Senior Automation Test Engineer
Company Description: Rewst is a tool designed for Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to streamline and automate their processes, saving valuable time and effort. Our platform helps MSPs achieve big automation wins, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency. We value the flexibility of remote work and enjoy opportunities to collaborate in person on occasion. Location: South Africa Role Description The Senior Automation Test Engineer is a core technical contributor on the QA team, working primarily alongside the QA Automation Architect to design, build, and maintain scalable test automation frameworks across UI, API, and performance layers. This role takes a leading position in leveraging AI-assisted tooling and agent-based approaches to accelerate test creation and expand coverage, while also contributing to performance and load testing as the team matures its capabilities. The Senior Automation Test Engineer brings engineering rigor to quality — writing maintainable, reusable automation code, integrating with CI/CD pipelines for rapid feedback, and serving as a key technical resource for QA engineers building automation skills across squads. Role Scope The Senior Automation Test Engineer operates as a senior individual contributor within the QA organization, responsible for developing and maintaining automation infrastructure spanning UI workflows, API endpoints, and performance scenarios. The role integrates directly with CI/CD pipelines and collaborates closely with the QA Automation Architect on framework design and AI-assisted tooling strategy. This role also picks up and validates tickets from the Platform squad as part of the broader QA workflow, ensuring platform-level changes meet quality standards before release. Key Relationships QA Automation Architect: Primary collaborator for framework design, AI-assisted tooling strategy, and technical direction. QA Manager: Direct reporting relationship; alignment on priorities, goals, and performance. QA Engineers (Squad-Embedded): Provides technical guidance and knowledge-sharing to engineers building automation skills across squads. Platform Squad: Primary squad for ticket pick-up and platform-level validation. Software Engineers: Collaborates to ensure automation aligns with feature development and application requirements. Product Managers: Aligns on testing scope, release readiness, and quality standards. SRE / Infrastructure Teams: Coordinates on CI/CD pipeline integration, test environment stability, and deployment quality. Duties & Deliverables Automation Framework Development Work closely with the QA Automation Architect to build, maintain, and evolve scalable and reusable test automation frameworks covering both UI and API layers. Develop and maintain automated test scripts for UI workflows and API endpoints, supporting functional, regression, and performance testing requirements across the platform. Ensure automation solutions integrate seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing and rapid feedback loops. Contribute to automation best practices, coding standards, and shared tooling to support QA engineers across squads. Identify gaps in test coverage and work proactively to address them through expanded automation. Pick up and validate tickets from the Platform squad, testing and verifying platform-level changes as part of the broader QA workflow. AI-Assisted Test Creation Leverage AI tools and agent-based frameworks (e.g., Claude or similar LLMs) to accelerate test generation, maintenance, and coverage expansion. Build and refine agent skills and prompting strategies that enable reliable, repeatable AI-assisted test authoring. Collaborate with the QA Automation Architect to integrate AI-assisted approaches into the broader automation workflow in a maintainable and scalable way. Stay current on emerging AI tooling relevant to software testing and advocate for adoption where it delivers measurable value. Performance Testing Assist in the design and execution of performance and load testing efforts to validate application behavior under realistic and peak conditions. Build performance test suites and analyze results using tools such as k6 or similar. Identify performance bottlenecks and communicate findings clearly to engineering and product stakeholders. Collaboration & Continuous Improvement Partner with developers, QA engineers, and the QA Automation Architect to ensure automation efforts align with feature development and application requirements. Analyze test execution results and provide clear reporting on defects, coverage, and automation health. Share knowledge and provide guidance to QA engineers building automation skills across squads. Advocate for continuous improvement in testing processes, tooling, and infrastructure. Typical KPIs & Goals Automation Coverage & Health Test Coverage Growth: Measurable expansion of automated test coverage across UI, API, and performance layers over time. Framework Reliability: Reduction in flaky tests and improvement in overall test suite stability. CI/CD Integration: Automation suite fully integrated into pipelines with consistent, fast execution and clear feedback. Quality & Defect Detection Pre-Release Defect Detection Rate: Percentage of bugs caught by automated tests before reaching production. Escaped Defect Rate: Volume of production bugs that automation should have caught — tracked and trended over time. Regression Suite Completeness: Percentage of regression scenarios executed per release cycle. AI-Assisted Productivity Test Generation Velocity: Measurable acceleration in test authoring speed through AI tooling adoption. Agent Skill Quality: Reliability and reusability of AI agent skills and prompting strategies developed for the team. Performance Testing Test Suite Coverage: Key user flows and critical platform behaviors covered under load testing scenarios. Bottleneck Identification: Performance findings documented and communicated to engineering stakeholders per test cycle. Typical Education, Certification & Experience Education Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience). Experience 5+ years of experience in a software development engineer in test, QA automation, or equivalent engineering role. Strong programming skills in Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, or Java; proficiency with Git and version control practices. Experience with UI automation frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Selenium, or Cypress) and API testing tools (e.g., Postman, REST Assured, or similar), including familiarity with REST APIs and JSON. Experience integrating automated tests with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or CircleCI. Demonstrated experience or strong interest in leveraging AI tools and LLM-based agents to assist with test creation and automation workflows. Familiarity with performance and load testing concepts and tools (e.g., JMeter, k6, Locust, or similar). Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify root causes and build effective solutions. Comfortable operating with autonomy in a fast-paced, evolving environment with shifting priorities. Above & Beyond Experience building or contributing to AI agent workflows or prompt engineering for software testing use cases. Experience with cloud-based testing environments (AWS, Azure, or GCP). Previous experience in a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) company or low-code/no-code platform. Familiarity with Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and experience working in Agile teams. Key Competencies Technical Automation Expertise Deep proficiency in UI and API test automation, with hands-on experience designing scalable, maintainable frameworks. Applies engineering rigor to test code — enforcing coding standards, reusability, and clean integration with CI/CD systems. Continuously identifies coverage gaps and acts proactively to address them through expanded automation. AI & Innovation Mindset Actively leverages AI tools and LLM-based agents to accelerate test creation and solve testing challenges at scale. Builds reliable prompting strategies and agent skills that integrate seamlessly into the automation workflow. Stays current on emerging AI tooling and advocates for adoption where it delivers measurable value. Performance Testing Designs and executes load testing scenarios using tools like k6 to validate application behavior under realistic and peak conditions. Identifies and clearly communicates performance bottlenecks and findings to engineering and product stakeholders. Collaboration & Communication Communicates clearly across technical and non-technical audiences, translating test findings into actionable insights. Partners effectively with developers, QA engineers, and the QA Automation Architect to align automation with feature development. Shares knowledge generously and provides mentorship to QA engineers building automation skills across squads. Analytical Problem-Solving Applies strong analytical skills to diagnose test failures, identify root causes, and build effective, durable solutions. Uses data — defect rates, coverage metrics, execution results — to inform decisions and surface quality risks early. Continuous Improvement Advocates for ongoing improvement in testing processes, tooling, and infrastructure. Brings a growth mindset to both technical work and team dynamics, fostering a culture of quality across the engineering organization. Why Join Us: Opportunity to make a significant impact in a fast-growing startup environment Collaborative and inclusive culture that values creativity, diversity, and innovation Competitive compensation package, including equity options and benefits Flexible work arrangements and a supportive work-life balance Apply To This Job