QA Automation Engineer

Role summary

Peraton Labs is searching for a test-automation specialist to establish and maintain automated testing across two parallel layers — front-end (E2E) and server-side (API) — on a federal AI analytics platform. This is a mid-level role requiring prior experience shipping automated test suites in a product environment.

The product context

A TypeScript/React front end backed by Python microservices handling document processing, OCR, summarization, and AI inference pipelines, running on AWS (ECS Fargate, Lambda, S3). The team ships on a two-week sprint cycle on a product that changes daily. Tests ship in the same release as the feature.

Education / Experience Required:

• Minimum of 2 years with BS/BA; 0 years with MS/MA; 6 years with no degree
• Must be a US citizen and have the ability to obtain Public Trust suitability

Core Testing Skills Required:

• Automated E2E testing using Playwright (JavaScript) against a TypeScript/React front end
• API/service-level functional testing using pytest (Python) against Python microservices
• Black-box / behavior-based testing — testing against specifications, not implementation
• Risk-based test scoping — identifying critical behavioral changes vs. cosmetic-only changes
• Test case design: writing meaningful tests that would catch real failures, not token coverage

Technical Skills Required:

• JavaScript/TypeScript — sufficient to write and maintain Playwright suites against a React app
• Python — sufficient to write and maintain pytest suites against Python backend services
• Familiarity with GitHub workflows: protected branches, PR-based CI, running suites in an existing pipeline
• Familiarity with AWS at the awareness level — understanding the deployment environment tests run against (ECS, Lambda, S3) without needing to provision or manage it
• Ability to spin up and operate a dev environment independently using documented procedures
• Code literacy: reading and navigating TypeScript/React and Python codebases to understand what needs testing
• Debugging test failures and distinguishing real bugs from test maintenance issues
• Familiarity with Docker at the awareness level — understanding containerized services the tests exercise

Soft Skills / Working Style Required:

• Proactive and self-sufficient. Troubleshoots independently, consults subject matter experts, reads the code rather than waiting for step-by-step direction
• Communicates progress clearly and daily
• Keeps work small and iterative. Finishes in days, not weeks
• Operates effectively on a small team with little runway before delivering

Domain Awareness (not required but strongly helpful):

• Familiarity with document processing workflows: large file uploads, chunking, OCR pipelines
• Awareness of accessibility standards (WCAG / Section 508) — front-end tests should exercise accessible behaviors consistent with the team's existing standards
• Experience in regulated or security-conscious environments (federal preferred)

Nice to have:

• Playwright video/trace recording experience
• Code coverage tooling experience
• AWS Certified Developer or similar
• Testing documentation experience