Senior Engineer QA

Job Summary
The purpose of the Senior QA Engineer’s work is to test Mercans’ software solutions and identify errors throughout the development process. This position requires extensive expertise in software testing and automation, with responsibilities that include leading testing efforts, optimizing quality assurance practices, and mentoring junior team members. The role involves close collaboration with cross-functional teams to drive process improvements and ensure that all deliverables meet the highest quality standards. This Senior QA Engineer position offers opportunities to lead strategic initiatives, contribute to innovation in quality assurance, and work on complex, large-scale projects.

Duties and Responsibilities
Quality Assurance and Testing
Lead testing efforts for complex, large-scale payroll and HRM systems, ensuring software reliability and performance.
Develop and execute comprehensive test strategies, plans, and scenarios for manual and automated testing.
Conduct detailed feature, performance, and regression testing to ensure system stability and scalability.
Analyze complex system behaviors and business logic to identify and resolve potential issues.
Document and report software defects, track resolutions, and communicate testing results to stakeholders.
Automation and Process Optimization
Design and implement advanced test automation frameworks for UI and API testing using tools such as Kotlin, Selenium, TestNG, Maven, and GitLab.
Optimize automation pipelines to enhance test efficiency and increase coverage.
Establish and promote best practices in automation and testing across the QA team.
Identify opportunities for process improvements and introduce innovative quality assurance methodologies.
Leadership and Collaboration
Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior QA engineers, fostering professional development within the team.
Collaborate with developers, product owners, and other stakeholders to align quality objectives with project goals.
Participate in project planning, risk analysis, and prioritization to ensure timely and effective delivery.
Serve as a quality advocate, championing the implementation of best practices, tools, and methodologies.
Strategic Problem Solving
Conduct root cause analysis of recurring issues and recommend long-term solutions.
Proactively identify potential risks and define mitigation strategies.
Maintain a deep understanding of system architecture, integrations, and dependencies to guide effective testing efforts.
Education and Experience:
5+ years of hands-on experience in software testing, with a strong focus on automation and API testing.
Hands-on experience with different testing/development tools and frameworks such as Kotlin, Selenium, TestNG, Maven, and GitLab.
Expertise in creating detailed test strategies, test cases, and comprehensive reports.
Solid understanding of Agile methodologies and test-driven development (TDD) processes.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and the integration of automated testing into development workflows.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage complex systems effectively.
Nice to Have:
Technical knowledge of system architecture, database queries, and integration testing processes.
Education or background in computer science, IT or similar field.
Previous experience with HR and/or Payroll software.
Performance Goals:
[Provide measurable, time-bound goals that align with the role. Ensure goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). Avoid subjective language.]

Goal: Develop and document a comprehensive guideline for creating new API and Selenium tests. Measurable result: Produce a detailed Knowledge Base article for QA test automation engineers, outlining best practices for utilizing variables, functions, helpers, test structure, and other relevant standards.
Goal: Enhance the employee data generator tool to include additional fields, support multiple email domains, and generate more accurate and realistic data. Measurable result: The employee data generator is improved to include a wider variety of fields, support various email domains, and produce more accurate and realistic employee data for testing purposes.
Goal: Migrate all UI automated tests from the weekly pipeline to the daily pipeline to improve the feedback loop and accelerate issue detection. Measurable result: All UI automated tests are successfully integrated into the daily pipeline, ensuring more frequent execution and faster feedback on test results.
Goal: Investigate and recommend an optimized solution for test automation actions, scenarios, and outcome reporting, then implement the proposed improvements. Measurable result: Achieve more comprehensive and readable automated test reports with automatic generation, reducing the manual effort required for action tagging (e.g., test.info) and improving report consolidation.
Goal: Create at least 10 load and performance tests that cover Employees and Payroll modules. Measurable result: Employee import and most critical Payroll taskrunner operations are covered with load/performance tests.