Senior QA Automation Engineer

As a Senior QA Automation Engineer at Employment Hero, your key responsibilities include developing comprehensive automation strategies for our web applications, mobile apps, microservices, and APIs. You'll enable teams by delivering frameworks and tools that help implement best testing practices and create automated test scripts that reflect user interactions. You'll also take ownership of test coverage, reporting, and driving improvements on these metrics within a fast-paced CI/CD environment.

To qualify for the Senior QA Automation Engineer position at Employment Hero, you need over 5 years of experience in developing test strategies and automation. Proficiency in programming languages such as NodeJS, TypeScript, or JavaScript is essential. Additionally, familiarity with automation frameworks like Cypress, Playwright, or Detox, along with experience in API testing and microservices, are core requirements.

Success as a Senior QA Automation Engineer at Employment Hero hinges on a mix of technical and communication skills. You should possess strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, be an advocate for software testing best practices, and have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Experience in building performance metrics and carrying out exploratory testing will also set you apart as an ideal candidate.

Employment Hero champions a remote-first approach, allowing you the flexibility to own your time and deliver impactful work. Communication is key, and we prioritize asynchronous methods, ensuring that everyone can collaborate effectively regardless of their location. This promotes a work-life balance that's crucial for our employees’ wellbeing.

Joining Employment Hero comes with numerous perks. You will receive generous employee share options in a rapidly growing tech company, a supportive learning and development environment, and access to cutting-edge tools. We also offer employee-friendly policies such as optimal paternity leave and a work-from-home office expense budget, all designed to enhance your work-life experience.

In answering this question, you should highlight any hands-on experience you have with automation frameworks like Cypress, Playwright, or others that match the job description. Discuss specific projects where you've effectively utilized these frameworks, the challenges faced, and how you overcome them. Mention any contributions you made in improving automation effectiveness and efficiency.

Talk through your structured approach, emphasizing understanding the application requirements, defining the scope of automation, selecting the appropriate tools and frameworks, and ensuring collaboration with development teams. Stress the importance of aligning the testing strategy with organizational goals and delivering clear communication throughout the process.

In your answer, be sure to describe how you approach exploratory testing by creating test charters focused on specific parts of the application. Discuss how you document findings, the importance of session-based testing, and how exploratory testing fits into the overall quality assurance strategy. Provide examples of when exploratory testing uncovered critical issues.

Here, provide a specific example where you identified gaps in test coverage and made enhancements to address them. Explain the metrics you used to measure improvements and how you communicated this to stakeholders. Detailing the impact of your changes on team efficiency and product quality can demonstrate your proactive approach.

Your response should cover best practices in writing clean, modular code for test scripts. Discuss the importance of using version control, adhering to coding standards, and regular refactoring. You can also talk about incorporating feedback from peers and conducting code reviews to boost maintainability.

A good response here is to explain how you've integrated automated tests into CI/CD pipelines in previous projects. Share details about tools you've used (like Jenkins or Travis CI) and how you've utilized them to enhance deployment efficiency. Discuss any challenges you faced and the solutions you implemented.

In your answer, highlight how you assess project requirements, deadlines, and stakeholder needs when prioritizing tasks. Discuss methods like agile methodologies or Kanban boards and how you communicate priorities with your team to ensure alignment and focus on critical deliverables.

In your answer, identify a few key testing metrics such as test coverage, defect density, and escaped defect rate. Explain how these metrics help in assessing the quality of the software and the overall effectiveness of the QA process. Discuss how you track these metrics and how they inform your decision-making.

Share a detailed story about a specific bug that was particularly challenging to identify or fix. Describe your investigation process, the technical steps you took to resolve it, and the ultimate outcome. Highlight collaboration with other teams, showcasing your approach to teamwork in QA.

Mention specific tools you are familiar with for API testing, such as Postman, SoapUI, or automated frameworks like RestAssured or similar. Discuss the features of these tools that you find beneficial for efficiently testing APIs and how they support your overall QA process.