, relevance, consistency, and freedom from hallucination or bias
• Test dynamic UI rendering of variable-length, variable-structure AI-generated content, including truncation, overflow, and formatting edge cases
• Perform functional, regression, exploratory, and boundary/edge-case testing across the full application stack
• Test API endpoints directly to isolate whether defects originate from the model or from the UI layer
• Validate latency handling, loading states, timeouts, and error states tied to variable AI response times
• Conduct adversarial/red-team style testing to identify unexpected or malicious input handling gaps
• Perform regression testing following model updates, fine-tuning, or retraining to catch unintended behavior shifts
• Document, track, and prioritize defects in collaboration with engineering and data science teams
• Work with software developers and software engineers to ensure that development follows established processes and works as intended
• Document as-is state of the environment, perform a gap analysis, and produce artifacts that articulate options and recommendations
• Leverage virtualization and containerization to optimize testing software systems
• Work with teams to bring continuous improvement to DevSecOps processes and tools
• Present regular status updates and provide cross training to other DevOps team members
• Act as an individual contributor and mentor more junior team members

Qualifications

Required:

• Ability to obtain a U.S. government Security Clearance
• Bachelor's Degree in an IT field OR Bachelor's in a non-IT field and 2 years related IT experience
• 3 years of experience with Git SCM providers such as GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket
• 3 years of experience with one or more programming or scripting languages
• 3 years of application DevSecOps experience in an Agile environment
• Experience utilizing docker containers and utilizing platforms such as Kubernetes
• Experience with performance and load testing
• Experience in one or more cloud computing environments (e.g. AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Experience with LLM-specific evaluation frameworks
• Familiarity with responsible AI and bias-testing practices

Preferred:

• Certifications:
  • CAST (Certified Associate in Software Testing)
  • International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) Certification
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, interpersonal and collaborative skills
• Experience with documenting an as-is state of the environment, perform a gap analysis, and produce artifacts that articulate options and recommendations

About steampunk

Steampunk relies on several factors to determine salary, including but not limited to geographic location, contractual requirements, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. The projected compensation range for this position is $90,000 to $130,000. The estimate displayed represents a typical annual salary range for this position. Annual salary is just one aspect of Steampunk’s total compensation package for employees.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Steampunk participates in the E-Verify program.

Steampunk is a Change Agent in the Federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients in the Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health and DoD sectors. Through our Human-Centered delivery methodology, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our Federal clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges. As an employee owned company, we focus on investing in our employees to enable them to do the greatest work of their careers – and rewarding them for outstanding contributions to our growth. If you want to learn more about our story, visit http://www.steampunk.com.