QA Engineer

Horizontal Talent; Foster City (CA); On-site; USD 30,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Horizontal Talent is seeking a detail-oriented QA Engineer to build automation, validate releases, and improve product quality across backend services and microservices in an onsite environment.

You will design automated tests for APIs, validate deployment readiness, and extend performance tests using K6/Locust, while integrating checks into CI/CD pipelines and collaborating with engineering teams.

Qualifications

• Strong proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript for test automation, API testing, and data validation.
• Hands-on experience with REST API testing frameworks such as pytest and requests, or similar tools.
• Experience with schema validation and API contract verification.
• Knowledge of performance and load testing tools such as K6, Locust, or equivalent.
• Ability to write SQL queries for quality metrics, release analysis, and issue triage.
• Experience working with Git, code reviews, and CI systems.
• Comfort troubleshooting distributed services in containerized environments using logs, health checks, and basic cluster tooling.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a collaborative approach to problem-solving.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain automated test coverage for backend APIs, background workers, and related microservices across multiple environments.
• Support release validation for versioned service deployments and help confirm readiness before production rollout.
• Create and extend performance and load tests for REST APIs using tools such as K6 or similar solutions.
• Integrate automated checks into CI/CD pipelines and release workflows to improve repeatability and speed of validation.
• Verify critical release behavior, including data consistency, schema changes, API contract updates, and cross-service interactions.
• Perform exploratory and component-level testing for new functionality and defect fixes, then help triage issues with engineering teams.
• Monitor release health through dashboards, logs, and test results to identify trends and possible regressions.
• Partner with engineering and QA stakeholders to define release criteria, test plans, and long-term automation approach.
• Document testing strategy, pipeline logic, and validation steps to support maintainability and knowledge sharing.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

API testing

pytest

requests

Schema validation

API contract verification

Performance testing

SQL

Git & CI

Troubleshooting distributed systems

Communication

Tools

K6

Locust

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Join a collaborative software quality team supporting release confidence for backend services, APIs, and microservices in a fast-paced, onsite environment. This role is ideal for a detail-oriented QA Engineer who enjoys building automation, validating releases, and helping improve product quality across development and production.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain automated test coverage for backend APIs, background workers, and related microservices across multiple environments.
• Support release validation for versioned service deployments and help confirm readiness before production rollout.
• Create and extend performance and load tests for REST APIs using tools such as K6 or similar solutions.
• Integrate automated checks into CI/CD pipelines and release workflows to improve repeatability and speed of validation.
• Verify critical release behavior, including data consistency, schema changes, API contract updates, and cross-service interactions.
• Perform exploratory and component-level testing for new functionality and defect fixes, then help triage issues with engineering teams.
• Monitor release health through dashboards, logs, and test results to identify trends and possible regressions.
• Partner with engineering and QA stakeholders to define release criteria, test plans, and long-term automation approach.
• Document testing strategy, pipeline logic, and validation steps to support maintainability and knowledge sharing.

Skills

• Strong proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript for test automation, API testing, and data validation.
• Hands-on experience with REST API testing frameworks such as pytest and requests, or similar tools.
• Experience with schema validation and API contract verification.
• Knowledge of performance and load testing tools such as K6, Locust, or equivalent.
• Ability to write SQL queries for quality metrics, release analysis, and issue triage.
• Experience working with Git, code reviews, and CI systems.
• Comfort troubleshooting distributed services in containerized environments using logs, health checks, and basic cluster tooling.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with a collaborative approach to problem-solving.

Preferred Skills

• Experience testing geospatial, mapping, or routing-related platforms.
• Background validating impact-assessment or constraint-management workflows in production systems.
• Familiarity with observability tools such as metrics, tracing, and log aggregation.
• Experience working with cloud data stores and query tools such as S3 or Athena.
• Exposure to workflow orchestration tools such as Airflow.
• Experience in QA, release management, or software quality metrics within a high-availability SaaS environment.
• Interest in using AI-assisted development tools to improve test creation and debugging efficiency.

Horizontal is committed to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and respectful workplace where people from all backgrounds can contribute and thrive. We welcome candidates who bring different perspectives, experiences, and ways of thinking, and we encourage you to apply if you’re excited about the role and meet the core qualifications.

By applying for this position, you acknowledge and agree that Horizontal Talent may contact you regarding your application using automated technology, including phone calls, SMS/text messages, or email, which may be delivered by our virtual AI recruiter, Alex.

Applications will be accepted for 4 weeks.

For those that join the team, we offer competitive compensation and benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement.

The pay range for this role is $22 - $38 per hour based on qualifications and experience.