Senior QA Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: New York, California, Massachusetts, Texas, New Jersey

Compensation: $53 – $58 per hour

Employment Type: Contract

About Makai

Makai uses best-in-class Al and data to solve real-world operational and strategic challenges at scale. Our Makai Automation Platform consists of a library of pre-built components and modules to facilitate enterprise automation via a unified human-machine teaming interface. Until now, people have had to learn and adapt to software. Makai creates solutions that adapt to people because technology will never be 100% accurate. People are essential for all of our human-machine teaming solutions, as they serve as the final firewall for accuracy and quality.

About the role

Makai is looking for a proactive Senior QA Engineer to join our growing team as a key contributor and leader within our QA practice. This is a contract-to-hire remote role in which you will be the hands-on expert driving quality initiatives, ensuring product reliability, performance, and user satisfaction.

Qualifications:

• 5+ years of professional QA Experience, with a proven track record in testing complex web applications.

• Expertise in Modern QA methodologies, test design techniques (e.g., equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis), and mastery of the full Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Testing Life Cycle (STLC) within Agile frameworks (Scrum/Kanban)

• Proficiency in database testing: Practical experience writing complex SQL queries to validate backend behavior, ensure data integrity, and perform data/setup/teardown for test scenarios in relational databases (e.g. SQServer, PostgreSQL, MySQL).

• Foundational test automation experience with tools like Cypress, Playwright, or Selenium

• Ability to read and understand code in JavaScript, TypeScript, or Python to support test analysis and future automation initiatives.

• Excellent analytical skills, attention to detail and a methodical approach to testing.

• Fluent English (written and spoken)

• Strong communication and collaboration skills to work with Developers, Product Owners and QA Team.

Responsibilities:

• End-to-End Quality Ownership: Manage the entire QA lifecycle - from analyzing requirements and user stories for testability, to designing test strategies and checklists, executing tests, and reporting on release readiness.

• In-Depth Functional & Regression Testing: Perform thorough manual functional, integration, regression, compatibility, and exploratory testing to ensure the highest quality of every release.

• API & Backend Testing: Conduct extensive API testing using tools like Postman and validate complex business logic by writing and executing SQL queries to ensure data integrity and backend functionality.

• Defect Management: Identify, document, isolate, and track bugs with a high level of detail and clarity throughout their lifecycle. Work closely with developers to facilitate resolution and verify fixes.

• Process Advocacy & Improvement: Champion quality best practices, provide meaningful feedback on requirements during grooming sessions, and contribute to the continuous improvement of our QA processes, tools, and methodologies.

• Mentorship & Knowledge Sharing: Proactively share knowledge and best practices, help fellow team members enhance their testing skills, and contribute to a strong, company-wide culture of quality.

Core values for Makai employees:

• Have a strong work ethic. As a member of a fully remote team, it is very important that you can self-manage and drive your own work towards consistent excellence in a timely manner.

• Be self-sufficient and self-driven with an ownership mentality, no matter your role

• Be a flexible thinker

• Be congenial and a team player

• Always be of service to each other and our clients, partners, and neighbors