The Senior Quality Engineer serves as the strategic quality leader responsible for establishing and executing comprehensive testing strategies that ensure only high-quality artifacts reach production. This role combines hands-on manual and automated testing expertise with strategic quality leadership, driving testing excellence across the entire gateway project platform. The Senior Quality Engineer works closely with the engineering team to implement end-to-end testing, performance validation, and quality assurance processes for the payment processing system.
Strategic Quality Leadership Responsibilities (40% Time Allocation)
- Quality Strategy: Define and implement comprehensive quality assurance strategy for the gateway project MVP and future platform
- Testing Framework Design: Design testing frameworks and methodologies for payment processing, compliance, and security validation
- Tool Selection & Implementation: Research, recommend, and implement testing tools for automation, performance, and security testing
- Process Definition: Establish quality gates, testing processes, and quality metrics throughout the development lifecycle
- Cross-Team Coordination: Collaborate with Engineering Manager, CTO, and development team to integrate quality practices into development workflows
- Quality Metrics: Define and track quality KPIs including defect rates, test coverage, and production incident prevention
- Risk Assessment: Identify quality risks specific to payment processing, PCI compliance, and financial transaction handling
- Continuous Improvement: Drive continuous improvement of testing processes and quality practices
Manual Testing Responsibilities (30% Time Allocation)
- End-to-End Testing: Execute comprehensive manual testing of payment flows, surcharge calculations, and settlement processes
- Exploratory Testing: Conduct exploratory testing to identify edge cases and user experience issues
- Compliance Testing: Manual validation of PCI-DSS compliance, surcharge regulations, and financial compliance requirements
- Integration Testing: Test integrations with TicketSocket HPP, ProPay APIs, and external payment processors
- User Acceptance Testing: Coordinate and execute user acceptance testing with business stakeholders
- Security Testing: Manual security testing including penetration testing coordination and vulnerability assessment
- Cross-Browser/Device Testing: Ensure payment flows work correctly across different browsers and devices
- Regression Testing: Execute critical path regression testing for high-risk payment processing features
Test Automation Responsibilities (30% Time Allocation)
- Automation Strategy: Design and implement test automation strategy for APIs, services, and critical payment flows
- Framework Development: Build and maintain automated testing frameworks using Java-based testing tools
- API Test Automation: Develop automated tests for the project’s Gateway, Dynamic Surcharge Engine, and Settlement APIs
- Performance Testing: Implement automated performance and load testing to validate system scalability (50+ TPS requirements)
- Continuous Integration: Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines to prevent regression
- Data-Driven Testing: Create automated tests for various payment scenarios, card types, and compliance rules
- Monitoring Integration: Implement automated monitoring and alerting for production quality metrics
- Test Maintenance: Maintain and optimize existing automated test suites for reliability and execution speed
What They Will NOT Do
- Write production application code or implement business features
- Make architectural decisions or define system design (Engineering Manager/CTO responsibility)
- Manage individual developer performance or conduct team management activities
- Handle product strategy or business stakeholder relationship management
- Perform infrastructure provisioning or DevOps activities (Senior Backend Engineer with DevOps Focus responsibility)
Key Accountabilities & KPIs
Strategic Quality KPIs:
- Quality Gate Success: 100% of releases pass defined quality gates before production deployment
- Production Defect Rate: <2% critical bugs in production, <5% total production defects
- Test Coverage: >90% automated test coverage for critical payment processing paths
- Compliance Validation: 100% compliance testing pass rate for PCI-DSS and regulatory requirements
Testing Execution KPIs:
- Test Execution Efficiency: 95% of planned test cases executed per sprint
- Defect Detection: >80% of defects caught in pre-production testing phases
- Automation Coverage: >70% of regression tests automated within 6 months
- Performance Validation: All performance tests validate system meets SLA requirements (50+ TPS, <100ms latency)
Process & Tool KPIs:
- Testing Process Adoption: 100% team adoption of defined testing processes and quality gates
- Tool Effectiveness: Testing tools and frameworks demonstrate measurable improvement in quality metrics
- Team Satisfaction: Engineering team satisfaction with quality processes >4.0/5
Required Testing & Quality Skills
- Quality Assurance Leadership: 5+ years QA experience with 2+ years in strategic quality leadership roles
- Manual Testing Expertise: Advanced manual testing techniques including exploratory, regression, and compliance testing
- Test Automation: Strong experience with automated testing frameworks and tools (Selenium, TestNG, REST Assured)
- Performance Testing: Experience with performance testing tools (JMeter, LoadRunner, or similar)
- API Testing: Advanced API testing experience with RESTful services and microservices architectures
- Security Testing: Knowledge of security testing methodologies and tools for PCI-compliant systems
- Test Management: Experience with test management tools and defect tracking systems
Required Technical Skills (Java/AWS Stack Focus)
- Java Testing Frameworks: Proficiency with JUnit, TestNG, Mockito, and Spring Test frameworks
- AWS Testing: Experience testing cloud-native applications and AWS services
- Database Testing: Experience testing with PostgreSQL/MySQL and data validation techniques
- CI/CD Integration: Experience integrating automated tests into AWS CodePipeline and build processes
- Monitoring & Observability: Understanding of AWS CloudWatch and application monitoring for quality metrics
- Version Control: Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows
Preferred Payment/Fintech Specific Skills
- Payment System Testing: Experience testing payment processing, transaction flows, and financial systems
- Compliance Testing: Knowledge of PCI-DSS testing requirements and financial regulatory compliance
- Financial Data Testing: Experience with financial transaction testing, reconciliation, and audit trail validation
- Multi-Currency/Multi-Processor: Experience testing complex payment scenarios and processor integrations
- Real-Time Systems: Testing experience with high-throughput, low-latency financial systems
- Fraud Detection Testing: Experience testing fraud prevention and security systems
Preferred Tools & Technologies
Test Automation Tools:
- API Testing: REST Assured, Postman, Insomnia
- UI Automation: Selenium WebDriver, Cypress, Playwright
- Performance Testing: JMeter, Gatling, AWS Load Testing solutions
- Test Management: TestRail, Zephyr, or similar test management platforms
AWS Testing Tools:
- AWS Native: AWS CodeBuild integration, CloudWatch Synthetics
- Monitoring: AWS X-Ray, CloudWatch, Application Insights
- Security: AWS Security testing tools and vulnerability scanners