Ralabs

Hello everyone!
We’re looking for a hands-on QA Lead to manage quality practices for our project. This role combines people/process leadership with strong practical expertise in both Manual QA and Automation QA, with automation built using our Playwright-based (JS) framework.
 

Project Idea

The project was founded back in 2014 with the goal of connecting private and government universities/schools with regular people like we are. You have a variety of auditoriums, gyms, classrooms, and other venue options available for community use —
schedule facility uses and manage requests from the community all in one place.Just imagine that you’re a football player and you can rent a football field at Harvard to play with your friends. Amazing, right?
 

What exciting things is the product doing for the community?

The product is transforming the way public and private spaces are discovered, reserved, and used across communities — all online and accessible anywhere.
 

What is the team size and structure?

Our team consists of: 2 Front-End developers, 3 Back-End developers, 1 React-Native developer, 2 UI/UX Designers, 2 QA, 3 AQA, and PM.

How many stages of the interview are there?

— Interview with the Recruiter — up to 30 min.;

— Technical interview — up to 1.5 hours;

— Interview with the client — up to 1 hour.
 

Key Responsibilities:

• Own and drive the overall QA strategy across the project (manual and automation), defining quality standards, release readiness criteria, and continuous improvement initiatives aligned with product risk and delivery cadence.

  ‼️ Work with a required daily overlap of ~6 hours with the client’s time zone; this typically means working until approximately 9 PM — 12 AM EET.

• Lead hands-on test planning and execution for features and epics, providing early feedback on requirements to improve clarity, testability, and quality.
• Maintain a hands-on balance between leadership and execution, with approximately 60% focused on QA leadership and strategy, and 40% dedicated to hands-on testing and automation.
• Ensure efficient, lightweight test documentation, strong regression coverage, and clear traceability between requirements, tests, and defects.
• Own, maintain, and evolve test automation using the Playwright-based JS framework, expanding reliable coverage for critical user flows.
• Proactively manage flaky tests, improve test stability, and ensure automation is trusted by the team.
• Partner closely with Engineering and Product teams to establish shared ownership of quality, run bug triage, align on defect severity and priorities, and support confident release decisions.
• Mentor QA and AQA engineers through coaching, reviews, and knowledge sharing; help define clear QA ownership within the team.
• Contribute to hiring, onboarding, and shaping QA best practices when needed.

Requirements:

Must have:

• 5+ years in Quality Assurance with a mix of manual and automated testing.
• Prior experience in a QA Lead role with clear ownership of QA processes within a team.
• Solid hands-on experience with test automation using Playwright framework.
• Strong understanding of test strategy, test planning, risk-based testing, and release readiness.
• Ability to mentor, coach, and review the work of other QA engineers.
• Strong communication skills and a proactive, ownership-driven mindset.
• Upper-Intermediate English or higher for effective communication and documentation.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with API testing (Postman and/or automated API tests).
• Basic knowledge of SQL and experience debugging web applications using browser developer tools.
• Experience with CI/CD integration (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Jenkins).
• Familiarity with test reporting tools (Allure, HTML reports) and test management tools.
• Exposure to performance, accessibility, or security testing fundamentals.
• Prior experience building or heavily refactoring a test automation framework, including architecture decisions, patterns, and stability improvement.

What Success Looks Like (first 3-6 months):

• Clear QA operating model is in place: test strategy, quality gates, regression approach, and triage routine.
• Automated suite coverage increases for critical paths, and flakiness decreases with a stable CI signal.
• Fewer escaped defects and better predictability for releases.
• The team demonstrates stronger testing habits: better AC clarity, earlier risk identification, and consistent QA standards.