Remote Automation Engineer - Data-Driven QA Specialist

nextSource; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 124,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare Benefits including Medical,

Voluntary STD & LTD

401(k) Retirement Planning

Discount Program

Job summary

nextSource is seeking an Automation Engineer to design, build, and maintain robust automated test suites for enterprise financial aid applications across desktop and web platforms. The role blends hands‑on scripting with strong quality judgments to translate requirements into repeatable automated coverage delivered on schedule.

The ideal candidate will automate against SQL Server, structured data files, and external system integrations, modernizing legacy desktop tests to web while ensuring

Qualifications

• 4–6+ years of professional experience in software test automation or QA engineering, with hands‑on ownership of automation frameworks
• Strong proficiency in Python, C# and XML scripting for test automation, with clean, maintainable, reusable code
• Hands‑on experience building and maintaining UI test automation using Playwright (or comparable tools such as Selenium) for web applications
• Experience automating Windows desktop applications using tools such as pywinauto, WinAppDriver, FlaUI, or similar
• Experience logging, tracking, and reporting defects and test results using a defect or test management tool (e.g., Jira)
• Solid working knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server, including writing T‑SQL queries to set up, validate, and clean up test data
• Experience with XML and structured data files, including generating and validating files for import/export and integration testing
• Experience testing and automating RESTful APIs, and validating integrations between internal and external systems
• Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), QA methodologies, and test design techniques (regression, functional, integration, data‑driven)
• Ability to analyze requirements and acceptance criteria, identify gaps, and translate them into complete, well‑structured automated test coverage
• Skill in debugging flaky or failing tests, performing root‑cause analysis, and clearly reporting defects to development teams
• Working knowledge of web accessibility (WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA) and an ability to include accessibility checks in automated test suites
• Mentor QA engineers on automation best practices

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, execute, and maintain automated regression and functional test suites for desktop and web applications
• Update and extend automation scripts each release cycle to reflect new features, changed behavior, and evolving requirements
• Build data‑driven tests that cover multiple data‑creation and import paths and multiple academic/award years
• Create and manage test data using SQL Server queries and XML or other structured data files
• Participate in sprint planning and estimation, and provide effort and story‑point input for automation work
• Review user stories and acceptance criteria, and flag gaps, ambiguities, or missing scenarios before test development
• Report results, defects, and quality risks clearly to the QA Manager, developers, and stakeholders
• Contribute to automation standards, reusable libraries, and documentation that improve team efficiency

Skills

Python

C#

XML scripting

UI test automation

Selenium

SQL Server

RESTful APIs testing

WCAG accessibility testing

Agile / Scrum

Root-cause analysis

Tools

Playwright

Selenium

pywinauto

WinAppDriver

FlaUI

Jira

Openpyxl

XML handling

Job description

nextSource is seeking an Automation Engineer to design, build, and maintain robust automated test suites for enterprise financial aid applications across desktop and web platforms. The role blends hands‑on scripting with strong quality judgments to translate requirements into repeatable automated coverage delivered on schedule.

The ideal candidate will automate against SQL Server, structured data files, and external system integrations, modernizing legacy desktop tests to web while ensuring