Senior QA Automation Engineer

Location: Makati, Philippines Engagement: must be open to both full time & contract engagement Work Setup: Day shift (onsite/hybrid) About the role We are looking for a Senior QA Automation Engineer who can immediately contribute to hands-on QA Validation while bringing proven automation engineering and framework-building capability that the QA organization can retain, mature, and operate internally. The initial manual QA work is intended primarily as an onboarding, system/domain immersion, and immediate delivery-support stage rather than the role's long-term primary focus. As the automation tool and implementation direction are finalized, the role is expected to shift progressively toward automation as its primary focus. This role is intentionally positioned as a senior automation-capable individual contributor rather than a mid-level QA or a current Automation Lead/Architect. Key responsibilities Perform independent QA Validation for selected active initiatives to quickly understand the organization's applications, business processes, integrations, environments, test data, and recurring quality risks Design and execute functional, smoke, sanity, negative, boundary, exploratory, regression, integration, end-to-end, UI/UX, and risk-based scenarios as applicable Analyze requirements, business rules, expected results, process flows, and actual application behavior to identify gaps and risks Perform API validation and data-level checks when appropriate and within the candidate's technical capability Use manual QA exposure to identify stable, repeatable, high-value scenarios that should become automation candidates Assess the current application and testing landscape and identify where automation will provide the highest practical value Define an initial automation backlog, prioritizing repeatable smoke, regression, API, and other high-value scenarios Design an incremental automation roadmap covering proof of concept, framework foundation, initial suite creation, stabilization, scaling, maintenance, and team adoption Directly establish, co-establish, or materially design a maintainable automation framework once the selected toolset is approved Build and maintain automated smoke and regression suites based on business risk, execution frequency, stability, and maintenance value About you Minimum 7 years of solid hands-on software QA experience across functional/system testing, regression, integration, exploratory testing, UAT support, or comparable QA work At least 3 years of substantial hands-on test automation experience, with 4-5+ years strongly preferred Demonstrated experience in personally establishing, co-establishing, or materially designing an automation framework Strong senior-level manual QA capability, including requirements analysis, risk-based test design, negative testing, exploratory testing, defect analysis, regression strategy, and independent test judgment Hands-on capability in both Playwright and Katalon at a practical level: strong proficiency in at least one of the two, together with demonstrable working experience in the other Working programming/scripting proficiency appropriate to automation work (for example TypeScript/JavaScript, Groovy/Java, or equivalent) Working knowledge of Git or equivalent source control and the fundamentals of CI/CD integration for automated test execution Experience with API testing and validation using Postman, Playwright/API capabilities, Katalon, or equivalent tools Strong understanding of SDLC, STLC, defect lifecycle, test levels, regression strategy, release readiness, and test evidence Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and to explain technical automation decisions in practical terms to non-automation stakeholders