Senior QA Engineer

Location: Nairobi, Kenya

Reports to: Senior Manager, Quality Assurance

About the role:

As a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Ezra, you will play a pivotal role in maintaining the quality of our software products. This hands-on role requires a dedicated individual with a strong interest in quality assurance and testing methodologies. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, partners, and other stakeholders to ensure the delivery of high-quality, reliable, and scalable solutions that drive business success and meet our customer needs. Reporting to the Senior Manager Quality Assurance, you will significantly impact our projects and organizational growth

Key responsibilities:

• Architect and evolve automation frameworks to broaden the scope of validation across the Ezra financial ecosystem.
• Seamlessly embed automated test cycles into the full software delivery lifecycle and continuous delivery pipelines.
• Spearhead the coordination and execution of technical integration and user-centric validation workflows.
• Partner with Engineering Leadership and cross-functional teams to manage the strategic deployment of robust software versions.
• Ensure high-fidelity software delivery through strict alignment with complex technical specifications and user needs.
• Engineer custom utilities and infrastructure to facilitate testing and external platform integration, specifically for:
  • Telecommunications interfaces (including USSD, SMSC, and IVR protocols)
  • Digital and mobile wallet infrastructures
  • Core financial and banking systems
  • Identity management and KYC verification services
• Collaborate extensively with Architects, Technical units, and Product Managers to accelerate the development of advanced product capabilities.
• Champion engineering excellence by continuously optimizing automation architectures and quality assurance methodologies.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Possess a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent professional background.
• At least 4 years of hands-on experience focused on Quality Assurance automation.
• A proven track record in a Senior Quality Assurance Automation role or a comparable technical position.
• Expertise in managing and querying SQL Server, Azure SQL, and NoSQL database environments.
• Deep familiarity with DevOps methodologies, encompassing CI/CD pipelines, cloud deployment, and release lifecycle management.
• Extensive experience operating within Agile frameworks for software development.
• Practical knowledge of TDD and BDD (Test-Driven and Behavior-Driven Development) practices.
• Strong understanding of event-driven architecture
• Thorough grasp of API Gateways and common service discovery protocols.
• Professional proficiency in English, both in verbal communication and written documentation.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proven ability to architect and implement test automation infrastructures utilizing Java, Groovy, or Scala.
• Extensive experience leveraging Jenkins or equivalent CI/CD orchestration technologies.
• Exceptional proficiency in Unix-based environments, specifically regarding Linux and Mac OSX command-line interfaces.
• Expertise in Shell Scripting for automation and system administration.
• Substantial background in web application validation through Gherkin, Cucumber, or SpecFlow frameworks.
• Advanced technical knowledge of Selenium WebDriver for browser-based automation.
• Strong programming fluency in at least one core language, including Java, Python, or JavaScript.
• Competency in utilizing JMeter for complex performance and load assessment scenarios.
• Familiarity with AWS, Jira, Bitbucket, and Docker is highly regarded as a distinct advantage.
• ledge
• Automation

The ideal candidate is someone who has:

Quality Engineering Leadership

• Driven by a commitment to innovation and delivering customer-focused solutions that surpass quality benchmarks.
• Exhibits strong ownership of quality deliverables while actively refining engineering workflows and standards.
• Comprehensive mastery of testing methodologies, validation strategies, and software quality fundamentals.

Growth Mindset:

• Takes pride in professional achievements while maintaining a proactive approach to self-improvement.
• Welcomes evaluative feedback and leverages technical challenges as essential learning opportunities.
• Possesses high self-awareness and is dedicated to continuous personal and career development.

Attention to Detail:

• Ensures meticulous accuracy and rigor across all quality assurance and validation phases.
• Recognizes the critical role of standardized documentation and procedures in achieving operational excellence.

Collaboration & Communication:

• Partners effectively with diverse stakeholders and engineering units to achieve shared objectives.
• Articulates complex concepts with clarity and confidence to both technical peers and business leaders.
• Cultivates influential relationships that facilitate the delivery of robust software solutions.

Leadership & Influence:

• Demonstrates inspirational leadership to empower colleagues and optimize team performance.
• Promotes a synergistic workspace that encourages high engagement and technical growth.
• Provides mentorship and guidance while championing quality-centric strategies and decisions.

Customer Focus:

• Deeply understands the FinTech ecosystem and Ezra’s unique customer landscape.
• Advocates for strategic improvements that elevate the user experience and drive key business metrics.

Company overview:

Ezra delivers sophisticated B2B digital lending architectures for emerging global markets, partnering with mobile wallet operators and financial institutions to support 24 distinct operations across 23 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Our strategic hubs are located in Nairobi, Kenya and Dubai, UAE.

Our premier product portfolio includes:

• Airtime Credit Services (ACS): Seamless data and airtime advances for prepaid subscribers at critical low-balance touchpoints.
• Nano: On-demand micro-cash liquidity solutions engineered for digital wallet ecosystems.
• BNPL: Facilitating flexible installment-based payments for a diverse range of products and services.

As a technology-first FinTech, our infrastructure is entirely data-driven, encompassing the complete lifecycle of subscriber eligibility, risk mitigation, loan issuance, and automated financial reporting.

We manage a robust daily volume of approximately 21 million loan requests and 1.4 TB of data, necessitating a highly secure and resilient operating environment.

We remain dedicated to continuous innovation, leveraging platform analytics to refine our core offerings and pioneer new market opportunities.