Contractor: Senior Quality Engineer at Newsela

<p><strong>The role:&nbsp;</strong>Newsela is on a mission to deliver "meaningful classroom learning for every student." As a Senior Quality Engineer, you will be a critical force in ensuring that mission is delivered through reliable, high-quality software. You will work alongside talented product engineers to test complex front-end applications powered by cloud-based back-end services, internal LLMs, and third-party AI tools.</p> <p><strong>Why you’ll love this role:</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p data-path-to-node="5,0,0"><strong data-path-to-node="5,0,0" data-index-in-node="0">Drive High Impact:</strong> Own quality end-to-end within your scrum team and directly support a mission that transforms classroom learning for millions of students.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="5,1,0"><strong data-path-to-node="5,1,0" data-index-in-node="0">Modern AI Workflows:</strong> Leverage cutting-edge AI tools (like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot) to accelerate test development while testing complex, non-deterministic AI features and LLMs.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="5,2,0"><strong data-path-to-node="5,2,0" data-index-in-node="0">Technical Ownership:</strong> Build and architect full-stack test frameworks across UI, API, and service layers with autonomy and high visibility.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="5,3,0"><strong data-path-to-node="5,3,0" data-index-in-node="0">Collaborative Leadership:</strong> Partner closely with cross-functional peers in Product, Design, and Engineering while mentoring mid-level engineers to elevate the overall quality culture.</p> </li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>What You'll Be Doing:</strong></span></p> <ul> <li>Deliver high-quality test coverage on time, leveraging AI tools to accelerate automation development without sacrificing reliability or craft.</li> <li>Build and maintain automated test frameworks and regression suites across UI, API, and service layers, incorporating AI-assisted development practices as part of a standard workflow.</li> <li>Own test planning and execution end-to-end within your scrum team — from story validation through production release support — with minimal oversight.</li> <li>Test and validate internally-built LLMs and external AI tools and services, applying sound quality engineering judgment to non-deterministic systems.</li> <li>Partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, and Product Design to identify quality risks early and refine ambiguous requirements into clearly defined, testable acceptance criteria.</li> <li>Serve as the quality advocate within your scrum team, providing technical guidance that elevates the team's approach to testing throughout all phases of development.</li> <li>Own test status communication to all stakeholders — surfacing coverage gaps, release risk, and defect trends with clarity and appropriate urgency.</li> <li>Establish and follow best practices for defect documentation, triage, and tracking — and use AI tooling to assist with issue detection, reproduction, and resolution.</li> <li>Mentor and grow mid-level quality engineers through code reviews, pairing sessions, and hands-on guidance.</li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><strong>About You:</strong></span></p> <ul> <li><strong data-path-to-node="12,0,0" data-index-in-node="0">5+ Years Experience:</strong> Professional software testing and QA experience within an Agile Scrum environment.</li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="12,1,0"><strong data-path-to-node="12,1,0" data-index-in-node="0">Automation Expertise:</strong> 5+ years building test frameworks with TypeScript, JavaScript, or Python, including hands-on experience with WebdriverIO or Playwright.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="12,2,0"><strong data-path-to-node="12,2,0" data-index-in-node="0">Full-Spectrum Testing:</strong> Demonstrated capability across manual, exploratory, regression, integration, API/services, and database testing.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="12,3,0"><strong data-path-to-node="12,3,0" data-index-in-node="0">CI/CD &amp; DevOps:</strong> Solid understanding of Git branching strategies, PR workflows, and incremental CI/CD deployment pipelines.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="12,4,0"><strong data-path-to-node="12,4,0" data-index-in-node="0">AI Tooling Integration:</strong> Hands-on experience using AI coding assistants (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) as part of your daily workflow, paired with strong critical thinking and quality ownership.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="12,5,0"><strong data-path-to-node="12,5,0" data-index-in-node="0">Proactive Communication:</strong> Ability to engage actively in all scrum ceremonies, surface release risks and defect trends to stakeholders, and handle production escalation support.</p> </li> </ul> <p data-path-to-node="12,5,0"><strong data-path-to-node="13" data-index-in-node="0">Required Industry &amp; Technical Background</strong></p> <ul> <li> <p data-path-to-node="14,0,0"><strong data-path-to-node="14,0,0" data-index-in-node="0">Industry Experience:</strong> EdTech, SaaS/B2B software, or e-learning/online education platforms.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="14,1,0"><strong data-path-to-node="14,1,0" data-index-in-node="0">Automation &amp; Test Runners:</strong> Playwright, WebdriverIO, or Selenium (E2E browser automation); Jest, Vitest, or Mocha (unit/integration runners).</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="14,2,0"><strong data-path-to-node="14,2,0" data-index-in-node="0">Performance &amp; Infrastructure:</strong> Experience with k6, JMeter, or Locust; test execution via GitHub Actions and AWS.</p> </li> <li> <p data-path-to-node="14,3,0"><strong data-path-to-node="14,3,0" data-index-in-node="0">Observability &amp; Management:</strong> Experience with logs/error tracking in Datadog, Sentry, or New Relic; test management using TestRail, Jira, Xray, or Zephyr.</p> </li> </ul> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><em>All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check as part of our pre-employment process.</em></span></p> <h3><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>About Newsela:</strong></span></h3> <p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Newsela is a leading education technology company dedicated to meaningful classroom learning for every student. We deliver integrated, AI-powered solutions designed to unlock student engagement, empower teachers, and drive meaningful learning outcomes. Our suite of products supports knowledge and skill development, writing practice, daily instruction, assessment, and data-informed decision-making across K–12 classrooms. Grounded in learning science research, Newsela’s solutions integrate content, assessment, and analytics to help educators track progress, understand student outcomes, and deliver high-impact instruction that supports every learner.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">#LI-Remote</span></p>