SDET - Automation Engineer

SmarTek21 • Kirkland, WA

2d

About The Position

We are seeking an experienced and highly skilled SDET - Automation Engineer to lead, optimize, and execute our automated and manual testing strategies. This role requires 10+ years of hands-on experience in software development engineering in test (SDET), strong programming and scripting expertise, and a deep understanding of test automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and modern quality assurance methodologies. You will be instrumental in improving our automation suites—specifically focusing on API and UI testing—securing system quality, and scaling our test environments across various devices and platforms. You will work closely with engineering, development, and project management teams to ensure the fast, secure, and reliable delivery of our applications and services.

Requirements

• 10+ years of professional experience in DevOps, Software Development Engineering in Test (SDET), or Automation Engineering.
• Extensive, hands-on experience with Selenium Automation, Playwright automation (specifically for UI developed using React/Storybook), and Rest API testing frameworks.
• Strong development skills with deep expertise in Java, JavaScript, and the JUnit framework.
• Solid fundamental programming skills, including writing XML, utilizing web services, and executing SQL queries to extract data for test verification.
• Deep understanding of software testing concepts, Agile environments, the complete bug life cycle, and various testing levels, methods, and estimation techniques.
• Proficient with quality management platforms (e.g., TestRail, HP-ALM/QC, TFS, SpiraTest, or TestDirector) to plan, execute, and interlink tests with release requirements.
• Experience using SCM tools for code maintenance (Git, Bitbucket, or TFS) and modern IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, VSCode, or Visual Studio).
• Competency utilizing desktop/mobile operating systems, web proxies for cross-browser testing, simulators, emulators, and SQL clients.
• Exceptional critical thinking, analytical prioritization skills, and clear communication capabilities across technical and non-technical teams.

Nice To Haves

• Foundational knowledge of security testing principles and exposure to vulnerability assessment methodologies.
• Hands-on experience or familiarity with contract testing tools such as Pact or Spring Boot.
• Experience operating within fast-paced or startup environments, executing testing workflows within public cloud infrastructures (Azure, AWS, or GCP).

Responsibilities

• Analyze complex software requirements and prepare detailed query lists. Ask meaningful, targeted questions when requirements are incomplete to yield necessary data and ensure effective testing.
• Write and execute robust automated and manual test cases to uncover critical system bugs, user interface (UI) anomalies, and usability issues.
• Provide expert inputs on high-level test scenarios, project challenges, technical risks, resource allocation, and precise test estimations during collaborative planning meetings.
• Build, maintain, and expand test automation tasks, utilizing modern tools to ensure comprehensive regression and feature coverage.
• Conduct thorough exploratory testing and verify absolute functional consistency across various hardware devices and web browsers.
• Partner closely with development teams throughout the SDLC—from reproducing reported issues and emphasizing fixes for critical bugs to understanding the underlying code changes.
• Prioritize and estimate task execution efficiently, ensuring daily status reports articulate critical bug data and risk assessments clearly to clients and stakeholders.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed