Software Developer in Test (SDET)

Location: Los Angeles Employment Type: FullTime Department: Engineering Compensation: $155K – $175K As the founding Software Developer in Test (SDET) at First Resonance, you will take full ownership of our automated testing ecosystem. We are looking for a high-autonomy engineer who can bridge the gap between development and quality assurance without a pre-existing blueprint. You will be the internal Subject Matter Expert for all things automation. You won’t just be following a testing plan; you will be architecting the framework, selecting the patterns, and establishing the "Quality Culture" for our engineering team. Key Responsibilities Strategic Ownership & Autonomy • Roadmap Definition: Independently define and execute the automation strategy, prioritizing coverage areas (API vs. UI) based on risk and business value. • Self-Directed Management: Act as a "team of one" initially—managing your own backlog, setting technical standards, and providing regular status updates to engineering leadership. • Process Evangelism: Educate the broader engineering team on BDD practices, helping developers write better feature files and understand the value of the Playwright/Cucumber stack. Framework Architecture & Engineering • Architect & Maintain: Own the end-to-end lifecycle of our Playwright and TypeScript framework, utilizing the Page Object Model (POM) and custom Cucumber World contexts. • Performance & Scalability: Independently design and execute load testing strategies using K6 to ensure our infrastructure scales with our user base. • Tooling & Analytics: Manage our Testomatio integration, ensuring that test reporting provides actionable insights for stakeholders who may not be QA experts. Frontend Collaboration • React/Next.js Integration: Use your knowledge of React to dive into the codebase, understand component structure, and ensure our frontend is built with testability in mind (e.g., advising on data-attributes and accessibility roles). • CI/CD Leadership: Take full responsibility for the stability of tests in the CI pipeline, managing parallelization, retries, and @quarantine tags to ensure the build stays green. Technical Qualifications The Essentials • Experience: 5+ years of professional experience in software testing or development, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead automation role where you had significant input on framework design. • Autonomy: Proven track record of working as the sole SDET or leading a testing function in a startup environment where you had to manage yourself. • Modern Stack Mastery: Expert-level proficiency in TypeScript (async/await, OOD) and Playwright. • BDD/Gherkin: Deep experience implementing Cucumber from scratch, including defining step definition patterns that are scalable. The "Big Plus" (Frontend Engineering) • React/Next.js Mastery: A strong interest or background in Frontend Engineering. You should be comfortable reading React code, understanding hooks/state, and using Browser DevTools to diagnose UI bugs. Skills & Mindset • Communication: Ability to translate complex technical testing concepts into clear "business risk" language for engineering leaders. • Problem Solving: You don't wait for a ticket to fix a flaky test or a slow CI build; you identify the bottleneck and solve it independently. Benefits & Perks • Health Insurance; medical, vision, dental, & life insurance. • Paid Parental Leave. • Employee Stock Option Plan. • Team outings, group lunches, open office, happy hours. • Paid holidays, sick days. • Flexible Friday and PTO. • 401K.