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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Manual QA Engineer

💰 $65,000 - $95,000

Quality AssuranceTechnologySoftware DevelopmentIT

🎯 Role Definition

This role requires a detail-oriented Manual QA Engineer who will be a critical part of our software development lifecycle. In this role, you will be the champion of quality, ensuring our applications meet and exceed customer expectations. You'll work closely with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to understand requirements, develop comprehensive test plans, and hunt down bugs before they ever reach our users. This position is ideal for a proactive individual with a curious mindset and a relentless drive for perfection, who thrives in a collaborative and fast-paced Agile environment.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior QA Tester / QA Analyst
  • Technical Support Specialist / Customer Support Engineer
  • IT Helpdesk Technician

Advancement To:

  • Senior QA Engineer / QA Lead
  • QA Automation Engineer (with upskilling)
  • Quality Assurance Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Business Analyst
  • Product Owner
  • Technical Writer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Develop, document, and maintain comprehensive and well-structured test plans and test strategies based on project specifications and technical documentation.
  • Design, create, and meticulously maintain detailed, reusable test cases and test scripts to ensure full requirement and functionality coverage.
  • Execute manual test suites for functional, regression, integration, and end-to-end testing across multiple platforms including web, iOS, and Android.
  • Perform thorough exploratory testing to uncover edge cases, usability issues, and unexpected software behaviors not covered by formal test cases.
  • Identify, isolate, and precisely document software defects and inconsistencies in a bug tracking system like Jira, providing clear, concise steps to reproduce, logs, and supporting evidence.
  • Conduct rigorous regression testing to verify that recent code changes, bug fixes, and new features have not adversely affected existing functionalities.
  • Collaborate closely with product managers and software developers to review and analyze user stories and technical requirements, providing early feedback to prevent defects.
  • Actively participate in all Agile/Scrum ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and sprint retrospectives, to represent the quality assurance perspective.
  • Validate that user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) elements conform to design mockups and style guides, ensuring a consistent and intuitive user journey.
  • Perform compatibility testing across a range of browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) and operating systems (e.g., Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) to ensure broad application stability.
  • Communicate test progress, execution results, and quality metrics clearly and effectively to stakeholders and the project team to support release decisions.
  • Triage and prioritize defects based on severity and impact, working with the development team to ensure timely resolution.
  • Set up and maintain test environments, including configuring software, managing test data, and ensuring all necessary tools are operational.
  • Assist in the user acceptance testing (UAT) process by preparing test scenarios and supporting business users during their validation phase.
  • Review and provide feedback on technical documentation, user manuals, and release notes to ensure accuracy and clarity.
  • Investigate and reproduce complex bugs reported by customers or internal teams, providing detailed analysis to aid developers in troubleshooting.
  • Contribute to the continuous improvement of the QA process by identifying inefficiencies and suggesting enhancements to testing methodologies and tools.
  • Perform backend testing by executing SQL queries to validate data integrity, transformations, and consistency within the database.
  • Manually test APIs using tools like Postman or Insomnia to verify that endpoints function correctly, handle errors gracefully, and return expected data.
  • Proactively advocate for the end-user's experience, raising concerns about usability, performance, and overall product quality throughout the development cycle.

Secondary Functions

  • Support User Acceptance Testing (UAT) by guiding business stakeholders and triaging feedback.
  • Contribute to the team's knowledge base by documenting testing procedures, application quirks, and best practices.
  • Collaborate with the support team to understand and reproduce customer-reported issues.
  • Participate in release and deployment planning activities, providing a final quality sign-off.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep understanding of the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) and Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), particularly within Agile/Scrum frameworks.
  • Proficiency with test management and bug tracking tools such as Jira, Zephyr, TestRail, or Azure DevOps (ADO).
  • Experience in creating and executing clear, concise, and comprehensive test plans and test cases.
  • Strong knowledge of different testing types, including functional, regression, smoke, sanity, integration, and UI/UX testing.
  • Hands-on experience with cross-browser and cross-platform testing on web and mobile devices.
  • Basic to intermediate knowledge of SQL for database querying to perform backend data validation.
  • Experience with API testing using tools like Postman, Insomnia, or Swagger UI to validate endpoints and data payloads.
  • Familiarity with browser developer tools (e.g., Chrome DevTools) for debugging front-end issues, inspecting network requests, and checking console errors.
  • Understanding of version control systems, such as Git.
  • Exposure to performance and/or security testing concepts and tools is a significant plus.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional attention to detail and a meticulous, organized approach to testing.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a creative and curious mindset.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills for documenting bugs and collaborating with a cross-functional team.
  • A user-centric mindset with a passion for delivering a high-quality product experience.
  • Ability to work both independently and as a collaborative team member in a fast-paced environment.
  • Strong time management and prioritization skills to handle multiple tasks and deadlines effectively.
  • A proactive and persistent nature, with a drive to see issues through to resolution.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • High School Diploma with relevant certifications (e.g., ISTQB) or equivalent professional experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology
  • Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 2-5 years of dedicated experience in a manual software quality assurance role.

Preferred:

  • Proven experience testing complex web applications and/or native mobile (iOS/Android) applications.
  • A strong track record of working within an Agile/Scrum development team.
  • Experience in a SaaS or product-driven technology company.
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