Position Name – Lead QA Engineer

Type of hiring – Fulltime/Subcon Location – Toronto, ON (3 days from client office in Ethoca office)

Job Description

We need a Strong QA Lead with Java background, Kafka, API, Rest Assured, Selenium. This is a pivotal role responsible for quality engineering, automation, and testing of large-scale, distributed, event-driven systems.

This position focuses heavily on Kafka-based architectures, data pipelines, and hybrid environments spanning OpenStack (on-prem) and Azure cloud platforms. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in automation-first testing, event-driven validation, and end-to-end system quality across microservices and data platforms.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, and maintenance of automation frameworks for complex distributed systems Provide technical leadership for testing strategy across Kafka-based event-driven architectures Drive testing across: Kafka-based event-driven systems (producers/consumers, message validation, data consistency) Data pipelines and simulator-based testing (e.g., NiFi) API and microservices validation UI automation testing (Selenium) Develop and execute end-to-end testing strategies across OpenStack (on-prem) and Azure environments Minimise manual testing by identifying high-value automation opportunities Ensure full end-to-end quality coverage across releases, including asynchronous workflows Collaborate with engineers, architects, product owners, and cross-functional teams Participate in code reviews and enforce engineering quality standards Translate system designs into scalable testing strategies Manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced Agile environment Participate in on-call rotations and support production issues with root cause analysis

All About You

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience Proven years of experience in Software Testing / Quality Engineering Strong expertise in test automation frameworks and strategy Hands-on experience with Kafka or event-driven systems testing Experience testing distributed systems and asynchronous workflows Strong programming skills in Java Experience with APIs (REST/SOAP) and SQL/data validation Experience with simulator tools such as NiFi Experience with UI test automation using Selenium Familiarity with Agile methodologies Strong problem-solving, analytical thinking, and communication skills

Technical Skills

Kafka and event-driven system testing (required) Automation testing frameworks CI/CD tools (Jenkins) OpenStack (on-prem environment testing) Azure platform experience: Azure Blob Storage Azure PostgreSQL Azure Cosmos DB API testing and data validation Code reviews, branching strategies Monitoring tools such as Dynatrace and Splunk

Nice to Have

Experience with high-throughput, low-latency systems (payments, fintech) Performance and scalability testing experience Security and resiliency testing practices Advanced Kafka patterns and streaming systems Experience with distributed system failure testing and recovery