QA - Quality Analyst (PL868)

Location: Toronto, Ontario — Hybrid (onsite 2 days a week)
Seniority: Mid to Senior (Individual Contributor)
Duration: 6 months contract

Our client is seeking a pragmatic, detail-oriented QA Engineer to lead API testing, automation, and database validation for public‑facing and internal government services. The role emphasizes API testing with Postman and Thunder Client, automation using Playwright (including AI‑assisted capabilities) and UFT, and strong SQL skills to validate data integrity. You will collaborate with product owners, backend teams, and DevOps to shift testing left, improve release confidence, and ensure services meet accessibility, security, and compliance expectations.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and execute API test suites (functional, negative, contract, regression) using Postman, Thunder Client, or equivalent.

• Develop and maintain automated tests with Playwright (JS/TS); leverage AI‑assisted features for test generation, flakiness detection, and maintenance.

• Maintain UFT automation for legacy or specialized UI scenarios where required.

• Author and run SQL queries to validate backend data, prepare test fixtures, and verify ETL/migration outcomes.

• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins) to provide fast feedback and gating for deployments.

• Validate non‑functional requirements relevant to public services: performance basics, security checks for APIs (auth, scopes), and accessibility considerations for UI flows.

• Triage and document defects, collaborate with engineers to reproduce and prioritize fixes, and verify resolutions.

• Produce test plans, test cases, and test data strategies aligned with OPS standards and auditability requirements.

• Mentor and share best practices across teams to raise automation maturity and testability.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional QA or test engineering experience.

• API testing: hands‑on with Postman and/or Thunder Client; experience creating collections, environment variables, automated runs, and response/schema validations.

• Automation: practical experience building and maintaining test suites with Playwright (JavaScript/TypeScript); familiarity with test runner, fixtures, selectors, and parallel execution.

• UFT: experience developing and maintaining UFT scripts for legacy or complex UI automation.

• Database skills: strong SQL (joins, aggregates, subqueries, transactions); experience validating data across environments.

• Programming / scripting: proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript or Python for automation and tooling.

• CI/CD: experience integrating tests into pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI).

• Testing fundamentals: test design, automation strategy, regression testing, and defect lifecycle.