QA Test Automation Lead

Description

• Drive a measurable increase in release confidence and a reduction in manual testing overhead through automation coverage.
• Serve as Neara’s trusted quality advisor, ensuring that testing strategies align with business outcomes and product goals.
• Translate product test plans into efficient, maintainable automation scripts that enhance release reliability and developer confidence.
• Define the testing architecture, infrastructure, and documentation that will scale with the product and the business.
• Continuously evolve QA practices to reduce customer-facing bugs, prevent regressions, and validate the accuracy of complex calculations in a sophisticated SaaS environment.
• Collaborative: Communicates clearly across teams; builds strong relationships with developers and product managers.
• Design, build, and own Neara’s automated testing framework for acceptance and integration testing, ensuring coverage across UI, API, and backend layers.
• Build quality metrics and dashboards that clearly communicate release readiness and product health.
• Run and champion “Test Parties” to engage teams in collective quality ownership.
• Analyse results, identify root causes, and drive the resolution of quality issues through proactive test design.
• Select and implement modern test automation tools (e.g. Selenium, Playwright, Cypress), integrating them into our CI/CD pipelines for continuous validation.
• Establish and scale the company’s QA automation function from the ground up: Defining the tools, processes, and standards that will guide quality for years to come.
• Balance automation with smart manual testing and designing efficient processes for areas that require human validation.
• Embed quality early in the development lifecycle by collaborating closely with engineers and product managers.

Requirements

• Working knowledge of CI/CD environments (e.g. Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
• Experience with performance or security testing desirable.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Deep hands-on experience with modern test automation frameworks (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress).
• Proven experience in API test automation using Postman, Insomnia, or custom scripts.
• Builder Mindset: Excited to create a scalable automation system from scratch.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals with the ability to write clean, maintainable code in Python or JavaScript.
• Experience building reports or visualising test metrics using data dashboards.
• 3–5+ years in a software development or test automation role.
• Experience leading or mentoring others in QA automation is a plus, as we expect this function to scale over time.
• Experience testing complex, cloud-based SaaS platforms.
• Self-Starter: Operates with autonomy and initiative, translating goals into execution.
• Highly meritocratic, non-bureaucratic, and no-ego work culture.
• Analytical: Naturally curious; digs deep to identify root causes and systemic improvements.
• Familiarity with Dart or other modern languages an advantage.

Benefits

• Fully flexible working arrangements with a well-stocked office in Redfern.
• The opportunity to play a direct, critical role in the trajectory of a high growth company.
• Competitive salary + ESOP. Significant career development and growth opportunities.
• The opportunity to work on complex, meaningful products and real-world problems.

Training + Development

Interview process

Visa Sponsorship

Security clearance