Senior/Staff Software Quality Engineer

Location: Remote

Work anywhere in the US, must live in the US

Level: Senior or Staff (depending on depth of architectural experience)

ABOUT CONTINUED

A leader in EdTech, Continued is a team of passionate individuals dedicated to empowering professionals and enhancing careers. We are fast-paced, nimble, and we laugh a lot. We are proud to be certified as a great workplace, ranked #35 in Fortune's 2025 Best Medium Workplaces, ranked #18 in Fortune's 2025 top 25 Small & Medium Workplaces for Women, and ranked #74 in Fortune’s 2024 Best Small & Medium Workplaces for Millennials by the independent analysts at Great Place to Work®. We are 100% virtual, scattered across the country, but we maintain a tight-knit culture driven by curiosity, a love of learning, and a desire to solve complex problems. Learn more about us at continued.com.

THE MISSION: Quality Engineering in the AI Era

We are seeking a Senior/Staff Software Quality Engineer who will lead quality strategy in an AI-augmented API engineering environment. This role goes beyond traditional test automation — you will architect quality intelligence frameworks, validate AI-powered features, and embed continuous quality practices across the SDLC.

You will partner with Engineering, Product, Data, and TechOps teams to ensure our systems are reliable, scalable, observable, and responsible.

WHAT YOU’LL DO (The Impact)

• Architect AI-Driven Strategy: Shape and execute AI-driven API risk-based testing strategies across distributed systems.
• Drive end-to-end quality assurance for web and mobile releases, partnering with engineering and product teams to define acceptance criteria and release readiness.
• Own the API Quality: Lead test architecture for microservices and AI-integrated platforms, focusing heavily on GraphQL and Apollo Studio.
• Continuous Quality (CI/CD): Establish and maintain sophisticated quality gates within CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, CircleCI).
• Observability & Telemetry: Leverage tools like Honeycomb and defect trend analysis to identify systemic risks and build predictive incident feedback loops.
• AI Augmentation: Use and evaluate emerging AI-powered tools (Claude, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) to accelerate test generation, maintenance, and defect detection.
• Engineering Partnership: Author pull requests for bug fixes and participate in architecture reviews to advocate for testability and reliability at the design phase.
• Mentorship: Guide the QA team on modern, AI-driven quality engineering practices.
• Security: Embed AI-driven security and performance testing into the development lifecycle.
• Test Automation: Support application teams as needed with hands-on quality engineering, including Cypress test development, exploratory testing, and direct collaboration with frontend developers on release quality.
• Test Planning & Regression Strategy: As needed, define and maintain comprehensive test plans for feature releases and platform changes. Own regression testing strategy — determining what to automate, what to test manually, and how to keep regression suites lean and meaningful as the platform evolves.

WHO YOU ARE

• Technical Architect: You have extensive experience designing and building AI-driven API test automation frameworks from the ground up.
• GraphQL Expert: You are fluent in schema validation, query/mutation testing, and working within Apollo Studio.
• Automation Specialist: You have a deep mastery of Cypress test suites at scale and integrating them into CI/CD pipelines.
• Coder & Debugger: You are comfortable reading, debugging, and writing code (PHP/Laravel and JavaScript/Vue is a plus) to contribute to platform stability.
• Strategic and Systems Thinker: You don't just follow a path; you build it. You are energized by ambiguity and driven by data.
• Security & Accessibility: You are passionate about system security and accessibility.
• Culture Fit: You are reliable, trustworthy, and a genuine team player. You must be able to comprehend (and contribute to) highly advanced forms of sarcasm.
• Coach and Mentor: You enjoy teaching other team members on the latest tools and practices.
• Ethics: You believe in responsible and ethical AI practices.

With the additional requirements of:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field preferred.
• Excellent communication skills — able to clearly explain technical issues to non-technical stakeholders and do so in a way that builds confidence rather than confusion (we live in Slack).
• Reliable, trustworthy, and consistent — the team will depend on you.
• There is direct oversight, but you are expected to take ownership of your work, to establish deadlines, and to communicate progress proactively.
• Must have the ability to fulfill the job requirements with or without reasonable accommodations.
• Must be located in the United States and be legally eligible to work for us.
• Travel is required for an all-company meeting, and may be required once or twice per year for team or project meetings.

WHY JOIN US?

• Full-time W2 position, work core business hours in your time zone.
• Work from home with a company-provided MacBook and internet stipend.
• 21 days of flexible PTO + your birthday + holidays (with flexible substitution).
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision group health insurance, flexible spending accounts, and more.
• 401k match, professional development budget, robust wellness programs, pet insurance and many more perks and benefits.

THE EVOLUTION OF THIS ROLE

This is not a traditional QA position focused solely on regression cycles. This role shifts from:

“Testing what was built.”
to
“Engineering quality into intelligent, evolving systems.”

TO APPLY

To apply, please submit a cover letter with your application. In your cover letter, we’d love to hear about: 1) why you would make a great addition to our team; and 2) a project achievement you are particularly proud of and why AND/OR something you’ve learned recently, etc.