QA Automation Engineer Jobs in Texas

INTRODUCTION

We are seeking a highly experienced QA Automation Engineer with 10+ years of experience to lead automated testing efforts for our microservices ecosystem. This role requires hands-on expertise in testing service contracts, Level 2/Level 3 APIs, and the ability to apply Domain-Driven Design (DDD) principles within the testing strategy. You will collaborate with product managers, architects, and developers to ensure our microservices are reliable, scalable, and meet both functional and non-functional requirements.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Automation Framework Development

• Design, develop, and maintain comprehensive test automation frameworks for microservices, focusing on integration, contract, and end-to-end testing.
• Ensure tests are reliable, repeatable, and easily maintainable across multiple services and deployment pipelines.

API and Service Contract Testing

• Collaborate with architects and developers to validate service contracts, ensuring that services adhere to agreed-upon schemas, versioning standards, and performance benchmarks.
• Implement and maintain API test suites (Level 2 and Level 3) using tools such as Postman, REST Assured, Karate, or similar.
• Perform contract testing (e.g., Pact) to ensure compatibility and integration quality across the microservices landscape.

DDD-Aligned Test Scenarios

• Understand and apply Domain-Driven Design concepts in test scenario creation.
• Work with business analysts and domain experts to translate bounded contexts and ubiquitous language into testable requirements and acceptance criteria.

Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)

• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps) to ensure rapid and reliable feedback on code changes.
• Monitor and optimize pipeline performance, identifying bottlenecks and proposing improvements.

Quality Metrics and Observability

• Define, track, and report on critical quality metrics (e.g., test coverage, pass/fail rates, defect density).
• Collaborate with DevOps and SRE teams to integrate testing with monitoring and logging solutions for better test observability and quicker root-cause analysis.

Performance and Reliability Testing

• Develop and execute performance/load/stress tests to ensure microservices meet SLAs and can scale effectively under heavy load.
• Investigate and address reliability issues, working closely with development teams to identify root causes and recommend fixes.

Collaboration and Mentorship

• Mentor junior QA engineers on best practices in automated testing, DDD, and API testing.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing sessions to improve the overall testing capabilities across teams.

Risk Identification and Mitigation

• Proactively identify testing gaps or potential risk areas in the microservices architecture (e.g., overlapping data models, insufficient test coverage in boundary cases).
• Collaborate with product managers and technical leads to prioritize testing efforts and mitigate project risks early.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent work experience).
• 10+ years of QA/testing experience, including 5+ years specifically in test automation for microservices or complex distributed systems.

Technical Expertise

• Proven track record in microservices testing: integration, contract (Pact or equivalent), and end-to-end testing.
• In-depth knowledge of Level 2/Level 3 API design and relevant testing methodologies.
• Experience applying Domain-Driven Design principles to testing strategies and test cases.
• Proficiency with automation tools/frameworks (e.g., Java-based frameworks, Python-based frameworks, Selenium/Cypress for UI, REST Assured, Postman, QTest, etc.).
• Familiarity with cloud-native environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) and container orchestration (Kubernetes).

CI/CD and DevOps Familiarity

• Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, etc.) and version control systems (Git).
• Basic knowledge of infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible) and configuration management is a plus.

Testing Mindset & Best Practices

• Strong understanding of SDLC and various testing levels (unit, integration, system, acceptance, performance).
• Expertise in Agile/Scrum methodologies, ability to align testing with iterative development cycles.

Soft Skills

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, to collaborate effectively across technical and non-technical teams.
• Strong analytical thinking, with an eye for detail in identifying test cases and spotting potential edge cases.
• Ability to mentor and coach junior team members, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Bonus Skills

• Experience with BDD tools (e.g., Cucumber, SpecFlow) for bridging business requirements and test cases.
• Knowledge of performance testing tools (e.g., JMeter, Gatling, Talos, K6).
• Familiarity with security testing or chaos engineering is a plus.

COMPENSATION, BENEFITS AND DURATION

• Minimum Compensation: USD 42,000

• Maximum Compensation: USD 147,000

Compensation is based on actual experience and qualifications of the candidate. The above is a reasonable and a good faith estimate for the role.

Medical, vision, and dental benefits, 401k retirement plan, variable pay/incentives, paid time off, and paid holidays are available for full-time employees.

This position is available for independent contractors.

No applications will be considered if received more than 120 days after the date of this post.