Senior QA Automation Engineer

JobsCloseBy Editorial Insights

At Catawiki we’re hiring a Senior QA Automation Engineer to build automation foundations for web, mobile, and backend experiences. This Amsterdam role requires owning Playwright, Selenium, or Cypress frameworks, embedding quality into CI/CD, and testing REST and GraphQL APIs with a risk-based mindset. You’ll improve pipelines, reduce flaky tests, and mentor others while collaborating with Engineering and Product to translate risk into trade-offs. Bring 7–12 years of automation experience, coding in Java, Python, JavaScript, or C#, and framework design plus CI/CD ownership. Bonus: performance, security or observability, and comfort with AI tools. Apply with an English CV and cover letter; even if not every box is checked, you may be the right fit.

Your Mission

Quality is an engineering discipline, not a final checkpoint. As a Senior QA Automation Engineer, you’ll build scalable automation systems that help teams deliver reliable web, mobile, and backend experiences with confidence. You’ll combine strong hands-on coding with a product and business mindset, embedding quality into engineering workflows, focusing effort on the highest-risk user journeys, and improving frameworks, pipelines, and practices beyond your immediate scope.

What You'll Do

You’ll own and improve the automation foundations that make testing faster, more reliable, and easier to maintain across the software delivery lifecycle.

• Build scalable automation frameworks using tools such as Playwright, Selenium, or Cypress, applying object-oriented principles and maintainable design patterns.
• Embed quality into CI/CD by integrating automated tests into pipelines and establishing effective release quality gates.
• Test APIs and backend systems across REST and GraphQL, validating data integrity, business logic, and system behaviour.
• Improve test effectiveness by increasing meaningful coverage, reducing regression time, and addressing flaky or slow test suites.
• Apply risk-based testing to prioritise critical user journeys and areas with the greatest customer and business impact.
• Strengthen quality engineering practices by improving frameworks, pipelines, internal tooling, and team processes.
• Collaborate across Engineering, Product, and Business to communicate quality in terms of risk, impact, and practical trade-offs.
• Mentor and influence others by sharing best practices and acting as an informal technical leader while remaining hands-on.

What You'll Bring

You’re a product-minded quality engineer who thinks in systems rather than individual test cases. You write production-quality code, take end-to-end ownership, and can show how your work has improved delivery outcomes.

• Deep automation experience: Around 7–12 years of relevant experience, with a progression from quality assurance into hands-on automation engineering or software development in test.
• Strong programming skills: The ability to write clean, production-level code in Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, or a comparable language.
• Framework design expertise: Experience building or significantly improving maintainable, modular automation frameworks rather than only using existing ones.
• CI/CD ownership: Hands-on experience integrating automated tests with tools such as Jenkins, GitLab, or Azure DevOps, including PR checks or release gates.
• Backend testing strength: Strong API testing experience across REST or GraphQL and confidence working with backend-heavy systems.
• Product and business judgement: A risk-based approach to deciding what to automate, grounded in user impact, critical flows, and return on effort.
• Evidence of measurable impact: Examples such as increased automation coverage, shorter regression cycles, faster pipelines, or improved team efficiency.
• Clear, collaborative communication: The ability to ask structured questions, navigate disagreements constructively, and explain quality through data, risk, and business impact.

Experience with performance testing tools such as JMeter or k6, as well as security or observability practices, is a plus. Familiarity with AI-assisted tools such as ChatGPT or Copilot to improve code and explore solutions is also valued when used thoughtfully.

How We Work

Quality is shared across the engineering organisation. You’ll partner closely with developers, product colleagues, and business stakeholders to improve how quality is designed, assessed, and delivered.

• We treat automated testing as part of the engineering workflow, not a separate gate at the end.
• We prioritise based on risk, customer impact, and business value rather than trying to automate everything.
• We value ownership, curiosity, clear communication, and continuous learning.
• We use modern tools - including AI-assisted workflows - to support sound engineering judgement, not replace it.
• You’ll have opportunities to deepen your test automation expertise across web, mobile, APIs, and scalable frameworks as you help evolve our quality practices.

Where You'll Be

This is a Hybrid role based in Amsterdam. You will work from our Amsterdam HQ a minimum of 2 days per week.

In Return

You’ll be part of an enthusiastic, highly motivated team of 800+ Catawikians.

• A competitive Annual Gross Base Salary depending on your level, competencies, and overall experience.
• A Work From Home Allowance to help with your monthly household bills.
• Commuting between your home and our office is covered by Catawiki.
• Amazing Office right in the centre of Amsterdam.