Quality Assurance Engineer

As a Quality Assurance Engineer at CredLens, you will play a crucial role in ensuring the security, usability, accessibility, and overall quality of our platform. You will work closely with a small, cohesive team, including software engineers, data engineers, and product managers, to build a robust and reliable platform that supports our mission to provide actionable insights for non-degree credentials. This is an opportunity to shape the quality assurance practices within a green-field build-out, directly contributing to the delivery of a high-quality product. You will be responsible for planning, executing, and automating tests with a strong focus on security and user experience.

About CredLens

Founded in 2024 as an independent nonprofit subsidiary of Strada Education Foundation, CredLens is building a national data trust to solve for the lack of verified outcomes of non-degree credentials. Our mission is to provide actionable insights and drive research for industry-based, professional, and workforce credentials, addressing a significant data gap. CredLens offers tailored data analytics and visualizations to credential issuers, workforce training providers, philanthropic funders, and state systems to improve credential quality and inform funding decisions.

• Develop and execute comprehensive test plans and test cases based on product requirements and design specifications.
• Perform thorough functional testing, with a strong emphasis on security, accessibility, and user experience.
• Design, implement, and maintain automated test scripts using Playwright.
• Integrate automated tests into the CI/CD pipeline using CodePipelines with the support of the devops team.
• Utilize Docker to create and manage consistent test environments.
• Actively participate in the software development lifecycle from the initial stages, including requirements gathering and design discussions, to provide early QA feedback.
• Partner closely with product managers to understand user needs and ensure testing aligns with product goals.
• Identify, document, and track software defects, working collaboratively with the development team to resolve them.
• Conduct thorough regression testing to ensure new changes do not introduce defects or negatively impact existing functionality.
• Contribute to the establishment and evolution of QA best practices within the team.

• Education: A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field is optimal but not mandatory.  Equivalent experience and/or relevant certifications are highly valued.

• Minimum of 4-5 years of experience in a Quality Assurance Automation role, with a focus on web application testing.
• Proven experience in planning, executing, and documenting functional tests.
• Strong hands-on experience in designing and implementing test automation frameworks, with proficiency in Playwright or similar tools.
• Solid understanding of security testing principles and best practices and a desire to learn more.
• Working experience with accessibility testing standards (e.g., WCAG).
• Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.

• Strong, recent experience in Playwright.
• Deep understanding of accessibility testing with libraries such as Axe.
• Working familiarity with Docker for test environment management.
• API Testing with Postman.
• Experience working closely with product and design teams to validate UI/UX fidelity, accessibility, and user interaction quality.

• A passion for education and technology, with a commitment to CredLens’ mission and values.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated alignment with CredLens operating principles (Integrity,  Expertise with a Learning Mindset, Collaboration & Humility, Open, Honest, Direct, and Kind Communication, Diversity & Openness, and Joy in our Work) and a commitment to building a strong and healthy workplace culture.

Travel Requirements

Minimal travel but hybrid work model and expected to be in the DC office at least 2 days per week, typically Tuesday and Thursday.

Mission and Values Alignment:

Committed to providing equitable pathways to opportunity through PSET, particularly for individuals who have faced significant barriers. Demonstrated alignment with CredLens' guiding values, commitment to building a strong and healthy workplace culture, and working in a collaborative environment.    

Strategy and Innovation Leadership:

Adept at operationalizing strategy and effectively communicating strategic endeavors within the organization and in external contexts, both verbally and in writing. Particular skill in designing annual plans, monitoring progress, and refining plans as needed. Adaptable with tolerance for ambiguity. Able to problem-solve and navigate varied viewpoints. Capacity to refine efforts based on evidence that change is needed. Ability to lead efforts to visualize and monitor change. Capability to see and support innovative ideas and opportunities across the organization, and to embed innovation within operational plans. Capabilities in taking the perspective of others and adapting an agenda and approach – toward a shared aim - accordingly.   

Strategic Problem Solving: 

Ability to effectively utilize a hypothesis-driven approach to problem solving, with effective quantitative and communication skills. Ability to take on broad-reaching and sometimes ambiguous questions while working collaboratively and cross-functionally with Strada team members across the organization.  

Execution and Operations Leadership:

Ability to translate innovative, strategic ideas into tangible, actionable steps, as well as to effectively monitor progress and partner with others on identifying improvements during implementation to increase the likelihood of successful execution.  

DEI Commitment:

Commitment and professional experience advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within and organization, including incorporating stakeholder perspectives in the design, implementation, and evaluation of strategic efforts.    

Relationship Building and Collaborative Capabilities: 

Demonstrated ability to cultivate, grow, and manage positive, mutually beneficial relationships at all levels of an organization and with partners outside the organization. Strong communication, interpersonal and relationship management skills—including identifying and working through challenges—underscored by strong judgment and emotional intelligence. Proven collaborator, able to work with colleagues at all levels in the organization. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to CredLens' organizational vibrancy, employee experience, and mission. We strongly encourage applicants from people of color/the global majority, immigrant, bilingual, and bicultural individuals; people with disabilities, members of the LGBTQIA2S+  and gender nonconforming communities; and people with other diverse backgrounds and lived experiences. We believe every member on the team enriches our workplace by exposing us to a broad range of ways to understand and engage with the world, identify challenges, and discover, design, and deliver critical insights and solutions.