Job details
Job type full-time
Full job description
At curriculum associates (ca), we believe a diverse team leads to diversity in thinking, making our products better for teachers and studentsIf after reading this job description you feel energized by what you see here, and believe you could bring passion and commitment to the role but aren’t sure you meet every qualification, we urge you to still please apply! above all, we are looking for the right person for our growing team.
We are seeking an experienced professional software automation engineer to help us achieve our mission of enabling student success through adaptive learning and placing actionable data in the hands of teachers through our i-ready platform.
Knowledge of a variety of automated testing techniques and approaches is essentialYou’ll be able to pick the most suitable one for a given context and be able to explain the reasoning behind the chosen approach to different audiencesYou know your heuristics from your oracles and know how to get the defects fixed that you foundWe do not require istqb / iseb – but we don’t hold it against you for having them.
A good understanding of web applications is necessary – fluency in html and css and firm knowledge of http is expected; knowledge of web services is helpful tooA solid data background is also essential – fluency in sql and relational databases is required, some knowledge of non-relational storage technologies, data warehouses, and dimensional modeling is a bonus.
It is unlikely that anyone with less than 3 years’ relevant experience will be suitable for this role, but we have been pleasantly surprised before.
You’ll be asked to automate as part of a team or to be the sole automation engineer on a project reporting to a qa manager.
Behaviors:
You are used to collaborating with developers, product owners, ui designers, and others in qa
You can analyze a feature and identify test coverage, as well as risks the team has not considered yet
You are knowledgeable of coding best practices
You are knowledgeable of different styles of testing frameworks and can compare pros and cons of each scenario
You can design a testing framework, look for feedback, and adjust on the design before writing any code
You rapidly discover important information about the product and effectively communicate this to the appropriate stakeholder
You create devious tests that uncover unexpected problems
You naturally share your knowledge with others and enjoy learning from your peers
You communicate test ideas with team members clearly and concisely and incorporate feedback easily into your work
This role will require knowledge of:
Testing – you have studied and practiced a variety of test frameworks, techniques, and methodologies, and are familiar with prominent voices in the online testing community
Test automation – you are proficient in test automation to a level where you can discuss different approaches and can pick a specific design based on the product under testTo support this, you also have advanced knowledge of at least one modern programming language
Agile software development – you understand the common methodologies (scrum, kanban, crystal, lean) and can articulate how strong test automation can best support their team in that context
Self-motivated learning – you will be able to describe your approaches to gaining new knowledge and skills, and how you apply them to become a better engineer
Mentoring – you love to share knowledge and are good at itYou are comfortable training a new team member on the framework you are building, demonstrating interesting tools and techniques you have found to be effective to your team, and teaching inexperienced engineers the fundamentals of testing
Data technologies – you are very comfortable testing on large volumes of data moving between different backend technologies to support both an etl process and near real-time reportingYou know Apply Now various tools and techniques to work with large volumes of dataYou can easily describe the differences between unions, joins, and pivots
Web applications – you understand the key challenges related to building and testing a multi-tenant high-volume web application responsible for sensitive student data supporting both desktop and mobile devices and can articulate your experience in this contextYou are comfortable drawing an architecture diagram of the system under test
Key skills:
You are great at modeling, questioning, generating, explaining, and elaborating on test ideas
You can design and write a testing framework and testing tools from scratch to enhance the quality testing of a product
You can write sql to verify data correctness and are knowledgeable of other tools and techniques to help with data intensive testing
You can search through logs or crash reports to help isolate and identify the root cause of issues and are comfortable doing this from the command line
You can make sense of large volumes of data to identify patterns that might be indicative of problems
You have the ability to think playfully about serious matters
You can make observations and assimilate them to a mental model of a situation, and change your mental model as new information becomes available
You are able to describe defects in sufficient detail for a developer to understand and reproduce, and for business owners to understand user impact
You know when automated testing is better than manual testing
You know when manual testing is better than automated testing
You have experience with distributed version control systems
You are listened to
You are skeptical
You are passionate about great software
You have strong user empathy and a sense of ui aesthetic
You solve hard problems independently and collaboratively
You can see failure in success, and identity value in failure
You can stand up for what you believe is right, and back down for what you realize is wrong
You value critical thinking, curiosity, creative thinking, and analytical thinkingYou are interested in metacognition and how it applies to software testing
Who should not apply:
Do not apply if you need step by step test cases of what to automate
Do not apply if you like writing verbose test plans before you start testing
Do not apply if you need someone to tell you what to do
Do not apply if you can’t test without a set of requirements documents
Location: this team uses ca’s flexible work approach, which enables employees on office-based teams to work in-office 2 days/week and remotely 3 days/weekFor employees who don’t have the space or the desire to work remotely 3 days per week, ca also offers a 4+ days/week in-office option.
Final note: we are looking for a candidate who will bring their passion for testing to our growing qa team and is interested in becoming a better engineer while also encouraging and motivating others in the team to do the sameIf most of the statements above describe you, demonstrate your attention to detail by writing a cover letter that describes why you fit our profile and your passion for testing.
