Senior QA Engineer III – Automation | Banking | API | Kafka | ETL

Senior QA Engineer III – Automation | Banking | API | Kafka | ETL  Opportunity  We are seeking a  Senior QA Engineer III  with strong hands-on  test automation and banking/financial services experience  to support complex enterprise applications and integration environments.
This is a senior, hands-on quality engineering role focused on  automation framework development, API and backend testing, Kafka/event-driven testing, ETL and data pipeline validation, database testing, and end-to-end integration testing .
The successful candidate will be comfortable  building automation frameworks from scratch , troubleshooting complex integration and data issues, contributing to overall QA strategy, and providing technical guidance to other QA professionals.
What You’ll Do   Design, build, and enhance  scalable automation frameworks from scratch .
Develop and execute automated test suites for  APIs, backend services, Kafka, ETL/data pipelines, databases, and file-based integrations .
Lead  end-to-end functional, integration, regression, and system testing  across complex banking applications.
Automate  API workflows, backend validations, and data-processing scenarios  using Java or Python.
Develop API automation using  Rest Assured, Postman Collections, or equivalent frameworks .
Perform  API performance and load testing  using JMeter or similar tools.
Validate  Kafka producer/consumer message flows , event processing, message integrity, and downstream integrations.
Design automated tests for  ETL jobs, data transformations, pipelines, and reconciliation processes .
Perform advanced  SQL and database validation  to confirm data accuracy, completeness, and transactional integrity.
Test data movement across  APIs, microservices, messaging platforms, databases, ETL processes, and file-based interfaces .
Investigate complex defects, integration failures, automation issues, and data discrepancies.
Integrate automated testing into  CI/CD and continuous testing pipelines .
Collaborate with  Developers, Business Analysts, Product, Dev Ops, and QA teams  throughout the software delivery lifecycle.
Contribute to  test strategy, automation architecture, quality standards, test planning, and risk identification .
Prepare and maintain test plans, test cases, automation strategies, execution reports, defect documentation, and traceability matrices.
Participate in  Agile/Scrum ceremonies , including sprint planning, backlog refinement, estimation, and retrospectives.
Provide  technical guidance and mentorship to junior and intermediate QA engineers .
Drive continuous improvement across  automation coverage, testing efficiency, frameworks, tools, and QA practices .
What You Bring  Must Have    5+ years of progressive QA/software testing experience , including substantial hands-on automation experience.
Strong experience within  banking, financial services, fintech, or complex transaction-based environments .
Proven experience  designing and building test automation frameworks from scratch .
Strong automation development experience using  Java or Python .
Hands-on experience with  API and backend automation , including Rest Assured, Postman, or equivalent tools/frameworks.
Strong experience with  API functional, integration, response validation, performance, and load testing .
Hands-on experience with  Kafka , including producer/consumer flows, message validation, and event-driven integration testing.

Experience with  ETL testing, data pipeline validation, transformation testing, and data reconciliation .
Strong  SQL and database testing  experience with Oracle, PostgreSQL, or similar relational databases.

Experience with  JMeter or equivalent performance-testing tools .
Experience testing complex  end-to-end integrations  across APIs, messaging, databases, ETL pipelines, and file-based interfaces.

Experience with  CI/CD pipelines, Git, automated test execution, and reporting tools .
Strong understanding of  Agile/Scrum delivery .
Strong debugging, troubleshooting analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Ability to independently own  complex QA and automation initiatives .
Experience providing  technical guidance, peer reviews, knowledge sharing, or…