Senior QA Engineer Location - Sheffield Hybrid - 3 days per week in Sheffield Salary - Negotiable Reports to: Test Manager The Senior QA Engineer is responsible for ensuring software quality through a combination of advanced manual and automated testing practices. As a senior individual contributor in the QA team, this role sets the benchmark for test execution, test automation, triage, and continuous improvement across the testing discipline. This role plays a critical part in safeguarding software quality throughout the delivery lifecycle, ensuring that both functional and non-functional requirements are met. Senior QA Engineers support test planning, drive automation improvements, mentor others, and contribute to a culture of quality across engineering. Key Responsibilities Test Planning, Execution & Automation Design and maintain test plans and test cases for new and existing features using approved Test Case Management (TCM) software. Execute comprehensive manual test passes (functional, regression, exploratory, UAT support) across web, desktop, and API layers. Develop, maintain, and execute automated test scripts for both web and desktop applications, using appropriate frameworks and tools (e.g. Selenium, TestComplete, Playwright, or equivalent). Triages and investigates test failures from both manual and automated runs, providing clear and actionable bug reports. Quality Leadership & Collaboration Serve as the quality voice during requirement reviews and delivery planning, ensuring clear acceptance criteria and testability. Collaborate with developers, product owners, and testers to align test activities with delivery priorities and quality expectations. Support cross-functional teams in release readiness reviews, offering informed assessments on release confidence. Coaching & Mentoring Mentor and support less experienced testers in test design, execution, and the use of tools. Coach the team in adopting automation best practices and improving test case design for maintainability and reusability. Lead knowledge-sharing efforts, such as retrospectives, post-incident reviews, or test tooling sessions. Continuous Improvement Identify gaps in coverage, efficiency, or tooling and propose improvements to team practices or the automation framework. Support the teams shift-left approach by advocating for early test involvement, exploratory testing, and quality gate improvements. Contribute to wider QA capability by sharing feedback on process bottlenecks, root cause trends, and tooling constraints. Expectations Strong commercial experience in software quality assurance, with a blend of manual and automated testing skills. Hands-on experience with automation frameworks (e.g. Selenium, TestComplete, Playwright, Ranorex) for both web and desktop applications Competent in using Test Case Management systems for planning, tracking, and reporting (e.g. TestRail, Zephyr). Deep understanding of test techniques, defect lifecycle, and quality metrics. Works independently on complex testing problems, coaching and mentoring of peers, and contributes to a continuous quality mindset across the team. Benefits We offer a range of benefits including ?? Competitive Salary ?? Hybrid/Remote Work Options ? Flexible Working Hours ?? Career Growth Opportunities ?? Learning & Development ?? Generous Paid Time Off ?? Parental Leave ?? Tech & Equipment Provided ?? Free Tea, Coffee & Fruit ?? Company Events & Team Building