Founding Software Developer in Test (SDET)

First Resonance•Los Angeles, CA

17d

About The Position

As the founding Software Developer in Test (SDET) at First Resonance, you will take full ownership of our automated testing ecosystem. We are looking for a high-autonomy engineer who can bridge the gap between development and quality assurance without a pre-existing blueprint. You will be the internal Subject Matter Expert for all things automation. You won’t just be following a testing plan; you will be architecting the framework, selecting the patterns, and establishing the "Quality Culture" for our engineering team.

Requirements

Experience: 5+ years of professional experience in software testing or development, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead automation role where you had significant input on framework design.
Autonomy: Proven track record of working as the sole SDET or leading a testing function in a startup environment where you had to manage yourself.
Modern Stack Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in TypeScript (async/await, OOD) and Playwright.
BDD/Gherkin: Deep experience implementing Cucumber from scratch, including defining step definition patterns that are scalable.

Nice To Haves

React/Next.js Mastery: A strong interest or background in Frontend Engineering. You should be comfortable reading React code, understanding hooks/state, and using Browser DevTools to diagnose UI bugs.

Responsibilities

Roadmap Definition: Independently define and execute the automation strategy, prioritizing coverage areas (API vs. UI) based on risk and business value.
Self-Directed Management: Act as a "team of one" initially—managing your own backlog, setting technical standards, and providing regular status updates to engineering leadership.
Process Evangelism: Educate the broader engineering team on BDD practices, helping developers write better feature files and understand the value of the Playwright/Cucumber stack.
Architect & Maintain: Own the end-to-end lifecycle of our Playwright and TypeScript framework, utilizing the Page Object Model (POM) and custom Cucumber World contexts.
Performance & Scalability: Independently design and execute load testing strategies using K6 to ensure our infrastructure scales with our user base.
Tooling & Analytics: Manage our Testomatio integration, ensuring that test reporting provides actionable insights for stakeholders who may not be QA experts.
React/Next.js Integration: Use your knowledge of React to dive into the codebase, understand component structure, and ensure our frontend is built with testability in mind (e.g., advising on data-attributes and accessibility roles).
CI/CD Leadership: Take full responsibility for the stability of tests in the CI pipeline, managing parallelization, retries, and @quarantine tags to ensure the build stays green.