QA Engineer — Manual Testing & Automation

Utility Profit

6d • Remote

About The Position

Utility Profit is seeking a QA Engineer to combine manual and exploratory testing with practical test automation across renter, partner, and internal operations applications, APIs, and third-party integrations. The role turns product requirements into clear test scenarios, investigates unexpected behavior, verifies fixes with reproducible evidence, and maintains and extends automated regression tests. The QA Engineer will use AI tools to support investigation and test design while independently checking their output against the product. Working with a small engineering team, the role helps distinguish product defects from test, data, and environment issues so release decisions are based on trustworthy results.

This is a fully remote, independent contractor position. Contractors use their own computer, equipment, and internet connection. Utility Profit observes U.S. company holidays, when offices and regular business operations may be closed. The role does not include company-sponsored employee benefits. No formal educational degree is required.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience testing web applications and APIs in a SaaS or startup environment; relevant demonstrated work is valued over a rigid number of years.
• Strong manual and exploratory testing skills, including negative cases, permissions, persistence, and regression testing.
• Practical experience writing or maintaining browser tests with Playwright or a comparable framework, and enough TypeScript or JavaScript to understand and modify test code.
• Comfort using Git, pull requests, and CI test results to investigate changes and verify the version being tested.
• Ability to use browser developer tools and API tools such as Postman.
• Basic SQL skills for verifying application data in approved test environments.
• Experience documenting bugs and test results in an issue tracker, with clear reproduction steps and evidence.
• Good written and spoken English and ability to work independently in a remote team.

Nice To Haves

• Experience testing third-party integrations, asynchronous workflows, and AI-powered features.
• Experience working with React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, or AWS.
• Experience using AI coding or browser tools for testing and investigation.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute risk-based manual, exploratory, API, and regression tests using written acceptance criteria and customer workflows.
• Test end-to-end flows across applications and integrations, including permissions, data persistence, notifications, background processing, error handling, and edge cases.
• Investigate failures using browser developer tools, API requests, logs, basic database queries, and relevant code changes; distinguish confirmed defects from hypotheses and flag product decisions needing clarification.
• Write actionable bug reports with reproduction steps, expected and actual results, tested environment and version, and supporting evidence such as screenshots or recordings.
• Prioritize release blockers separately from improvements and unrelated defects.
• Retest fixes and affected workflows, and clearly communicate QA results, remaining risks, and blockers in tickets and pull requests.
• Maintain and extend Playwright regression tests in TypeScript or JavaScript, including test data, page objects, setup, and cleanup; investigate failed CI runs and reduce flaky or misleading results.
• Coordinate with engineers to ensure a testable deployment, suitable accounts and data, and a demonstrated happy path are available before QA begins; promptly escalate missing prerequisites.
• Use AI-assisted tools to broaden test scenarios, investigate code, and improve automation while independently verifying findings and test results.

What This Job Offers

• Education Level: No Education Listed