Senior QA Engineer - Test Strategy & Automation Lead

Watu; United States; Remote; USD 68,508 - 102,762; Full time

Job summary

Watu is seeking a Senior QA Engineer embedded in a squad to own test architecture, performance testing, and quality gates. You will shape the test pyramid, write production-grade automation in Java/Python/JavaScript, and mentor others across the QA chapter.

You act as a senior technical authority for quality within your squad while collaborating with the QA Chapter Lead. You will contribute to chapter-wide standards, tooling decisions, and onboarding material, while leading chapter-level

Qualifications

• 5+ years of QA engineering experience in a software product environment and ownership of test strategy.
• Strong automation engineering skills, production-grade test code in Java/Python/JavaScript.
• API testing depth including REST, contract testing, and JSON schema validation.
• Experience with performance and load testing and translating results into actions.
• Comfortable operating without a QA manager and mentoring others.

Responsibilities

• Attend and be a full member of all squad ceremonies (planning, standups, reviews, retros).
• Define acceptance criteria with the Product Owner before each sprint.
• Own test architecture and the test pyramid integration across unit, integration, contract, and E2E tests.
• Lead performance and load testing and establish baselines.
• Own the Definition of Done quality gate for the squad and ensure quality before shipping.
• Mentor QA Engineers in the squad and across the chapter, raising automation quality.
• Deputise for the QA Chapter Lead and contribute to chapter standards and tooling changes.
• Drive a chapter-wide initiative (e.g., contract testing framework or AI-assisted testing) end to end.
• Triage flaky tests vs. real regressions in high-risk areas.

Skills

Automation engineering

Java

Python

JavaScript

API testing

Performance testing

Mentoring

Contract testing

Tools

Pact

Espresso

Appium

Job description

Watu is seeking a Senior QA Engineer embedded in a squad to own test architecture, performance testing, and quality gates. You will shape the test pyramid, write production-grade automation in Java/Python/JavaScript, and mentor others across the QA chapter.

You act as a senior technical authority for quality within your squad while collaborating with the QA Chapter Lead. You will contribute to chapter-wide standards, tooling decisions, and onboarding material, while leading chapter-level