$110,000–$120,000 Per Year
Application Programming Interface (API), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automation, Bug Tracking/Defect Management, Candidate Sourcing, Code Reviews, Collective Bargaining, Communication Skills, Computer Science, Continuous Deployment/Delivery, Continuous Integration, Cross-Functional, Debugging Skills, Documentation, Embedded Systems, Environmental Issues, Establish Priorities, Identify Issues, Incident Response, Mentoring, Needs Assessment, Problem Solving Skills, Process Improvement, Product Design, Product Management, Product Reviews, Project Engineering, Project/Program Management, Pytest, Quality Assurance, Quality Assurance Methodology, Quality Management, Reliability Testing, Software Engineering, Software Testing, Test Automation, Test Case, Test Design, Test Plan/Schedule, Test Strategy, Test Suite, Test Tools, Testing, Training/Teaching, Willing to Travel
Description
Overview
This role is a hybrid role and requires work onsite in the NYC office three days a week.
NYPL Digital's Quality Assurance team is in the middle of a meaningful shift from manual testing to an embedded quality engineering model where QA engineers work alongside product teams as active technical contributors throughout the development process. We are looking for a QA Engineer II who takes ownership of quality outcomes on their team, drives work forward with initiative and independence, and builds the automated test coverage that lets NYPL's engineers ship with confidence.
This is a hands-on, project-level engineering role. Your primary output is automated tests. You'll be embedded on a cross-functional product team and responsible for understanding the quality landscape of your product area including where the risks are, where the coverage gaps are, and what to do about both. You'll collaborate closely with engineers, designers, product managers, and project managers as a quality partner from the very start of a project.
We are looking for someone we can count on to:
Own:
- Automated test coverage for their team's product area
- Test strategy for assigned projects from kickoff through delivery
- The quality picture their team is working with: where the risks are, where the gaps are, and what the plan is to close them
- Health and reliability of their team's test suite
- Quality learnings from incidents, i.e. translating blameless postmortem findings into follow-up test coverage and process improvements
Teach:
- Shift-left practices to engineers on their embedded team
- Automated testing techniques including UI automation, API testing, accessibility testing, etc.
- How to write and review tests well, through pairing and code review
- How to incorporate AI-assisted tools into testing and development workflows
Learn:
- NYPL's digital product landscape and the specific technical context of their team
- Testing tools and frameworks in use across the organization
- How to navigate cross-functional collaboration effectively in a large, complex organization
Improve:
- Automation coverage depth across their team's product area
- Test reliability — reducing flakiness and improving signal quality
- How quality work gets planned and prioritized within their team's sprint cycle
- The team's shared quality practices over time
Some expectations for this role are that within:
1 month, this person will:
- Onboard to the team's codebase, CI/CD pipeline, and existing test suite
- Understand the current state of test coverage and where the significant gaps are
- Attend all sprint ceremonies and contribute to team discussions
- Establish working relationships with engineers, designers, product manager, and project manager on their team
3 months, this person will:
- Contribute automated tests aligned to the team's highest-priority work
- Review engineering PRs with a quality lens and create follow-up tickets for coverage gaps
- Proactively think ahead about upcoming work and collaboratively align on testing priorities with their team
- Have a documented picture of coverage gaps and a shared plan for closing them
6 months and beyond, this person will:
- Own the test strategy for their team's product area
- Engage at the start of projects, e.g., reading requirements, reviewing designs, and flagging risks before code is written
- Demonstrate consistent shift-left behaviors and serve as a quality thought partner in technical discussions
Responsibilities
- Write and maintain automated tests as primary output including UI tests (e.g., Playwright) and API and backend tests (e.g., pytest)
- Design comprehensive test strategies for assigned projects, from kickoff through delivery
- Identify automation coverage gaps, document them clearly, and work collaboratively with engineers to close them
- Review engineering PRs with a quality lens; flag test coverage gaps and create follow-up tickets
- Independently debug and resolve test failures — distinguishing flaky tests, environment issues, and genuine bugs
- Read product requirements and review designs at project kickoff; flag risks early and begin drafting test cases before code is written
- Invest in planning: think ahead about upcoming work, proactively align on testing priorities with engineers and PMs, and come to sprint ceremonies with a clear point of view on what quality work the team needs next
- Communicate clearly and proactively when critical test failures block deployments or when issues are identified in production
- Participate actively in incident response; contribute a quality and testing perspective to blameless postmortems and translate findings into follow-up automation or coverage work
- Mentor other QA engineers through code review, pairing, and knowledge sharing
- Experiment with and adopt AI-assisted tools to accelerate test authoring, debugging, and coverage work; share findings with the team
Required Education, Experience & Skills
Required Education and Certifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
- - OR - 3+ years of equivalent experience
Required Experience
- 3 - 5 years of professional software testing or software engineering experience, with a focus on automated testing
Required Skills
- Expertise writing and maintaining automated tests, including UI automation (e.g., Playwright) and API or backend testing (e.g., pytest)
- Expertise to design test strategies for projects of moderate complexity
- Leverage AI-enabled tools to improve test design, accelerate defect triage, streamline repetitive QA tasks, and increase team efficiency.
- Experience identifying, documenting, and working to close test coverage gaps
- Comfortable reading code and independently debugging test failures
- Active code review participation, i.e., both giving and receiving substantive feedback
- Strong communication skills for technical and cross-functional collaboration
- A track record of driving work forward independently — identifying what needs to happen next and making it happen
- Demonstrated shift-left instincts: engaging early, flagging risks proactively, and contributing to quality upstream of development
- Comfortable working within CI/CD pipelines, i.e., understanding how tests run in automation, diagnosing pipeline failures, and keeping builds healthy
Managerial/Supervisory Responsibilities
More...
Core Values
All team members are expected and encouraged to embody the NYPL Core Values:
- Be Helpful to patrons and colleagues
- Be Resourceful in solving problems
- Be Curious in all aspects of your work
Physical Duties
- Limited physical effort is required.
- May require travel within NYC.
Physical Required?
Union/Non Union
Schedule
- Hybrid Work Schedule; requires three days onsite in NYC
- Monday - Friday; 9AM - 5PM
This job description represents the types and levels of responsibilities that will be required of the position and shall not be construed as a declaration of all of the specific duties and responsibilities for the role. Job duties may change if Library priorities change. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description as needed.
The New York Public LibrarySalary Statement
At the Library, we believe that pay transparency and pay equity are important to ensuring we source the best candidates and keep the best employees. When making a determination as to the appropriate salary for a candidate, we consider a variety of factors such, including, but not limited to, the position requirements, the skills, prior experience, and educational background required or preferred for the job, the scope and impact of the role within the organization, internal peer equity, and the candidate's specific training, experience, education level, and skills. No single factor is conclusive; the Library reserves the right to consider any and all relevant factors and make a decision consistent with its policies.
Union Salaries are determined by collective bargaining agreement(s).