Senior Quality Assurance Engineer

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior QA Engineer based in Christchurch, New Zealand, to champion end-to-end quality ownership and influence the engineering team's testing processes. This role involves handling test design, automation infrastructure, release gates, and production monitoring. The successful candidate should integrate AI into daily workflows for designing, building, and delivering software with high standards.

You will proactively identify potential issues prior to production deployment involving monetary transactions, create dependable test automation used by other engineers, and lead updates to the test infrastructure by introducing modern capabilities. Collaborative work with Engineering, Product, Compliance, Architects, and Team Leads is essential. Ownership of quality strategies, leading test architecture, mentoring mid-level QA engineers, and contributing to inter-domain quality decisions are key responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and manage integration test harnesses and contract tests across multiple domains and partner APIs related to money movement.
• Lead test automation development that governs production code deployment for processes including customer onboarding, KYC/KYB procedures, payment initiation, foreign exchange, settlement, and related payment flows.
• Evaluate and maintain the right mix of manual and automated testing tailored to the domain.
• Create and execute manual test cases when necessary.
• Drive automation efforts utilizing frameworks like Playwright and similar tools.
• Develop and maintain CI/CD quality strategies featuring release-blocking signals, flaky test management, infrastructure health checks, and release gating.
• Investigate production incidents, transforming insights into automated tests and process enhancements.
• Conduct test architecture and design reviews to ensure quality direction.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to mid-level QA team members.
• Utilize AI-assisted coding and testing tools such as Copilot, Cursor, or Claude Code daily.
• Advance the test infrastructure for emerging capabilities using contemporary technology stacks.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• 6 to over 10 years of experience in developing robust test automation solutions end-to-end.
• Proficiency in test automation with at least one programming language: JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, or C#.
• Solid skills in test framework design, system design, and test architecture.
• Advanced knowledge of SQL and relational database management focused on test data handling, validation, and debugging.
• Hands-on experience in API testing with tools like Postman or Bruno.
• Expertise in UI automation using Playwright, Cypress, or equivalent frameworks.
• Comprehensive understanding of both functional and non-functional testing principles including reliability and security.
• Experience with performance, load, or resilience testing using tools such as k6 or JMeter.
• Disciplined defect management practices.
• Skill in balancing manual testing with extensive automated coverage.
• Frequent use of AI-driven coding and testing tools encompassing test generation and evaluation throughout the development lifecycle.
• Experience working with AWS in development or testing contexts.
• Ownership of CI/CD pipelines like GitHub Actions including creating release gates.
• Industry experience in payments, foreign exchange, financial services, or regulated environments.
• Proven ability to lead QA technical efforts including defining architecture, conducting automation code reviews, and making quality decisions at a domain level.
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal.

Desirable Skills

• Familiarity with contract testing for partner integrations using Pact or similar tools.
• Experience testing Windows client applications.
• Background in automating mobile application testing.
• Experience leading quality transformation or modernization of test estates.

Benefits

• Competitive remuneration and performance-based bonus incentives.
• 23 days of annual leave, increasing to 28 days with tenure.
• A paid day off on your birthday.
• Employer contributions to pension schemes.
• Life insurance cover.
• Income protection plans.
• Critical illness coverage.
• Healthcare benefits.
• Support for mental health and wellbeing.
• Paid day allocated for volunteering.