QA Automation Engineer - Pro

Building the Future of Open Finance

Payward - the parent company behind Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, Payward Services and CF Benchmarks - has spent the last 15 years building one of the most modern and globally accessible financial infrastructure platforms in the industry, built to advance an open, global financial system.

Before you apply, we encourage you to explore our culture page to understand what drives us and how we work.

The Team

The Pro team is responsible for everything to do with the trading backend services such as the matching engine, market data gateways, internal and external APIs, and various other trading services. The team is located globally and responsibilities are split into sub-teams, working with various tech stacks. Our teams code in Rust and work agile around the globe. Recently, the team played a critical role in scaling Kraken's trading infrastructure.

The Opportunity

• Create comprehensive test plans before feature development, defining manual and automated testing strategies.
• Perform hands-on manual testing during development cycles to validate new features before automation.
• Balance manual exploratory testing with automation to catch edge cases that scripts might miss.
• Collaborate with engineers, product managers, and designers to define QA processes for a mission-critical trading platform.
• Lead automation initiatives end-to-end: strategy, implementation, CI/CD integration, and scaling coverage.
• Drive performance, security, and accessibility testing to deliver a top-tier experience for traders.
• Proactively document, report, and triage bugs to improve release quality and velocity.

Skills You Should Hodl

• Strong programming skills in Python, Rust or another automation-oriented language.
• Trading knowledge and experience - understanding of order types, trade execution, margin trading, and general financial markets (we'll support deepening your expertise, but foundational knowledge is essential).
• Proven ability to design comprehensive test plans before implementation, identifying what should be manually tested vs. automated.
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining test automation frameworks on complex applications.
• Strong manual testing skills and ability to think creatively to uncover edge cases and unexpected bugs.
• Solid understanding of QA principles, including exploratory testing, regression testing, and bug tracking.
• Comfort with CI/CD integration and automation at scale.
• Detail-oriented mindset with a passion for building high-quality software and ability to think outside the box.

Unless a specific application deadline is stated in the job posting, applications are accepted on an ongoing basis.

Please note, applicants are permitted to redact or remove information on their resume that identifies age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment on our team, assessing candidates in a manner consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

Payward is powered by people from around the world and we celebrate the diverse talents, backgrounds, contributions, and unique perspectives that everyone brings to the table. We hire based on merit, seeking out people with the right abilities, knowledge, and skills for the job. We encourage you to apply for roles where you don't fully meet the listed requirements, especially if you're passionate or knowledgeable about crypto.

We may ask candidates to complete job-related skills or work-style assessments as part of our hiring process. These assessments evaluate competencies relevant to the role and are applied consistently across candidates for similar positions. Results are considered alongside experience and interviews, and are not the sole basis for any employment decision.

As an equal opportunity employer, we don't tolerate discrimination or harassment of any kind, whether based on race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, citizenship, religion, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal, state, or local laws.