Mid-Level QA Engineer

Compass Education; Hawthorn (PA); Hybrid; USD 64,000 - 93,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

PD budget

EAP access

Parental leave

Team events

Referral program

Inclusive culture

Job summary

Compass Education in Melbourne seeks a QA Engineer to own testing across the environment, giving engineers confidence to merge and sign off releases.

The role blends testing with feature delivery and offers a pathway into full stack development for the right person, with opportunities to grow engineering skills while ensuring release readiness.

You'll work with Playwright, Cypress, Postman, GraphQL, and CI/CD tools in a hybrid setup.

Qualifications

• 4+ years in manual testing with test management/automation tooling.
• Experience writing automated tests or willingness to learn quickly.
• Practical use of AI tools (Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT) to speed up testing.
• Ability to run end-to-end release testing with minimal guidance.
• Strong communication and ability to give clear feedback to engineers.
• Genuine interest in growing into full stack engineering.

Responsibilities

• Own manual testing for tickets in the test environment.
• Run final pre-release regression and sign-off testing across the platform.
• Write automated tests (UI, API) to reduce manual testing load over time.
• Use AI tools to accelerate test case design, data generation, and scripting.
• Flag risk areas and work closely with engineers early in the process.
• Tackle feature and bug tickets across the stack with engineers on delivery.

Skills

Manual testing

Test automation

AI-assisted testing

Cross-functional collaboration

Release testing

Tools

Playwright

Cypress

Selenium

Postman

GraphQL

PostgreSQL

Gitlab CI

Job description

Come shape the future of education with us.

At Compass, we're on a mission to transform the school day for everyone - from staff and students to families and administrators. We build smart, seamless technology that empowers schools to focus on what really matters: learning, growing and thriving.

That mission has fuelled our growth into a global scale-up, now supporting 5,000+ schools across three countries, backed by a team of 300+ people. Our all-in-one school management platform is redefining how education communities connect, communicate and operate.

We're now looking for a QA Engineer to join Griddle, the team behind Compass's school timetabling platform - a complex, high-stakes product used by schools every day to management timetables, lines, exams and yard duties.

About the Role

This role owns the testing on our environment end-to-end, giving engineers the confiecnde to merge, and signing off each release before it goes out the door.

It's not a pure QA role. It's split roughly 50/50 between testing and feature delivery, with a genuine pathway into full stack development over time for the right person - a great fit for someone who wants to grow their engineering skills while being the trusted checkpoint before release.

What You'll Do

Testing

• Take ownership of manual testing for tickets moving through the test environment, and approve them for engineers to progress.
• Run final, pre-release regression and sign-off testing across the platform.
• Write automated tests (UI, API) to reduce manual testing load over time and build a more reliable release safety net.
• Use AI tools to accelerate test case design, test data generation and automation scripting.
• Flag risk areas and edge cases early, working closely with engineers rather than testing in isolation at the end.

Feature Delivery

• Pick up feature and bug tickets across the stack, working with engineers on real delivery work.
• Use AI tools to drive feature development - from scaffolding to implementation to testing your own changes.
• Grow exposure to backend (Spring Boot / PostgreSQL / GraphQL) and frontend work over time.

About You

This role is for someone who takes ownership seriously, communicates clearly, and wants to grow from QA into full stack engineering over time.

You will bring:

• 4+ years experience in manual testing, with confidence using test management/automation tooling (r.g. Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, Postman or similar).
• Comfort writing automated tests, or a keenness to build that skill quickly.
• Practical, hands-on use of AI tools (Cursor, Claude, ChatGPT, etc.) to speed up both testing and development work.
• Able to run a release testing cycle end-to-end with minimal guidance, without needing to operate at a senior or lead level.
• Strong communication skills, comfortable being the last checkpoint before release and giving clear, direct feedback to engineers.
• A genuine interest in eventually spending more time on the engineering side.

Highly regarded:

• Some full stack development experience - strong QA candidates who've dabbled in code and want to grow into it are welcome to apply.
• Experience testing complex, data-heavy or scheduling/timetabling-style domains.
• Exposure to GraphQL APIs and Postgres.
• Experience in a CI/CD environment (Gitlab CI, or similar).

Why Join Compass

You'll join a small, high-trust engineering team building a genuinely complex, high-stakes product, with real ownership over the release process, a clear pathway into full stack development, and visible impact on thousands of schools every day.

What we offer:

• A hybrid working environment, based out of our Melbourne office hub.
• Learning and development opportunities, including a dedicated PD budget.
• 24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), including face-to-face, phone and live chat support.
• A parental leave program for both primary and secondary carers.
• Regular team events, social budgets and in-office perks help you stay connected, from team lunches to end-of-week socials.
• Employee Referral Program
• A supportive, inclusive culture where your voice is valued and heard.

Compass is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We embrace and celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Prior to commencing employment, you’ll need:

• A valid Employee Working With Children Check
• A satisfactory National Police Check
• Verification of unrestricted work rights in Australia (e.g. citizenship, passport or birth certificate)