Quality Assurance Engineer

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Quality Assurance Engineer who will ensure our student- and staff-facing software is reliable, accessible, and a joy to use.

You will be a core partner to Engineering: shaping test plans, expanding automated test coverage, and collaborating with engineers to write effective unit and integration tests. You'll help us balance the agility needed to ship impactful features with the discipline of strong quality practices and continuous improvement.

This role is on the Systems team and reports directly to the Senior Director, Engineering.

- Build and maintain UI and API automation (Playwright preferred). - Partner with engineers to write/expand unit and integration tests and improve testability. - Increase automation coverage and reliability (flakiness control, data management).

- Design and execute test plans and test cases for web and API features across key integrations (Salesforce, Canvas, Pathify, LinkedIn, Zoom). - Perform cross-browser/device and accessibility (WCAG) testing; log clear, actionable defects.

CI/CD quality gates, release verification, and bug triage (15%)

- Own quality checks in GitHub Actions/CI; implement sensible gating and fast feedback loops. - Coordinate regression and release verification for scheduled launches; drive root-cause analysis.

- Validate data flows with SQL; use logs/observability to detect regressions. - Document test cases, patterns, and QA standards; champion pragmatic process improvements. - Other duties as assigned.

- 3+ years in QA/software testing, or 2+ years of professional software engineering experience. At least 1 year working with test automation. - Tools/Skills: Playwright (or Cypress), API testing, Database, Git/GitHub, GitHub Actions/CI, accessibility testing (WCAG).

- Bachelor's Degree in a technical field or equivalent professional experience - Experience with performance testing, observability (e.g., logs/metrics), and test data management. - Familiarity with Jira and structured defect triage. - Familiarity with REST API tools (e.g., Postman). - Basic experience with Python or Ruby on Rails, and Heroku environments and modern web app architectures. - Strong organizational and task management skills, with the ability to prioritize work, ensure attention to detail, and make sound technical decisions independently. - Flexible and solutions-oriented, with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt to changing priorities. - Excellent communication skills, bridging technical and non-technical teams and managing stakeholder expectations effectively. - Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others. - Exemplification of Braven's core values. - Experience that has informed your belief in Braven's mission and has prepared you to work with, or for, Braven's student Fellow population.

- Ability to work in-person in Chicago (IL) at least 3 days per week - Travel 2-3 times per year

Starting salary within the range is determined by role scope and qualifications, with new hires starting at the lower end to allow for growth with performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The starting salary range for this role in Chicago is $92,000-$101,100.

This is based on a 50-hour work week. This is a full-time, regular, exempt, and benefits eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity.

Please note that Braven is firm in its compensation philosophy; therefore, only candidates who believe that our total rewards package matches what they are looking for in their next opportunity are encouraged to apply.

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Chicago. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face, and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.