Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Quality Assurance Engineer (Back-end)

Location: Chicago, IL

Job Type: Full-Time / Contract Opportunity

Responsibilities:

• Extend and maintain a Java-based QA automation framework to support new functionality across high-performance trading, clearing, and instrument management systems.
• Design, develop, and execute automated and manual test cases based on functional and technical requirements.
• Identify opportunities to improve test coverage, automation efficiency, and overall quality processes.
• Partner with developers and product teams to investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve defects.
• Stay current with modern QA methodologies, automation practices, and testing technologies.
• Test a variety of internal and external system interfaces, including financial messaging protocols, proprietary data formats, and inbound/outbound file exchanges.
• Perform automated and manual testing of administrative and customer-facing applications using tools such as Playwright.
• Validate functionality, data accuracy, system integrity, security requirements, and performance under expected workloads.
• Execute end-to-end testing across interconnected systems to ensure reliable data flow and system orchestration.
• Support testing of complex, high-volume, low-latency applications where reliability and performance are critical.
• Collaborate with Product and Engineering teams to establish and maintain high-quality testing standards.
• Help develop comprehensive test strategies for new products, features, integrations, and system enhancements.
• Monitor test results, system behavior, data integrity, and performance to identify potential risks.
• Document defects, testing outcomes, and quality metrics and communicate findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of QA processes, tools, and automation coverage.

Required Skills:

• Bachelor's degree 3+ years of experience in software quality assurance, software testing, or test automation.
• Strong programming experience with Java and Python.
• Strong knowledge of SQL and database testing.
• Must have experience working with FIX protocol or other financial messaging/integration protocols.
• Hands-on experience with automated testing frameworks and tools such as Playwright, Cucumber, and JUnit.
• Experience developing and maintaining automated test suites.
• Strong understanding of functional, integration, regression, and end-to-end testing methodologies.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with strong attention to detail.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with Product, Engineering, and other stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently while managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced technology environment.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience working within financial services, capital markets, trading, or exchange technology.
• Familiarity with derivatives, futures, options, or other financial instruments.
• Experience testing high-performance or low-latency systems.
• Experience working with complex distributed systems and data integrations.
• Exposure to security, performance, and load testing.