Senior QA Engineer (Manual & Automation)

Salla is looking for a Senior QA Engineer to take ownership of product quality across our platform. In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring that every release meets our quality standards, and you will be accountable for making informed go/no-go release decisions based on risk and test results. You will be expected to define the most suitable QA approach for our product and teams, including the testing strategy, tools, standards, and workflows. This approach should be flexible, not rigid: you will adapt the depth, type, and process of testing to fit each situation, whether it's an urgent hotfix, a major feature launch, or a high-risk change. This is a hands-on role covering both manual and automated testing. You will work closely with engineering, product, and DevOps teams to review requirements, define test strategies, perform manual and exploratory testing, and build reliable test automation using Playwright. Beyond identifying and resolving defects, you will analyze their root causes and implement preventive measures to reduce recurring issues. Responsibilities Own quality end to end, building it in early through requirement reviews, design discussions, and test strategy, through to the final go/no-go call on releases Define and continuously refine the QA approach, including testing standards, workflows, tools, and quality metrics. Adapt testing depth, process, and priorities to risk, timeline, and context rather than applying a one-size-fits-all process Decide what needs testing, how deeply, and with which approach (functional, regression, API, UI, performance, security, usability). Decide what stays manual and what gets automated, and know when enough is enough Perform thorough manual and exploratory testing on new features, finding what scripts miss: edge cases, unexpected user behavior, UX problems, and the UI details users notice (layout, states, responsiveness) Build and maintain Playwright (TypeScript/JavaScript) automation that runs in CI, catches real issues instead of just adding to a test count, and gives the team fast, trustworthy feedback Review code and pull requests properly: read them, question them, and push back when something isn't right Triage defects and investigate them in depth using browser DevTools (network, console, performance, storage) to find root causes, not just symptoms, and help the team prioritize what matters most Prevent recurring issues by identifying the pattern behind bugs, analyzing defect trends, and putting safeguards in place (tests, checks, process changes). Think ahead about how new features, scale, and changes will affect quality Use AI tools thoughtfully to speed up test creation, analysis, and debugging, and build AI-assisted workflows where they add value, while always validating the output Communicate risks clearly to developers, product managers, and leadership, with a recommendation rather than just a report Take initiative to spot gaps in our processes, tools, or product and drive improvements, while mentoring other QA engineers and raising the quality mindset across the team Requirements 5+ years of QA experience with real ownership of releases and quality decisions Strong experience in both manual and automated testing, and the judgment to balance the two Solid JavaScript and TypeScript skills, enough to write clean, maintainable Playwright automation and read application code with confidence Hands-on experience with Playwright (or strong experience with a similar framework plus a willingness to go deep on Playwright) Strong command of Git and GitHub: branching, pull requests, code reviews, and working within CI pipelines Deep understanding of testing types, techniques, and test design, and the judgment to choose the right one Flexibility to adjust your approach to different situations, avoiding rigid processes while keeping quality standards high Experience testing web, mobile, and APIs Comfort with browser DevTools for debugging and investigation Practical experience using AI in your work, and the critical thinking to know when to trust it and when not to A preventive mindset: you've fixed problems at their root, not just patched symptoms, and can give examples Originally posted on Himalayas