SDET - 3

We're looking for an SDET-III to be a strong, hands-on technical leader in our quality engineering team. You will own complex testing and quality engineering problems, build scalable automation systems, review testing strategies, and help set the bar for engineering quality across the platform. We leverage AI across engineering workflows from coding and reviews to test generation and debugging. We expect you to rethink traditional QA workflows and help establish new standards for speed, reliability, and leverage in an AI-assisted development environment. This is a deeply hands-on role. You will work closely with engineering, product, and design to ensure Astra ships high-quality product features and scalable technical foundations as the platform grows.
The core responsibilities for the job include the following:
Be a strong hands-on technical leader:
Build and maintain scalable automation frameworks across UI, API, and integration layers.
Own complex testing and quality engineering problems end to end.
Lead by example and set technical standards for quality engineering and automation.
Drive technical execution and quality:
Define testing strategies for product features, backend systems, and AI-powered workflows.
Review test architecture, automation approaches, and quality practices.
Design and evolve engineering practices suited for AI-assisted development, including automation standards, testing practices, and quality gates.
Ensure high-quality, reliable, and maintainable test coverage across the platform.
Partner closely with engineering during design, implementation, and code reviews to shift quality earlier in the development lifecycle.
Own CI/CD testing pipelines and ensure fast, reliable feedback loops for every release.
Define and track quality metrics, including automation coverage, flakiness, defect escape rates, and reliability trends.
Build testing capabilities for AI-powered features, including prompt validation, regression testing, and non-deterministic workflow validation.
Contribute to performance, load, and reliability testing as the platform scales.
Mentor engineers and SDETs through code reviews, pairing, and technical guidance.
Partner with Product and Engineering to scope, estimate, and prioritize quality initiatives.
Contribute to hiring by participating in technical interviews and candidate evaluation.
Build and sustain a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Requirements:
6-8 years of experience in software testing or quality engineering.
Strong automation and programming skills with experience building scalable test systems.
Deep experience with API, integration, and end-to-end testing.
Strong technical foundation you can design automation frameworks, review code, and make architectural decisions around quality engineering.
Experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
Experience leading technical projects or mentoring engineers.
Comfort working in fast-paced, small-team environments.
Good communication and collaboration skills.
Comfortable with ambiguity and able to bring structure to evolving situations.
Strong ownership mindset and ability to drive problems to completion.
Nice to Have:
Experience with Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, Pytest, or similar modern testing frameworks.
Experience testing AI-powered systems, LLM workflows, or multi-agent systems.
Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, or GitHub Copilot.
Background in B2B SaaS or enterprise software.
Experience in high-growth startups.
Experience with performance, load, or reliability engineering.

Experience
5-8 yrs