Senior Software Test Engineer

Job summary:

Owns quality end to end for an assigned product area or squad. Plans and executes the testing for that scope, builds and maintains its automated coverage inside the established Playwright framework, and mentors mid-level and junior engineers day to day. Works to the test strategy and standards set by the software testing director and operationalised by the principal quality engineer: applies them consistently within scope, and raises gaps or improvement proposals upward rather than changing them independently. Framework architecture and cross-team standards remain with the principal quality engineer. No direct reports.

Requirements

Quality ownership for an assigned scope

• Own the test approach, coverage and quality outcome for an assigned product area, module or squad.
• Analyse requirements and acceptance criteria early, identify risk areas and testability problems, and raise them before development starts.
• Estimate testing effort for own scope and commit to sprint and release timelines.
• Plan and execute functional, regression, integration, end-to-end and UAT testing across web and mobile.
• Report testing status, risks and quality evidence for own scope, and give a clear readiness view at release checkpoints.

Test automation

• Design, build and maintain automated test suites within the established Playwright framework, following the agreed structure and conventions.
• Extend shared framework components — helpers, fixtures, page objects, utilities — under the architectural direction of the principal quality engineer.
• Keep automated coverage for own scope growing in line with the agreed plan, and keep the suites reliable rather than muting failures.
• Automate API-level checks (Postman, RestAssured or equivalent) and validate data with SQL.
• Run and troubleshoot automated suites in CI/CD pipelines and act on the results.

Applying standards & supporting the practice

• Apply the agreed test strategy, standards and processes consistently across own scope.
• Peer-review test cases and automation code written by mid-level and junior engineers.
• Flag gaps, friction or risks in the agreed standards and propose improvements to the principal quality engineer or the software testing director.
• Contribute root cause input on escaped defects within own scope.

Mentoring & collaboration

• Mentor mid-level and junior engineers on test design, automation and tooling, and support their onboarding.
• Act as the day-to-day quality point of contact for the squad's developers, product owner and business analyst.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, stand-ups, sprint reviews and retrospectives.
• Apply approved generative AI practices in daily work, and pilot new ones when asked to do so.

Job specification:

• Experience: 4 to 7 years in software testing or quality engineering, including at least 2 years writing and maintaining automated tests in a production framework.
• Automation: Strong hands-on Playwright (preferred) or an equivalent modern framework, with working code fluency in JavaScript/TypeScript, Java or Python, and practical experience running suites in CI/CD.
• Technical breadth: Solid API testing (Postman, Swagger, RestAssured or similar), SQL for data validation, and experience testing both web and mobile applications.
• Generative AI: Practical, consistent use of AI-assisted tooling in testing work — test design, data generation, documentation and analysis. ISTQB CT-GenAI an advantage.
• Process: Able to own the test approach for a product area, estimate effort, apply risk-based techniques, and work to standards set by others within Agile/Scrum delivery.
• Mentoring: Demonstrated experience guiding less experienced engineers and reviewing their work constructively.
• Certifications: ISTQB Foundation Level required; a further ISTQB certification (Agile Tester, Mobile, Performance or CTAL) preferred.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.
• Languages: Good to fluent English, written and spoken. Arabic an advantage.
• Role boundaries: Test strategy, test plans and departmental direction are set and owned by the software testing director. Automation architecture and cross-team standards sit with the principal quality engineer. This role owns quality for an assigned scope, applies the agreed strategy and standards within it, mentors more junior engineers, and escalates gaps upward. No direct reports.
• Growth path: Progression to principal quality engineer (technical team lead), with framework architecture, cross-team standards and strategy contribution as the main development areas.