Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for QA Developer

🎯 Role Definition

The QA Developer is a highly skilled engineering professional who bridges the gap between software development and quality assurance. You will design, implement, automate and maintain test frameworks, execute manual and automated tests, and collaborate with development, operations, product and UX teams to ensure software releases meet the highest standards of reliability, performance and user experience. You act as both a test automation architect and hands‑on tester, integrating quality into the full software development life cycle (SDLC) and continuously improving test strategy, tooling and processes.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

QA Engineer or Manual Tester with automation exposure
Software Developer/Test Automation Specialist
Quality Assurance Analyst with scripting and automation experience

Advancement To:

Senior QA Developer or Lead QA Automation Engineer
QA Architect or Automation Framework Lead
Director of Quality Engineering / Head of QA & Test Automation

Lateral Moves:

SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test)
DevOps/Test Automation Engineer
Quality Engineering Consultant / Test Process Architect

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Design, develop and maintain automated test frameworks and scripts (UI, API, performance, integration) using languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript or C#.
Create detailed, comprehensive and well‑structured test plans, test cases and test suites that align with functional, non‑functional and business requirements.
Execute manual, automated and regression testing across web, mobile, desktop and/or backend systems to validate new functionality, ensure no regressions and verify defect fixes.
Collaborate with developers, product owners and UX designers to review requirements and user stories, identify testability issues, define acceptance criteria and challenge ambiguous specifications.
Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and ensure builds are automatically tested, with test results fed back to development teams and quality gates enforced.
Monitor, log and track defects through defect‑tracking tools (JIRA, Bugzilla, TestRail), communicate severity/impact, work with teams to reproduce and validate fixes and follow through until closure.
Perform performance, load, stress, security and reliability testing as required: plan, execute, analyse results and report findings to stakeholders.
Design and maintain test data, test environments and continuous integration test harnesses to support manual and automated test execution in line with project goals.
Analyse test results, highlight test coverage gaps, identify root‑causes for defects, and partner with development and architecture teams to drive corrective actions and improve system quality.
Maintain and enforce testing and quality assurance best practices and frameworks across teams: code review for test scripts, maintain reusable test libraries, enforce test naming/structure guidelines.
Coach and mentor junior test engineers: review test code, promote automation strategy, share knowledge of frameworks/tools and assist with growth of the QA automation competency.
Develop and maintain documentation for test strategies, test plans, execution logs, test results summary reports, release readiness checklists and quality‑assurance metrics dashboards.
Participate in release planning, evaluate quality risk, define exit criteria, recommend go‑no‑go decisions and ensure software conforms to agreed quality standards before production deployment.
Work closely with DevOps, infrastructure and operations teams to define, support and verify production‑like test environments, deployment automation, logging/monitoring and incident‑response readiness.
Stay up‑to‑date with new test automation tools, frameworks, quality‑engineering trends and emerging technologies (e.g., AI in testing), evaluate and introduce improvements for higher efficiency and better coverage.
Support cross‑platform, cross‑browser, cross‑device testing scenarios including compatibility testing, responsive designs, localisation and accessibility compliance (WCAG) where required.
Collaborate across multiple teams (product, development, QA, analytics) to translate business requirements, user‑stories and data into testable scenarios and ensure traceability from requirements to defects to release.
Manage technical debt within test automation: identify flaky tests, triage, refactor or retire obsolete tests, optimise test run time and maintain reliable test suites aligned with agile delivery cadence.
Define and track quality metrics such as defect leakage, automation coverage, test cycle time, build‑break rate, production incident rate and report on these to leadership for continuous improvement.
Drive a culture of quality: advocate for “shift‑left” testing, embedding quality early in the SDLC, ensure testability, code coverage and collaboration between QA, development and DevOps teams.

Secondary Functions

Support ad‑hoc data requests and exploratory testing analytics to uncover usage patterns, system anomalies or regressions.
Contribute to the organisation’s quality‑engineering strategy and roadmap—help define automation tooling strategy, test‑data management, infrastructure requirements and QA process enhancements.
Collaborate with business units (product management, support, operations) to translate user‑needs, feedback and defect trends into priorities for test backlog and engineering improvements.
Participate in sprint‑planning, backlog‑refinement, stand‑ups, retrospectives and other agile ceremonies within the QA and development teams.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proficient in scripting or programming languages commonly used in test automation (e.g., Java, Python, JavaScript, C#).
Strong experience with automation frameworks and tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, TestNG, JUnit, Appium).
Solid knowledge of software testing methodologies: functional, regression, integration, API, performance, security testing and lifecycle (SDLC).
Experience designing and executing tests for APIs/web services (REST, SOAP) and backend logic, using tools like Postman, REST‑Assured, SoapUI.
Skilled in SQL queries and database validation for test data setup, data integrity, and backend verification.
Ability to integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps) and manage version control systems (Git).
Familiarity with performance/load testing tools (JMeter, Gatling, LoadRunner) and ability to analyse results.

Soft Skills

Excellent verbal and written communication skills: able to articulate test results, defects, quality risks to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
Analytical and problem‑solving mindset: able to break down complex systems, think critically about edge cases, root‑cause failures and design test strategy accordingly.
Collaboration and teamwork: works effectively across development, QA, product, operations and business teams; thrives in agile delivery environments.
Ownership and accountability: takes end‑to‑end responsibility for the quality of deliverables, drives improvements and ensures quality gates are met.
Adaptability and continuous learning: evolves with new technologies, methodologies and is proactive in enhancing test automation and QA processes.
Time‑management and prioritisation: balances multiple test tasks, production issues, automation projects and quality improvements under delivery deadlines.
Mentorship and coaching: supports junior QA engineers, reviews test code, shares best practices and helps build QA team capability.
User‑centric mindset: focuses on building quality experiences for end‑users, understands workflows, usability, accessibility and business impact.
Quality‑driven: maintains high standards of test coverage, code reliability, maintainability and avoids quick fixes that compromise long‑term stability.
Strategic thinking: aligns test automation, QA metrics and quality improvement initiatives with business goals, product roadmap and release strategy.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related discipline.
Preferred Education:
Master’s degree or professional certification (e.g., ISTQB, CSTE) in Quality Assurance or Software Testing is a plus.
Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Software Engineering
Information Technology
Quality Assurance / Software Testing

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:
3 – 5 years of hands‑on experience in QA, test automation or software testing roles with building and executing automated test suites.
Preferred:
5+ years of experience in QA development with a strong automation background, experience driving test framework development, CI/CD integration, high‑volume systems and mentoring others.

Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for QA Developer