Senior QA Automation Engineer

Job Description: This role leads quality assurance across modern, distributed systems with a strong focus on automation and CI/CD integration. You will shape testing strategy, improve coverage, and partner closely with engineering to deliver reliable software at scale. Responsibilities: - Validate user stories and requirements to create clear, comprehensive test plans and test cases - Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks to increase test coverage and efficiency - Execute functional, integration, regression, and performance testing across distributed systems - Identify, document, and track defects, working closely with developers through resolution - Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines to enforce quality gates and fast feedback - Contribute to continuous improvement of QA processes, tools, and best practices Requirements: - Fluent English proficiency for daily collaboration and documentation - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field - 5+ years of experience in Software Quality Assurance - Strong hands-on experience testing distributed systems and microservices architectures - Proven expertise with test automation tools such as Selenium, JUnit, or Playwright - Solid experience with API testing tools (e.g., Postman, RestAssured) - Good understanding of SDLC and Agile/Scrum methodologies Desired skills: - Business-level Japanese communication skills - Performance testing experience using tools such as JMeter, Gatling, or k6 - Exposure to containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes) - Familiarity with BDD frameworks (e.g., Cucumber) and database validation (SQL/NoSQL) Benefits: - Opportunity to work on large-scale, modern systems with real business impact - High level of ownership and influence over QA and automation practices - Collaborative, international engineering environment - Long-term growth and skill development in advanced testing and DevOps practices