Manual QA Engineer (JHB Hybrid/Remote)
IT – Analyst, Data Management ~ IT – Software Testing
Johannesburg – Gauteng – South Africa
ENVIRONMENT:
TAKE ownership of manual test plans, exploratory QA, edge case validation, and release readiness as the next QA Engineer wanted by a provider of cutting-edge Financial Tools to join its Joburg team. You will ensure that every feature released works as expected, under realistic conditions, with real data, across different client setups. Your work gives confidence to the team and clients that changes are safe, correct, and production-ready. Applicants will require 2+ years in a QA, Software Testing, or Product Validation role including experience testing web applications with complex business rules. You will also need strong manual testing skills – creative, thorough, and consistent – with the ability to write clear bug reports, test cases, and step-by-step reproduction steps & have familiarity with GitHub, staging environments, and web-based admin tools.
DUTIES:
Test Planning and Execution –
- Review specs and write test plans before Development begins — covering Happy Paths, Edge Cases, and Regressions.
- Manually test new features in staging and review-app environments.
- Validate cross-client behaviour and confirm that reusable modules behave consistently across configurations.
Functional and Exploratory Testing –
- Simulate real-world usage scenarios, especially for finance-sensitive actions (vesting, leaver workflows, accounting exports).
- Confirm permission boundaries, client scoping, and multi-tenant data isolation.
- Reproduce and document bugs with clear steps, screenshots, and logs.
Regression Testing –
- Maintain a high-priority manual Regression suite for key workflows (participant login, reporting, admin actions).
- Flag risky areas for automation and collaborate with the Quality and Reliability Engineer (QRE) on automation priorities.
- Run final Regression checks before production releases, especially for sensitive clients or modules.
Collaboration and Feedback –
- Collaborate with Product Managers (PMs) to ensure all acceptance criteria are testable and clear.
- Work with QREs to identify flaky tests or test data gaps.
- Pair with Developers to test Edge Cases and build shared understanding of how things should behave.
What success looks like:
✓ Features are released without critical bugs or regressions.
✓ Test coverage is consistent and documented for all major flows.
✓ Edge cases are caught in QA, not by clients.
✓ Support sees fewer repeat issues post-release.
✓ Developers and PMs trust your judgment and lean on your test plans.
✓ Contribute lightweight Cypress/pytest scripts or data factories as you level up in automation.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 2+ Years in a QA, Software Testing, or Product Validation role.
- Experience testing web applications with complex business rules.
- Strong manual testing skills – creative, thorough, and consistent.
- Ability to write clear bug reports, test cases, and step-by-step reproduction steps.
- Familiarity with GitHub, staging environments, and web-based admin tools.
Knowledge/Experience in the following areas will be beneficial, but not required:
- Experience testing multi-tenant or B2B SaaS platforms.
- Understanding of Django admin, permissions, and relational data.
- Exposure to accounting, payroll, or HR systems.
- Familiarity with testing tools like Postman, Selenium, or Cypress (even basic).
- Comfortable reading API specs or inspecting logs (e.g., Sentry or console output).
ATTRIBUTES:
- Curious and sceptical – you assume things will break until proven otherwise.
- Structured – you test methodically and avoid "just clicking around".
- Empathetic – you test from the lens of the end user, not just the ticket spec.
- Collaborative – you share edge cases, ask good questions, and care about team velocity.
- Relentless – you don’t settle for “it works on my machine”.