QA Automation Engineer
Somewhere
🇿🇦 Hirezar Summary for South African Applicants
This fully remote full time position at Somewhere is open to applicants from South Africa. The estimated monthly salary is R101,750 – R157,250 ZAR. This role is suited for lead-level professionals. As a remote position, you can work from anywhere in South Africa — whether you're based in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, or a smaller town.
Job Description
Senior QA Automation Engineer (Fintech / AI-Native Platform)
Location:RemoteType:Full-TimeCompensation:Competitive and based on experience/location
About the Company
We are building next-generation financial infrastructure at the intersection of fintech, stablecoin-powered payments, and AI-driven software development. Our platform combines the reliability and security expectations of modern banking systems with the speed, flexibility, and intelligence of emerging technologies.
Our engineering culture is deeply technical, highly collaborative, and AI-native. We leverage modern development tooling, automation, and AI-assisted workflows to accelerate how we build, test, and ship products at scale.
This is an opportunity to join a senior engineering organization solving complex challenges across:
* digital wallets and payment infrastructure
* real-time financial systems
* event-driven architectures
* mobile applications
* blockchain/stablecoin transaction flows
* AI-powered product experiences
We are looking for someone who is excited not only about automation testing, but about redefining what quality engineering looks like in an AI-accelerated future.
The Role
We are seeking a Senior QA Automation Engineer to lead and scale automated quality assurance across our mobile applications, backend services, APIs, event-driven infrastructure, and real-time systems.
This is a highly technical role best suited for someone with strong automation architecture experience who can operate independently within a fast-paced engineering environment.
You will work closely with backend, frontend, DevOps, and product engineering teams to ensure the reliability, scalability, and correctness of critical financial systems.
The ideal candidate has experience testing complex distributed systems, modern TypeScript-based applications, and fintech/payment workflows while embracing AI-assisted engineering practices.
What You’ll Do
Automation & Test Infrastructure
* Design, build, and maintain scalable automated testing frameworks across mobile, backend, and API systems
* Develop robust automated test suites using TypeScript, Jest, PactumJS, and related tooling
* Build and maintain end-to-end mobile automation using Maestro (preferred) or Detox
* Implement API, integration, regression, and contract testing across REST, GraphQL, SSE streaming, and WebSocket-based systems
* Establish automated validation pipelines for critical transaction and payment workflows
Backend & Infrastructure Testing
* Test serverless AWS architectures including Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB Streams, Kinesis, EventBridge, Cognito, and related services
* Validate event-driven systems, asynchronous workflows, and distributed infrastructure behaviors
* Build strategies for testing reliability, fault tolerance, retries, idempotency, and edge-case handling in financial systems
* Collaborate with engineering teams to improve observability, testability, and release quality
Fintech & Real-Time Systems
* Ensure accuracy and reliability of payment flows, wallet functionality, transaction histories, and ledger-related systems
* Test real-time systems including streaming updates, messaging/chat systems, notifications, presence, and live state synchronization
* Help establish quality standards appropriate for financial-grade infrastructure and high-trust applications
AI-Assisted Engineering
* Utilize AI tools such as Claude, Cursor, MCP integrations, and AI-assisted IDE workflows to accelerate testing and debugging
* Explore AI-generated test coverage, regression detection, and automation optimization opportunities
* Contribute to an engineering culture where AI is embedded into day-to-day development and QA workflows
Cross-Functional Collaboration
* Partner closely with engineering and product teams to define quality standards and release criteria
* Participate in architecture and planning discussions with a quality-first mindset
* Help shape long-term QA automation strategy and engineering best practices
What We’re Looking For
Required Experience
* 7+ years of QA engineering experience with a strong focus on automation
* Deep expertise in JavaScript/TypeScript-based testing environments
* Strong hands-on experience with:JestPactumJS or similar API testing frameworksAPI contract testingend-to-end automation frameworks
* Jest
* PactumJS or similar API testing frameworks
* API contract testing
* end-to-end automation frameworks
* Experience testing distributed systems, event-driven architectures, or serverless platforms
* Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment validation
* Experience testing mobile applications and backend services simultaneously
* Strong English communication skills with the ability to operate in senior engineering environments
Preferred Experience
* Experience with Maestro mobile testing framework
* Experience with Detox or comparable mobile E2E frameworks
* Background in fintech, neobanking, digital walle
Tips for South African Applicants
Timezone Advantage
South Africa (SAST, UTC+2) overlaps well with European business hours and has a few hours of overlap with US East Coast. Mention your timezone flexibility in your application.
Salary in Context
At R101,750/month, this role pays well above the average South African remote salary. The USD equivalent ($5,500/mo) benefits from the favourable exchange rate.
Application Tips
Tailor your CV to international standards — use a clean format, highlight remote work experience, and include your English proficiency. Many SA applicants succeed by emphasising their strong work ethic and cultural adaptability.
Load Shedding Preparedness
If you're applying for a remote role, having a backup power solution (UPS, inverter, or generator) and mobile data as a backup internet connection shows employers you're prepared for South Africa's infrastructure challenges.
About Somewhere
Somewhere is a company in the Recruitment & Staffing industry that hires remote workers from South Africa. They currently have 685 open positions on Hirezar. View all Somewhere jobs →