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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Quality Assurance Specialist

💰 $65,000 - $95,000

Quality AssuranceTechnologyITSoftware DevelopmentEngineering

🎯 Role Definition

As a Quality Assurance (QA) Specialist, you are the crucial final checkpoint in our development process and a key advocate for our users. You will be responsible for meticulously testing our software applications to identify, document, and resolve defects. This role involves a blend of manual and automated testing, requiring a sharp eye for detail and a passion for technology. You will collaborate daily with a dynamic team of engineers and product leaders to ensure that every feature we ship is stable, reliable, and meets the stringent quality standards our customers expect. Your efforts will directly impact product integrity, user satisfaction, and the overall success of our company.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Junior QA Analyst / Tester
  • Technical Support Engineer
  • Recent Computer Science / IT Graduate

Advancement To:

  • Senior QA Specialist / Lead QA Engineer
  • QA Automation Engineer
  • QA Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Business Analyst
  • Product Owner
  • DevOps Engineer

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, develop, and execute comprehensive, and well-structured test plans and test cases to ensure software meets or exceeds specified standards and end-user requirements.
  • Identify, record, document, and meticulously track bugs and defects using issue tracking systems like Jira, ensuring all issues are logged with clear, reproducible steps.
  • Perform thorough regression testing when bugs are resolved to verify fixes and ensure that no new issues or regressions have been introduced into the system.
  • Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including developers, product managers, and UX designers, to identify system requirements and embed quality throughout the entire software development lifecycle.
  • Develop, execute, and maintain automated test scripts for web and mobile applications using modern frameworks such as Selenium, Cypress, or Playwright to improve testing efficiency.
  • Conduct API testing using tools like Postman or Insomnia to validate data integrity, performance, and adherence to service-level agreements.
  • Actively participate in requirement and design review sessions, providing timely and meaningful feedback to prevent defects early in the development cycle.
  • Monitor the debugging process, work with development teams to ensure timely resolution of issues, and validate that solutions are robust and effective.
  • Estimate, prioritize, plan, and coordinate testing activities for various projects and sprints within an Agile/Scrum framework.
  • Create and maintain clear, concise documentation for testing processes, procedures, bug reports, and test results to ensure knowledge sharing and process consistency.
  • Conduct exploratory testing to uncover hidden defects, usability issues, and edge cases not covered by predefined test cases.
  • Analyze test results, identify quality trends, and provide detailed reports on software quality and test coverage to stakeholders and management.
  • Champion quality assurance best practices and high standards across the engineering organization, consistently advocating for the end-user experience.
  • Validate that software meets critical security and performance requirements through targeted load, stress, and vulnerability testing efforts.
  • Stay current with new testing tools, methodologies, and industry best practices to continuously improve the team's efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Assist in reproducing and triaging customer-reported issues, providing detailed and actionable information to the development team for swift resolution.
  • Set up and maintain test environments and test data required for executing a wide range of functional and non-functional test scenarios.
  • Review user stories and acceptance criteria to ensure they are clear, unambiguous, and testable from a quality assurance perspective.
  • Contribute to the continuous improvement of the CI/CD pipeline by integrating automated tests and establishing robust quality gates.
  • Perform accessibility testing to ensure the product is usable by individuals with disabilities, adhering to standards like WCAG.
  • Conduct comprehensive cross-browser and cross-device testing to guarantee a consistent and high-quality user experience across all supported platforms.
  • Evaluate product code and functionality against established technical specifications and internal quality benchmarks.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and perform exploratory data analysis to validate backend data integrity.
  • Contribute to the organization's overall quality strategy and testing roadmap.
  • Collaborate with the support team to understand common user-reported issues and translate them into new test cases.
  • Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and other agile ceremonies to represent the QA function.
  • Mentor junior QA team members and share knowledge on testing best practices and tools.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proficiency in creating and executing manual and automated test cases.
  • Experience with issue-tracking software, particularly Jira and Confluence.
  • Strong knowledge of software QA methodologies, tools, and processes (Agile, Scrum).
  • Hands-on experience with test automation frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, or Playwright.
  • Experience with API testing tools such as Postman or SoapUI.
  • Solid knowledge of SQL for database validation and querying.
  • Familiarity with version control systems, especially Git.
  • Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and experience integrating tests (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
  • Experience with performance and load testing tools (e.g., JMeter, Gatling).
  • Knowledge of mobile (iOS/Android) and web application testing.
  • Familiarity with at least one programming/scripting language (e.g., JavaScript, Python, Java).

Soft Skills

  • Meticulous attention to detail and a passion for finding flaws.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to diagnose issues effectively.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills for clear bug reporting and team collaboration.
  • A highly collaborative mindset and the ability to work effectively in a team environment.
  • Exceptional time management and prioritization skills to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced setting.
  • Deep user empathy and the ability to view the product from a customer's perspective.
  • Critical thinking to question assumptions and foresee potential problems.
  • Adaptability and a willingness to learn new technologies and processes.
  • A strong sense of curiosity and a desire to understand how things work.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in a technical role.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant field. QA-related certifications (e.g., ISTQB) are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Information Technology
  • Software Engineering
  • Or a related technical field

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2-5 years of hands-on experience in a software quality assurance or testing role.

Preferred:

  • Proven experience working in an Agile/Scrum development environment is highly preferred.
  • Demonstrable experience in writing and maintaining automated test scripts.
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