AI-Augmented QA Engineer at Pavago in South Africa

AI-Augmented QA Engineer

Position Type: Full-Time, Remote
Working Hours: U.S. Business Hours

About the Role

We are looking for an AI-Augmented QA Engineer to own and expand automated testing for an early-stage, fast-moving security platform.

You’ll work closely with frontend and backend engineers to build reliable test coverage, strengthen the existing Playwright test suite, and ensure critical product workflows remain stable as the platform evolves.

This is a hands-on engineering role where you’ll have significant ownership. You’ll receive clear goals around test coverage and reliability rather than step-by-step instructions, making it ideal for someone who enjoys working independently and improving systems proactively.

What You’ll Own

Test Automation & Coverage

• Write and maintain automated end-to-end tests using Playwright
• Expand coverage across critical product workflows
• Build regression tests that run automatically on every pull request
• Test workflows including dashboards, detection workflows, device management, user permissions, and settings
• Keep the test architecture clean, maintainable, and scalable as the product grows

Test Infrastructure & Reliability

• Own the reliability of the automated test suite and CI pipeline
• Diagnose and reduce flaky tests
• Manage test data and seed data requirements
• Monitor and improve staging environment stability
• Maintain reliable test execution as the product and test suite expand

AI-Assisted Exploratory Testing

• Use AI-assisted browser automation to explore edge cases and uncover bugs
• Work with Claude and LLM-based tools as part of daily testing workflows
• Experiment with AI-driven testing approaches beyond scripted test cases
• Identify issues that traditional automated regression tests may not catch
• Continuously explore ways to improve QA efficiency through AI tooling

Engineering Collaboration

• Work directly with frontend and backend engineers throughout the development cycle
• Collaborate on testing requirements and critical product flows
• Communicate test failures, bugs, and reliability issues clearly
• Contribute to a culture where engineers trust and act on automated test results
• Take ownership of QA improvements without relying on layers of project management

Requirements

• 3–5 years of QA, software testing, or test automation experience preferred
• Candidates with less experience will also be considered if they demonstrate strong automation skills and relevant hands-on experience
• Strong TypeScript skills and the ability to write clean, maintainable test code
• Hands-on experience with Playwright, Cypress, or a similar E2E testing framework
• Strong understanding of web application testing
• Understanding of DOM interaction, network requests, and asynchronous behavior
• Ability to diagnose and troubleshoot flaky automated tests
• Experience creating or maintaining automated regression tests
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of testing goals
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills
• Willingness to learn and use AI tools as part of the testing workflow
• Strong attention to detail and commitment to test reliability

Nice to Have

• Experience building E2E testing infrastructure from scratch
• Experience integrating automated tests into CI pipelines
• Experience with test data management, parallelization, and test reporting
• Hands-on experience with Playwright specifically
• Experience testing complex B2B web applications
• Experience with multi-tenant applications and role-based access
• Experience testing multi-step workflows
• Familiarity with Claude or other AI/LLM-based development and testing tools
• Experience working with React applications
• Familiarity with Sentry, GCP Stackdriver, or similar observability tools

What Makes You a Strong Fit

You’ll thrive in this role if you:

• Prefer building automated testing systems over relying primarily on manual QA
• Enjoy improving test coverage and reliability proactively
• Can work independently from high-level goals
• Are comfortable diagnosing problems rather than waiting for detailed instructions
• Have strong curiosity about AI-assisted testing and emerging tools
• Enjoy working directly with engineers in a small, fast-moving team
• Care about building test suites that engineers genuinely trust
• Think beyond individual test cases and consider the reliability of the overall QA system

Tech Stack

• TypeScript — Test code
• Playwright — E2E testing framework
• Claude & AI tooling — AI-assisted exploratory testing
• React — Frontend application
• Sentry — Error monitoring
• GCP Stackdriver — Logging and observability

Interview Process

1. Recruiter Screening
2. Client Interview
3. Final Selection & Onboarding