QA Automation Engineer

Catawiki is a one-of-a-kind marketplace for buying and selling special objects. Each week, more than 100,000 unique items are auctioned, all carefully curated by passionate in-house experts.

Quality is an engineering discipline, not a final checkpoint. As a QA Automation Engineer, you’ll build scalable automation systems that help teams deliver reliable web, mobile, and backend experiences with confidence. You’ll combine strong hands-on coding with a product and business mindset, embedding quality into engineering workflows, focusing effort on the highest-risk user journeys, and improving frameworks, pipelines, and practices beyond your immediate scope.

Your Mission

As a QA Automation Engineer, you’ll build scalable automation systems that help teams deliver reliable web, mobile, and backend experiences with confidence. You’ll combine strong hands-on coding with a product and business mindset, embedding quality into engineering workflows, focusing effort on the highest-risk user journeys, and improving frameworks, pipelines, and practices beyond your immediate scope.

What You'll Do

You’ll own and improve the automation foundations and tooling that make testing faster, more reliable, and easier to maintain across the software delivery lifecycle.

• Build scalable automation frameworks using tools such as Playwright, Selenium, or Cypress, applying object-oriented principles and maintainable design patterns.
• Embed quality into CI/CD by integrating automated tests into pipelines and establishing effective release quality gates.
• Test APIs and backend systems across REST and GraphQL, validating data integrity, business logic, and system behaviour.
• Improve test effectiveness by increasing meaningful coverage, reducing regression time, and addressing flaky or slow test suites.
• Apply risk-based testing to prioritise critical user journeys and areas with the greatest customer and business impact.
• Strengthen quality engineering practices by improving frameworks, pipelines, internal tooling, and team processes.
• Collaborate across Engineering, Product, and Business to communicate quality in terms of risk, impact, and practical trade-offs.
• Mentor and influence others by sharing best practices and acting as an informal technical leader while remaining hands-on.

What You'll Bring

You’re a product-minded quality engineer who thinks in systems rather than individual test cases. You write production-quality code, take end-to-end ownership, and can show how your work has improved delivery outcomes.

• Deep automation experience: Around 7–12 years of relevant experience, with a progression from quality assurance into hands-on automation engineering or software development in test.
• Strong programming skills: The ability to write clean, production-level code in Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, or a comparable language.
• Framework design expertise: Experience building or significantly improving maintainable, modular automation frameworks rather than only using existing ones.
• CI/CD ownership: Hands-on experience integrating automated tests with tools such as Jenkins, GitLab, or Azure DevOps, including PR checks or release gates.
• Backend testing strength: Strong API testing experience across REST or GraphQL and confidence working with backend-heavy systems.
• Product and business judgement: A risk-based approach to deciding what to automate, grounded in user impact, critical flows, and return on effort.
• Evidence of measurable impact: Examples such as increased automation coverage, shorter regression cycles, faster pipelines, or improved team efficiency.
• Clear, collaborative communication: The ability to ask structured questions, navigate disagreements constructively, and explain quality through data, risk, and business impact.

Experience with performance testing tools such as JMeter or k6, as well as security or observability practices, is a plus. Familiarity with AI-assisted tools such as Codex or Copilot to improve code and explore solutions is also valued when used thoughtfully.

How We Work

Quality is shared across the engineering organisation. You’ll partner closely with developers, product colleagues, and business stakeholders to improve how quality is designed, assessed, and delivered.

• We treat automated testing as part of the engineering workflow, not a separate gate at the end.
• We prioritise based on risk, customer impact, and business value rather than trying to automate everything.
• We value ownership, curiosity, clear communication, and continuous learning.
• We use modern tools - including AI-assisted workflows - to support sound engineering judgement, not replace it.
• You’ll have opportunities to deepen your test automation expertise across web, mobile, APIs, and scalable frameworks as you help evolve our quality practices.

In Return

You’ll be part of an enthusiastic, highly motivated team of 800+ Catawikians.

• A competitive Annual Gross Base Salary depending on your level, competencies, and overall experience.
• A Work From Home Allowance to help with your monthly household bills.
• Commuting between your home and our office is covered by Catawiki.
• Amazing office right in the centre of Amsterdam.

Why You'll Love Working with Us

• Create a visible impact by working at scale in a global organisation serving millions of customers across 80+ categories. In our flat structure, every role has a broad scope and directly impacts both our customers and the business.
• Learn and grow through our Learning & Development initiatives, including clear development plans and mentorship programmes to support your career progression.
• A culture of connection defines us. We’re a passionate, diverse team of 800+ Catawikians representing 60+ nationalities.
• Celebrate life’s moments with us. You’ll receive a €100 Catavoucher when you join, a €50 Catavoucher on your birthday, and an extra day off each year to “Pursue Your Passion”. We also offer additional leave for key work anniversaries and important life events. Benefits may vary by location.