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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Full Stack Tester

💰 $85,000 - $135,000

Quality AssuranceSoftware TestingTechnologyFull Stack DevelopmentSDET

🎯 Role Definition

Are you a quality champion with a passion for breaking things and then building them back stronger? This role requires a highly skilled and motivated Full Stack Tester to join our innovative engineering team. In this critical role, you will be the guardian of quality, responsible for ensuring the reliability, functionality, and performance of our applications across the entire technology stack—from the front-end user interface to the back-end services, APIs, and databases. You will be a key player in our agile development process, working collaboratively with developers and product owners to embed quality at every stage. If you thrive on developing sophisticated automation frameworks, hunting down elusive bugs, and driving a culture of excellence, we want to hear from you.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • QA Analyst or Manual Tester
  • Automation Engineer (specialized in UI or API)
  • Junior Software Developer (with a passion for quality)

Advancement To:

  • Senior Full Stack Tester / QA Lead
  • Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) Manager
  • DevOps or Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)

Lateral Moves:

  • Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)
  • Performance Engineer
  • Security Test Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, develop, and execute comprehensive test strategies and test plans that cover all layers of the application, from front-end UIs to back-end microservices.
  • Build, maintain, and enhance scalable and robust automated testing frameworks from scratch for web, API, and mobile platforms using industry-standard tools.
  • Perform thorough end-to-end testing of complex, multi-tiered systems to ensure seamless data flow, integration, and functionality across the entire technology stack.
  • Develop, execute, and maintain automated API tests using tools like Postman or REST Assured to validate data integrity, schema compliance, performance, and error handling.
  • Conduct a mix of functional, regression, integration, performance, and security testing to identify bugs, bottlenecks, and vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle.
  • Integrate automated test suites into the CI/CD pipeline (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps) to enable continuous testing and provide rapid feedback to the development team.
  • Collaborate closely with developers, product managers, and DevOps engineers within an Agile/Scrum environment to define acceptance criteria and ensure quality is a shared responsibility.
  • Analyze complex test results, triage failures, and meticulously document defects with clear, reproducible steps in bug tracking systems like Jira.
  • Implement and maintain performance and load testing scripts using tools such as JMeter, Gatling, or K6 to ensure application scalability and stability under user load.
  • Write and execute complex SQL and NoSQL queries to prepare test data, validate data transformations, and verify data integrity in relational and non-relational databases.
  • Perform manual exploratory and usability testing to uncover edge cases and user experience issues that automated scripts may not capture.
  • Champion quality assurance best practices and advocate for a "shift-left" testing mentality, encouraging developers to write testable code and own quality.
  • Develop sophisticated UI automation tests for modern single-page applications (built with React, Angular, Vue.js) using frameworks like Cypress, Playwright, or Selenium.
  • Participate in peer code reviews for both application code and test automation code to ensure adherence to coding standards, maintainability, and best practices.
  • Set up, configure, and maintain test environments, including deploying application builds and managing test data, to ensure a stable and reliable testing landscape.
  • Create and maintain clear, concise testing documentation, including test strategies, test plans, and final test summary reports for project stakeholders.
  • Investigate and debug complex technical issues across the stack, working alongside developers to pinpoint the root cause of failures and verify fixes.
  • Stay current with emerging trends, tools, and techniques in the software testing and quality assurance domain to continuously improve team processes and capabilities.
  • Mentor junior QA team members on automation techniques, framework development, and effective testing strategies.
  • Define, track, and report on key quality metrics (e.g., test coverage, defect density, escape rate) to provide stakeholders with clear visibility into product health and release readiness.
  • Validate application behavior across different browsers, operating systems, and device form factors to ensure comprehensive cross-platform compatibility.
  • Evaluate and recommend new testing tools and technologies that can enhance the efficiency, effectiveness, and coverage of the quality assurance process.

Secondary Functions

  • Support release management activities by providing quality sign-offs, risk assessments, and go/no-go recommendations.
  • Contribute to the organization's overall quality and testing strategy roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business stakeholders and support teams to understand user-facing issues and reproduce them in a test environment.
  • Participate in incident response and post-mortem analysis to identify gaps in testing and implement solutions to prevent future regressions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Test Automation Frameworks: Deep proficiency with modern UI automation tools like Cypress, Playwright, or Selenium WebDriver for testing web applications.
  • API Testing Tools: Expertise in using Postman, REST Assured, Insomnia, or similar tools for comprehensive testing of RESTful and/or GraphQL APIs.
  • Programming & Scripting: Strong coding skills in at least one object-oriented language, such as JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Java, or C#, for writing clean, maintainable test code.
  • CI/CD & DevOps: Hands-on experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, or CircleCI.
  • Database & SQL: Strong ability to write complex SQL queries for data validation and setup; familiarity with both SQL (e.g., PostgreSQL, MySQL) and NoSQL (e.g., MongoDB, DynamoDB) databases.
  • Performance Testing Tools: Practical knowledge of performance and load testing concepts and tools such as JMeter, Gatling, or K6.
  • Containerization & Cloud: Familiarity with containerization technologies like Docker and experience working with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
  • Version Control Systems: Proficient in using Git and Git-based platforms (e.g., GitHub, GitLab) for managing test code and collaborating within a team.
  • Agile Methodologies: Solid understanding of Agile and Scrum principles and experience working within agile development teams.
  • Test Management Tools: Experience with tools like Jira, Xray, Zephyr, or TestRail for test case management, defect tracking, and reporting.

Soft Skills

  • Analytical & Problem-Solving: A meticulous and investigative mindset to debug complex, multi-layered issues and perform effective root cause analysis.
  • Communication & Collaboration: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills to articulate technical issues clearly and work effectively with cross-functional, non-technical, and technical team members.
  • Attention to Detail: A sharp eye for detail to catch subtle bugs, inconsistencies in application behavior, and deviations from requirements.
  • User Advocacy: A strong sense of empathy for the end-user and a passion for delivering a high-quality, intuitive, and reliable product experience.
  • Ownership & Proactiveness: A self-starter attitude with the ability to take ownership of the quality of a product and proactively identify areas for improvement.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's Degree in a technical discipline or equivalent practical industry experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science or a related engineering field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Software Engineering
  • Information Technology

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3-7 years of professional experience in software quality assurance, with a significant focus on test automation across the full stack.

Preferred:

  • Proven experience testing complex, distributed microservices architectures in a cloud-native environment (AWS, Azure, GCP).
  • Demonstrable experience building an automation framework from the ground up.
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