QA Automation Engineer; Hybrid

QA Automation Engineer | Playwright | Financial Services At a Glance

• Senior QA Automation role within a world-leading financial markets infrastructure and data business
• Playwright-led automation, AI-augmented testing (Copilot/ChatGPT) and CI/CD-embedded QA on a global engineering team
• Belfast, hybrid working
• Competitive salary
• Genuinely varied scope: automation strategy, API and non-functional testing, and mentoring across a distributed Agile team

Our client is a world-leading provider of market infrastructure, connecting clients to global financial and commodities markets through responsible, innovative technology. Operating from more than 60 offices across 27 countries with over 5,000 people, they are the largest interdealer broker in the world by revenue and a leading provider of OTC data and liquidity solutions. Their engineering teams sit at the heart of that mission, building the platforms that power global trading and data distribution.

As QA Automation Engineer, you will be a key advocate for quality within an Agile team, driving BDD and TDD practices to ensure high-quality, business-aligned outcomes. Working closely with Product Owners and Developers, you will provide in-sprint QA aligned to the team's Definition of Done, helping ensure deployable software at the end of every sprint. You will lead on test strategy, balancing manual, automated and performance testing with a strong emphasis on shift-left methodologies and API-first automation, while contributing to the evolution of scalable, robust test frameworks.

This is a role for someone who has led automation frameworks before, is comfortable modernising and migrating legacy testing stacks, and enjoys mentoring engineers around them.

• Collaborate with global BA, development and QA teams to design and coordinate effective test strategies
• Design, build and maintain automated and functional tests within CI/CD pipelines
• Develop and maintain scalable, self-healing automation frameworks using Playwright
• Integrate AI-driven tooling (Copilot, ChatGPT, MCP) into automation workflows to speed up script creation and maintenance
• Identify performance bottlenecks and provide actionable recommendations
• Champion quality across the Agile team, promoting best practice in unit testing and code review
• Mentor and coach team members to raise QA standards across the team
• Own deliverables end-to-end, managing priorities effectively and raising risks early
• Drive clear, proactive communication on progress, risks and impediments

• Extensive QA automation experience within Agile teams, ideally at Senior or Lead level
• Strong hands-on automation experience with Playwright (WebDriverIO also considered), plus exposure to Selenium, Cypress or Test Complete
• Strong Java or JavaScript (or similar scripting language) skills
• Proven track record designing, building and maintaining scalable automation frameworks, including migrating legacy stacks onto modern tooling
• Experience embedding automated and functional testing within CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, Git Lab or Team City)
• Hands-on BDD experience (Cucumber) and comfortable applying shift-left, TDD/BDD practices
• Practical experience using AI tools (Copilot, ChatGPT, Amazon Q or similar) to speed up test creation and maintenance
• Strong API, functional and end-to-end testing background
• Working knowledge of non-functional testing (performance/load, using tools such as K6 or JMeter)
• Confident operating in Agile/SAFe environments with distributed, global teams, with the communication skills to challenge design decisions and mentor others

• Experience with in financial services or trading platforms (including FIX/API)
• Experience with AWS, microservices and serverless architectures
• Formal testing qualifications (e.g. ISTQB, Agile Testing)

• Competitive salary
• Hybrid working, Belfast
• Work on platforms powering global financial markets, at genuinely large scale
• Lead automation strategy and framework design, not just execution
• Real investment in AI-augmented testing tooling and modern automation practice
• Mentor and shape a growing QA function within a global engineering team