Contractor: Senior Quality Engineer

The role

Newsela is on a mission to deliver "meaningful classroom learning for every student." As a Senior Full-Stack Quality Engineer, you will be a critical force in ensuring that mission is delivered through reliable, high-quality software. You will work alongside talented product engineers to test complex front-end applications powered by cloud-based back-end services, internal LLMs, and third-party AI tools.

This is a hands-on, full-stack QE role — not just automation, not just manual. You will own quality end-to-end, moving from story acceptance criteria all the way to production health monitoring.

Why you’ll love this role

• Drive High Impact: Own quality end-to-end within your scrum team and directly support a mission that transforms classroom learning for millions of students.
• Modern AI Workflows: Leverage cutting-edge AI tools (like Claude Code and GitHub Copilot) to accelerate test development while testing complex, non-deterministic AI features and LLMs.
• Technical Ownership: Build and architect full-stack test frameworks across UI, API, and service layers with autonomy and high visibility.
• Collaborative Leadership: Partner closely with cross-functional peers in Product, Design, and Engineering while mentoring mid-level engineers to elevate the overall quality culture.

What You'll Be Doing

• End-to-End Automation & Frameworks: Build, maintain, and execute automated test frameworks and regression suites across UI, API, and service layers using modern AI-assisted practices.
• AI & LLM Validation: Test and validate internally built LLMs and external AI tools and services, applying rigorous quality engineering standards to non-deterministic systems.
• Scrum & Delivery Ownership: Own test planning, execution, and release support from story validation to production deployment with minimal oversight.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Engineering, Product Management, and Product Design early in the lifecycle to refine ambiguous requirements into clear, testable acceptance criteria.
• Quality Advocacy & Mentorship: Serve as the team's quality advocate, providing technical guidance, conducting code reviews, and pairing with mid-level quality engineers.
• Defect Management & Observability: Establish best practices for defect tracking, triage, and communication while using AI tooling for issue detection, reproduction, and resolution.

About You

• 5+ Years Experience: Professional software testing and QA experience within an Agile Scrum environment