At Aplazo, our mission is to empower financial access, opportunity and freedom, by connecting people and businesses in Latin America, through fair, simple, and transparent financial solutions, and we are looking for a Sr. QA Engineer to help us get there.

Technology @ Aplazo also has a vision to be the most beloved and innovative tech organization in Latin America, so we are looking for technologists who are excited to be at the forefront of financial innovation and inclusion.

In our journey, we require a Senior QA Engineer, whose core objective will be to elevate the quality and efficiency of our software through advanced automated testing frameworks and practices. Your focus will be on the technical intricacies of automating tests, optimizing our continuous integration pipelines, and fostering a culture where automation is at the forefront of our quality assurance strategy.

To be successful, you are expected to set a strong tone of leadership, team collaboration, attention to detail, and dedication to quality. You should be self-motivated, proactive, excel at communication, empathetic, and driven to achieve. You also need to exude strong teamwork and collaboration skills, including the ability to mentor and be mentored.

Key responsibilities

• Requirements Analysis: Collaborate with the product and development teams to understand business requirements and translate them into effective testing strategies
• Strategic Test Design: Lead the development and implementation of detailed and effective testing strategies, aligning test plans with business objectives. Define the strategic direction to ensure comprehensive functionality coverage and enhance early defect detection.
• Execute Tests: Conduct functional, integration, system, regression, and performance tests to identify defects and ensure software quality.
• Defect Analysis: Identify, document, and track the resolution of defects found during testing, using issue tracking tools such as JIRA or Qmetry.
• Management of Manual and Automated Testing: Oversee the execution of both manual and automated tests to ensure applications meet expectations. Ensure the identification, logging, and tracking of defects, and collaborate closely with the development team for effective resolution.
• Quality Analysis and Reporting: Analyze quality metrics such as defect rates and test coverage to identify areas for improvement. Generate reports that summarize the quality status and provide valuable insights for strategic decision-making.
• Management of Quality Tools: Configure, maintain, and integrate tools for test management, defect tracking, and automation. Ensure the proper integration of these tools with other development and deployment systems.
• Incident Management and Product Evaluation: Respond to and manage production incidents related to software quality. Perform root cause analysis of production issues and apply corrective measures. Additionally, participate in all stage of testing and evaluate usability to ensure the product meets end-user expectations.
• Quality Metrics Integration: Drive the integration of quality metrics into our CI/CD pipelines, enhancing feedback loops and ensuring rapid resolution of issues. Lead the effort in utilizing data-driven approaches to improve product quality and testing efficiency.

Requirements

Must have

• Experience: With over 5 years of experience in QA teams, demonstrating a strong track record in developing and implementing strategic testing techniques and initiatives. This role involves leading QA efforts, driving innovative testing strategies and process improvements that align with business objectives. The ideal candidate will exhibit a deep commitment to elevating quality standards and enhancing overall team performance through effective leadership and collaboration.
• Functional and Non-Functional Testing: Testing ensures software meets user needs and works correctly. Functional testing checks if it behaves as expected, focusing on user interactions and data integrity. Non-functional testing assesses performance, security, and usability, ensuring the software meets quality standards and delivers a satisfactory user experience.
• Quality Metrics and Reporting: Expertise in analyzing quality metrics such as defect rates and test coverage to identify areas for improvement. The candidate should be proficient in generating comprehensive reports that provide insights into the state of software quality, supporting data-driven decision-making and strategic planning.
• Testing Techniques: Systematic and structured methods used to design, plan, and execute software tests with the aim of finding defects and ensuring product quality. These techniques help identify what to test, how to test it, and when to do so, maximizing test effectiveness and optimizing the use of available resources. Some common techniques include equivalence class partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision tables, and state testing. Each technique has its own strategies and approaches to address different aspects of software and its functionality, allowing for comprehensive coverage and early detection of potential issues.
• Strong Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical issues and solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. The candidate should demonstrate the capacity to foster a collaborative environment, bridging gaps between technical teams and business objectives.
• Leadership Communication: Exceptional leadership and communication skills, capable of driving technical strategy, mentoring engineers, and articulating complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Analytical Skills: Ability to analyze complex systems, identify potential issues, and propose effective solutions.
• FinTech Knowledge: Familiarity with industry standards and protocols for payments, such as PCI-DSS, EMV, and transaction processing.
• Programming Languages: Experience with programming languages such as Java, Python, or JavaScript.
• Knowledge in: Selenium WebDriver, JUnit/TestNG, Postman, JMeter, Appium, SoapUI, TestRail, Qmetry, Cucumber, JIRA, Charles Proxy, Wireshark, GitLab CI/CD, BlazeMeter Katalon Studio, linux, postgres, mongo, AWS.

Nice to have

• Direct experience with the specific technologies and tools utilized at Aplazo (Backend/APIs (Java, Python, Go), Frontend (JS/Angular/React), Mobile (Flutter, Native iOS, Native Android/Kotlin), AWS tools (ECS, Lambdas), GCP tools (BigQuery, pubSub),GraphQL, Ci/CD(Pulumi, Jenkins, CodeMagic), Observability (DataDog)
• QA automation within a large team or organization.
• You have worked in fintech, startups, and/or technology organizations in Latin America
• You understand the State of Devops and how it affects teams and workflows
• You favor regular, incremental delivery of value over perfection.
• You like small units of work, PR comments, and feedback
• You’re excited about ensuring that all of our systems-software and human-scale smoothly
• You strive for continuous learning and improvement for yourself and your team.
• Preferred Qualifications and Certifications: While not mandatory, certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, or CSQA are highly regarded. Knowledge in security testing and cloud testing environments adds further value, enabling the engineer to address a broader range of quality assurance challenges.