Senior QA Engineer (Manual & Automation)

Role Overview

Senior QA Engineer (Manual & Automation) at Salla. This is a hands-on role covering both manual and automated testing, responsible for ensuring that every release meets quality standards and making informed go/no-go release decisions.

Role Purpose

To take ownership of product quality end to end across the platform, building quality in early through requirement reviews and design discussions, defining and refining the QA approach to fit each situation, and making accountable go/no-go release decisions based on risk and test results.

Key Responsibilities

Quality Ownership & Strategy

• Own quality end to end, building it in early through requirement reviews, design discussions, and test strategy, through to the final go/no-go call on releases.
• Define and continuously refine the QA approach, including testing standards, workflows, tools, and quality metrics.
• Adapt testing depth, process, and priorities to risk, timeline, and context rather than applying a one-size-fits-all process.
• Decide what needs testing, how deeply, and with which approach (functional, regression, API, UI, performance, security, usability).
• Decide what stays manual and what gets automated, and know when enough is enough.

Manual & Exploratory Testing

• Perform thorough manual and exploratory testing on new features, finding what scripts miss: edge cases, unexpected user behavior, UX problems, and the UI details users notice (layout, states, responsiveness).
• Review requirements with engineering, product, and DevOps teams to define test strategies.

Test Automation

• Build and maintain Playwright (TypeScript/JavaScript) automation that runs in CI, catches real issues instead of just adding to a test count, and gives the team fast, trustworthy feedback.
• Use AI tools thoughtfully to speed up test creation, analysis, and debugging, and build AI-assisted workflows where they add value, while always validating the output.

Code & Defect Management

• Review code and pull requests properly: read them, question them, and push back when something isn't right.
• Triage defects and investigate them in depth using browser DevTools (network, console, performance, storage) to find root causes, not just symptoms.
• Help the team prioritize what matters most.

Preventive Quality

• Prevent recurring issues by identifying the pattern behind bugs, analyzing defect trends, and putting safeguards in place (tests, checks, process changes).
• Think ahead about how new features, scale, and changes will affect quality.

Communication & Leadership

• Communicate risks clearly to developers, product managers, and leadership, with a recommendation rather than just a report.
• Take initiative to spot gaps in processes, tools, or product and drive improvements.
• Mentor other QA engineers and raise the quality mindset across the team.

Qualifications & Experience

• 5+ years of QA experience with real ownership of releases and quality decisions.
• Strong experience in both manual and automated testing, and the judgment to balance the two.
• Experience testing web, mobile, and APIs.
• Hands-on experience with Playwright or strong experience with a similar framework plus a willingness to go deep on Playwright.

Skills & Competencies

• Solid JavaScript and TypeScript skills, enough to write clean, maintainable Playwright automation and read application code with confidence.
• Strong command of Git and GitHub: branching, pull requests, code reviews, and working within CI pipelines.
• Deep understanding of testing types, techniques, and test design, and the judgment to choose the right one.
• Comfort with browser DevTools for debugging and investigation.
• Practical experience using AI in your work, and the critical thinking to know when to trust it and when not to.
• A preventive mindset: you've fixed problems at their root, not just patched symptoms, and can give examples.
• Flexibility to adjust your approach to different situations, avoiding rigid processes while keeping quality standards high.