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What a QA engineer does
A QA engineer focuses on the quality of software. The role covers planning tests, checking that features behave as expected, finding and reporting defects, and helping the team ship reliable work.
Testing may be manual, automated, or a mix of both, and sits alongside development throughout the process. QA engineers think about edge cases, user experience and risk, helping prevent problems rather than only catching them late.
Core responsibilities
- Planning and designing tests from requirements.
- Running manual and, where relevant, automated tests.
- Finding, reproducing and reporting defects clearly.
- Verifying fixes and re-testing affected areas.
- Working with developers and product on quality.
- Maintaining test cases and documentation.
- Highlighting risks and edge cases early.
Skills and qualities
- A careful, detail-oriented and curious mindset.
- Understanding of testing approaches and tools.
- Clear, precise reporting of issues.
- Methodical problem-solving and reproduction.
- Some scripting or automation skills, where required.
- Collaboration with developers and product.
- Patience and persistence in finding problems.
Typical employers and settings
- Software product companies and technology firms.
- In-house engineering and quality teams.
- Consultancies and software service providers.
- Financial services and regulated industries.
- Start-ups, scale-ups and enterprises.
How the role is recruited
- Roles are advertised directly or filled through technology recruiters.
- Screening reviews a CV, testing experience and any automation, plus right to work.
- Interviews explore testing approach, bug reporting and tools.
- Some processes include a practical testing or scripting exercise.
- Onboarding covers the product, test process, tools and team.
Documents involved
- A job description outlining the testing scope.
- A CV showing relevant QA experience.
- An employment contract including confidentiality terms.
- An offer letter confirming role, level and start date.
- Right-to-work and identity checks as required.
- An onboarding checklist for access and tooling.
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