Senior SDET (Manual + Playwright Automation)

Deque Systems; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Deque Systems is seeking a Senior Development Engineer in Test to own end-to-end quality for a product, balancing manual and automated testing. You will mentor junior engineers and drive test strategies, design comprehensive test plans, and ensure coverage across web UI and RESTful APIs.

The role emphasizes collaboration with cross-functional teams, adopting AI-assisted scripting, and improving CI/CD quality gates.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent technical studies.
• 8-10 years of experience in software QA, including at least 2 years in a QA senior role owning quality for a product or multiple modules.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills and strong team skills.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end quality for the assigned product from requirements through release sign-off.
• Define test strategy and test plans; write and review test cases for coverage.
• Perform manual and automation testing; coordinate activities across teams.
• Design, develop, and execute automated tests for web UI and APIs using a JS-based framework.
• Maintain and expand automation framework and regression suite.
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and monitor results.
• Analyze production bugs, perform root cause analysis, and drive preventive actions.
• Mentor junior QA engineers and review their work and coding standards.
• Track and report quality metrics and release readiness to stakeholders.

Skills

Test strategy writing

End-to-end QA

Manual and automation testing

Web API testing

Root cause analysis

Agile/Scrum testing

JavaScript/TypeScript

UI automation in JS framework

Automation framework maintenance

CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Git/Jira/TestRail

Mentoring junior QA engineers

Quality metrics reporting

Education

Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Playwright

Puppeteer

Cypress

WebdriverIO

Job description

As a senior development engineer in test, the person will own end-to-end quality for a product, driving both functional (manual) and automation testing while mentoring junior engineers.

Qualification:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, along with strong team skills, are required.
• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent technical studies
• 8-10 years of experience in software QA, including at least 2 years in a QA senior role owning quality for a product or multiple modules.

Skills and Requirements:

• Proven ability to write and review test strategies, test plans, and test cases, ensuring coverage, traceability, and clarity
• Solid understanding of the end-to-end QA process: requirement analysis, test planning and design, execution, defect management, regression, release sign-off, and post-release validation
• Ability to handle both manual and automation activities for a product and decide the right balance between them
• Strong experience in testing and automating web applications and RESTful APIs (e.g., Postman, Playwright API testing, or similar)
• Experience analysing production defects, performing root cause analysis, and driving preventive actions
• Agile/Scrum testing experience and working with cross-functional teams
• Strong programming skills in JavaScript (preferred) or TypeScript; Node.js experience is a plus
• Hands-on experience designing, building, and maintaining UI automation in a JS-based framework (Playwright preferred; Puppeteer, Cypress, or WebdriverIO also relevant)
• Experience building and enhancing automation frameworks, not only writing scripts within existing ones
• Practical experience using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) to develop, refactor, and maintain automation scripts, with the judgment to review and validate AI-generated code
• Strong experience with CI/CD tools, especially GitHub Actions (Jenkins/CircleCI a plus): configuring workflows/jobs, integrating test suites, and analysing pipeline results
• Proficiency with Git and defect/test management tools (e.g., Jira, TestRail, or similar)
• Experience mentoring and guiding junior QA engineers, including reviewing their test cases and automation code
• Strong organisational and problem-solving skills, good attention to detail, and the ability to report quality status clearly to stakeholders

Good to have (Optional)

• Understanding of web accessibility (WCAG) and accessibility testing tools
• Understanding performance/load testing (e.g., k6, JMeter) reports
• Experience with AWS and Docker
• Experience defining and tracking QA metrics (e.g., automation coverage, defect leakage, pass rates)

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to

• Own end-to-end quality for the assigned product, from requirement analysis through release sign-off.
• Define the test strategy and test plans for features and releases; write and review test cases to ensure adequate coverage.
• Perform and coordinate both manual/functional and automation testing activities for the product.
• Design, develop, and execute automated tests for web UI and APIs using a JavaScript-based framework, leveraging AI tools to speed up script development and maintenance.
• Maintain, enhance, and expand the automation framework and regression suite.
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and monitor results for faster, reliable releases.
• Analyse production bugs, perform root cause analysis, identify gaps in testing or process, and implement preventive actions.
• Debug, triage, and document issues; work closely with developers to resolve them.
• Partner with developers, Product Owners, and other QA teams to identify gaps in test and automation coverage and close them.
• Promote shift-left testing practices, ensuring test cases are defined early and automation is embedded in development workflows.
• Mentor and guide junior QA engineers, review their work, and ensure coding/testing standards are followed.
• Track and report quality metrics and release readiness to stakeholders.

About Deque

Deque (pronounced dee-cue) is a web accessibility software and services company, and our mission is Digital Equality. Regardless of their ability, everyone should have equal access to information, services, applications, and everything else on the web.

We work with enterprise-level businesses and organisations to ensure their sites and mobile apps are accessible. Installed in over 250,000 browsers and with over 4,000 audit projects completed, Deque is the industry standard. Join our growing family as we work to make the web a better place for everyone.