QA Analyst (Product Minded)

Athlete to Athlete•Santa Monica, CA

2d•$60,000 - $100,000•Onsite

About The Position

Athlete to Athlete (A2A) is the leading technology platform connecting youth athletes with verified college athletes for online coaching and mentorship. Our mission is to build driven, confident, and resilient people through sports. Weâre building a category-defining product that could serve 60M+ youth athlete families, and weâre looking for a product-minded QA Analyst to own and elevate end-to-end testing. As a QA Analyst at A2A, you will be responsible for validating product quality across web and mobile, owning bugs from discovery through resolution, and improving confidence in every release. Youâll combine strong testing fundamentals with excellent product instinctsâthinking like an end-user, helping shape expected behavior, and advocating for quality at every stage of development. You will often act as a âGoalieâ alongside Productâreacting to real-time issues, blocking noise, and serving as a first line of defense before items reach Engineering, bringing context, reproduction steps, and well-investigated remedies. This is an early, foundational QA hire with the opportunity to shape how quality is practiced across the company. We strongly prefer an onsite model (3â5 days/week) in our Santa Monica office.

Requirements

3â5+ years of QA / software testing experience in product-driven environments (startup experience a plus)
Proven ability to own bugs end-to-end and drive them to resolution
Strong product instincts and ability to quickly understand new products
Experience testing Web and Mobile applications
Hands-on experience testing APIs and backend services
Familiarity with tools like Jira, TestRail (or similar), and debugging tools such as Datadog or Crashlytics
Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Strong problem-solving skills and comfort working independently
Experience collaborating closely with Product Managers and Engineers
Product-minded: you care deeply about user experience, not just test cases
Comfortable operating between Product and Engineering
Self-reliant and proactiveâyou donât wait to be told what to test
Comfortable in scrappy, fast-moving environments where priorities evolve
Detail-oriented without losing sight of the bigger picture
Strong sense of ownership and accountability
Empathetic to the fact that we build experiences for minors, where trust, safety, and emotional impact matter deeply

Nice To Haves

Strong preference for familiarity with two-sided marketplaces, video platforms (e.g., Zoom, Agora), and scheduling systems

Responsibilities

Test new features across Web and Mobile, including exploratory, regression, and acceptance testing
Own release validation and sanity checks for builds and branches prior to deployment
Identify, document, prioritize, and track bugs from discovery through resolution
Write clear, detailed, and reproducible bug reports with strong context and steps
Partner closely with Product and Engineering to clarify expected behavior, edge cases, and acceptance criteria
Act as a connective layer between Product and Engineeringâcomfortable reviewing or helping draft lightweight PRDs, and understanding how work moves through a scrum board
Investigate issues beyond the surface level to help identify underlying technical root causes
Validate bug fixes before and after deployment and support regression testing
Think like a user and advocate for excellent product experience, not just functional correctness
Help improve visibility into release readiness, test coverage, and product quality
Identify opportunities for automation and collaborate with Engineering to integrate into CI/CD pipelines
Learn A2A products deeply and continuously surface risks, gaps, and improvement areas