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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Development Tester

💰 $70,000 - $120,000

Quality AssuranceSoftware TestingEngineering

🎯 Role Definition

The Development Tester (also referred to as QA Engineer, Test Automation Engineer, or SDET) is responsible for designing,
implementing, and executing automated and manual test strategies to ensure high-quality software delivery. This role partners
closely with Product, Development, DevOps, and Support teams to shift testing left, integrate tests into CI/CD pipelines,
validate APIs and microservices, and provide actionable quality metrics. The Development Tester is expected to combine
programming skills, test automation frameworks, and strong analytical abilities to prevent defects and accelerate delivery
while maintaining a focus on user experience, security, and performance.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior QA Engineer or Manual Tester transitioning into automation
  • Software Developer or Backend Engineer moving into quality-focused roles
  • QA Automation Intern with hands-on CI/CD exposure

Advancement To:

  • Senior SDET / Lead Test Automation Engineer
  • QA Architect / Test Engineering Manager
  • Engineering Manager with quality and release ownership

Lateral Moves:

  • DevOps Engineer (specializing in CI/CD test automation)
  • Release Engineer or Platform Reliability Engineer
  • Product Quality Manager / Site Reliability Testing

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, develop, and maintain robust automated test frameworks and test suites using languages and tools such as Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Selenium WebDriver, Playwright, Cypress, TestNG, JUnit, or pytest to support regression, functional, and end-to-end test coverage.
  • Author and maintain comprehensive automated API test suites using Postman, REST Assured, Karate, or similar tools to validate RESTful and GraphQL endpoints, ensuring contract and integration stability across microservices.
  • Create and execute detailed test plans, test cases, and test data for new features and release milestones, documenting expected outcomes and acceptance criteria aligned with product requirements and user stories.
  • Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, GitHub Actions, or Azure DevOps), configuring builds to run unit, integration, and acceptance tests on pull requests and scheduled pipelines to detect regressions early.
  • Perform and automate cross-browser and cross-device testing strategies to ensure consistent UI/UX across modern browsers and mobile platforms; implement visual regression testing where applicable.
  • Lead defect triage sessions and manage the defect lifecycle using tools like Jira, Azure Boards, or Trello; write clear, reproducible bug reports with logs, stack traces, and reproduction steps; verify fixes and manage regression retests.
  • Implement test automation best practices including page object models, modular test design, data-driven and keyword-driven testing patterns to improve maintainability and scalability of test suites.
  • Collaborate closely with developers to adopt Test-Driven Development (TDD) or Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) practices using Cucumber, SpecFlow, or equivalent frameworks; help write executable specifications and scenarios.
  • Develop and execute performance, load, and stress tests using JMeter, Gatling, Locust, or cloud-based performance testing tools; analyze test results and work with engineering teams to address bottlenecks.
  • Conduct security and vulnerability testing as part of the QA workflow, leveraging static/dynamic analysis and security scanning tools (OWASP ZAP, Snyk, Dependabot) to identify and mitigate security risks before release.
  • Validate database integrations and perform data integrity tests using SQL and ORM-level checks to ensure correct persistence, migrations, and rollback behaviors across environments.
  • Build and maintain automated smoke and sanity checks that run on environment deployments to provide quick feedback on release readiness and guard rails for production deployments.
  • Mentor junior testers and developers on test automation principles, provide code reviews for test code, and evangelize quality-first approaches across the engineering organization.
  • Collaborate with Product Owners and Business Analysts to refine acceptance criteria and acceptance tests, ensuring clarity and testability of user stories during sprint planning.
  • Create and maintain test environments, manage test data anonymization and generation scripts, and coordinate with DevOps for environment provisioning and configuration to support reliable test execution.
  • Implement monitoring and observability checks that complement testing efforts, leveraging application logs, metrics (Prometheus/Grafana), and distributed tracing to troubleshoot flakiness and intermittent failures.
  • Analyze test coverage and quality metrics, produce dashboards and reports (test pass/fail rates, flakiness, automation ROI) to inform release decisions and continuous improvement initiatives.
  • Troubleshoot flaky tests, false positives/negatives, and environment-related failures; triage root causes and implement stabilization strategies such as retry logic, test isolation, and environment hardening.
  • Drive continuous improvement of QA processes, including release gating, test data management, branching strategies, and automated rollback plans to reduce time-to-market while maintaining high quality.
  • Support pre-production and production validation activities such as canary releases, blue-green deployments, and post-deployment verification to ensure safe production rollouts.
  • Participate actively in Agile ceremonies (sprint planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives) to align testing priorities with development sprints and deliver incremental quality improvements.
  • Contribute to regulatory, compliance, and audit readiness by documenting testing activities, maintaining traceability matrices, and ensuring test evidence meets organizational and legal standards.
  • Evaluate, recommend, and help onboard new testing tools, frameworks, and services that increase automation coverage, reduce manual effort, or improve test reliability and performance.
  • Provide on-call support and rapid response for production incidents related to application defects, participating in root-cause analysis and retrospective actions to prevent recurrence.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc testing requests and exploratory testing to uncover edge cases and usability issues not covered by automation.
  • Create and maintain knowledge base articles, runbooks, and testing playbooks to enable faster onboarding and consistent testing practices across teams.
  • Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders to translate business requirements into measurable test objectives and acceptance criteria.
  • Assist in the creation of release notes and quality summaries to communicate risks and test coverage to stakeholders and leadership.
  • Contribute to the organization's testing roadmap by piloting automation initiatives, proof of concepts, and continuous testing strategies.
  • Participate in capacity planning for test execution, cloud test lab management, and budget recommendations for test tooling and infrastructure.
  • Provide training sessions and brown-bag presentations on testing tools, automation patterns, and quality engineering mindsets to uplift team capabilities.
  • Help set team-level KPIs (mean time to detect, automation coverage, flakiness rate) and contribute to retrospective action items that improve overall delivery quality.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Test automation frameworks and scripting: Selenium WebDriver, Playwright, Cypress, Puppeteer, or similar.
  • Programming languages: Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, or Kotlin for writing maintainable test code and tooling.
  • API testing tools and libraries: REST Assured, Postman, SOAP/UI, Karate, or similar for functional and contract testing.
  • CI/CD and build systems: Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or CircleCI for pipeline integration and automated test runs.
  • Test frameworks and unit testing: JUnit, TestNG, pytest, Mocha, Jest, or NUnit.
  • Performance and load testing: JMeter, Gatling, Locust, or cloud-based load testing platforms.
  • Version control and branching strategies: Git, GitFlow, trunk-based development; pull request and code review practices.
  • Defect tracking and test management: Jira, Azure Boards, TestRail, Zephyr, Xray.
  • Containerization and cloud environments: Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/GCP/Azure for test environment provisioning and parallelization.
  • SQL and database testing: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, or NoSQL databases for data validation and integrity checks.
  • Security testing basics: OWASP principles, static and dynamic analysis tools (Snyk, Dependabot, SonarQube, OWASP ZAP).
  • Observability and monitoring tools: ELK/EFK stack, Prometheus, Grafana, and distributed tracing (Jaeger, Zipkin).
  • BDD/TDD methodologies and tools: Cucumber, SpecFlow, or equivalent for executable specifications and collaboration with product teams.
  • Test data management and automation: data masking, synthetic data generation, and fixtures to enable reliable test scenarios.
  • Cloud test lab and parallel execution: Selenium Grid, BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, or self-hosted solutions for scaling UI tests.

Soft Skills

  • Strong verbal and written communication to articulate defects, testing strategies, and risks to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Critical thinking and analytical problem-solving to diagnose complex issues spanning code, infrastructure, and data.
  • Attention to detail and a methodical approach to designing edge-case tests and verifying fixes.
  • Collaboration and teamwork: ability to work cross-functionally with engineers, product managers, and operations in Agile environments.
  • Time management and prioritization to balance automation backlog, manual testing needs, and sprint commitments.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning mindset to evaluate new tools, methodologies, and technologies that improve testing outcomes.
  • Mentorship and coaching skills to grow junior testers and influence quality culture across teams.
  • Customer/user empathy to understand real-world usage patterns and prioritize impactful test scenarios.
  • Stakeholder management and diplomacy in triaging defects and negotiating release decisions.
  • Resilience and ownership: ability to take responsibility for quality outcomes and follow through on production incident remediation.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or related technical discipline — or equivalent practical experience in software testing and automation.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field.
  • Certifications such as ISTQB, Certified Agile Tester, or cloud vendor certifications (AWS/GCP/Azure) are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Technology
  • Data Science (relevant for API and data validation testing)
  • Cybersecurity (helpful for security testing responsibilities)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years of software testing, QA, or SDET experience; ranges vary by seniority of role.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years hands-on experience in test automation, CI/CD integration, API and performance testing, and working within Agile/Scrum teams.
  • Experience contributing to or leading test strategy, automation frameworks, and quality dashboards in production-grade environments.
  • Demonstrated history of shipping high-quality software in cloud-native or microservices architectures, with a track record of reducing escape defects and improving delivery velocity through automation and process improvements.
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