QA Engineer

Exostar is seeking a detail-oriented, quality-first QA Engineer who delivers confidence at the same pace our engineering team delivers code. This is not a manual testing or checkbox role. We’re seeking a hands-on quality engineer who leads with automation, leverages AI tools to stay ahead of development, and approaches every feature with a critical, adversarial mindset before it reaches production.

In this role, you will own quality across mission-critical systems in FedRAMP Moderate and CMMC Level 2 environments supporting major defense contractors. You’ll define test strategies in the face of ambiguity, build robust automation to prevent regressions, and harness AI-driven tools to create, expand, and continuously improve test coverage—far beyond what manual processes can achieve.

 

Responsibilities:

Your day if you join us:

Test & Automate (70%+) 

• Design, build, and maintain automated test suites across API, UI, integration, and regression layers using Python, TypeScript, or equivalent. 

• Use AI tools — Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor — as a native part of your test authoring workflow to generate test cases, expand coverage, and identify edge cases you haven't thought of yet. 

• Own test strategy end-to-end: requirements analysis → test design → automation → CI/CD integration → triage and maintenance. 

• Build and maintain test infrastructure: frameworks, fixtures, mock services, and CI pipeline integration on Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions. 

• Perform exploratory and risk-based testing against Angular/TypeScript frontends, .NET/C# and Python backends, and Azure-hosted microservices. 

• Test and validate security controls in FedRAMP and CMMC-regulated environments — including access controls, audit logging, and data handling requirements. 

Raise the Bar (20%) 

• Your test patterns become the reference standard for quality engineering across the team. 

• Review PRs with a quality lens — not just for bugs, but for testability, observability, and maintainability. 

• Share AI-augmented testing techniques: prompt-driven test generation, AI-assisted coverage analysis, and workflow automation. 

• Mentor engineers on writing testable code and building quality-first habits. 

• Write practical test documentation: test plans, coverage maps, and failure postmortems — not slide decks. 

 

Inform Technical Direction (10%) 

• Surface quality signals that matter: flaky test patterns, coverage gaps, regression hotspots, and automation ROI. 

• Evaluate testing tools by using them in real environments against real data — not benchmarks. 

• Identify the technical debt in test infrastructure that actually slows release velocity. 

Qualifications:

You are a great fit for this role if you:

Required:

You are a Test Builder 

• 2+ years of hands-on QA or SDET engineering — writing and maintaining automated tests, not just running them. 

• Track record of building test suites that catch real bugs, not just verifying happy paths. 

• Proficiency in at least one: Python (pytest), TypeScript/JavaScript (Playwright, Cypress), or C# (xUnit, NUnit). 

• 2+ years of experience with any one the tools: Functionize, TOSCA, Selenium, Claude Code.  

• Experience testing REST APIs with tools like Postman, RestAssured, or custom automation frameworks. 

• Comfortable across the stack — API contracts, UI behavior, database state, and integration seams. 

AI-Native Workflow 

• Daily user of Claude Code, Copilot, Cursor, or equivalent AI tools — specifically for test generation, coverage gap analysis, and exploratory test ideation. 

• Clear mental model of where AI-generated tests are reliable and where they need human judgment. 
• Demonstrated examples of using AI to expand test coverage faster and catch edge cases that manual review missed. 

Judgment & Engineering Maturity 

• Thrives in ambiguity — can derive a test strategy from incomplete requirements and ship it. 

• Risk-based testing instincts: knows which tests matter most and which can wait. 

• Clear, precise written communication — test plans, bug reports, and failure analyses. 

• Experience testing in regulated environments (FedRAMP, CMMC, ITAR, SOC 2, HIPAA). 

Due to customer requirements, U.S. Citizenship