Mobile QA Engineer (Manual & Automation, Mid-Level)

Location: Chisinau, Moldova We are seeking a Mid-Level Mobile QA Engineer to ensure the quality, reliability, and usability of iOS and Android mobile applications, including FinTech functionalities, through manual testing and an increasing focus on test automation. The role involves planning and executing functional, regression, integration, usability, compatibility, and exploratory testing across mobile devices, operating-system versions, backend services, and third-party integrations. The QA Engineer will also design, develop, and maintain automated tests that provide stable and meaningful coverage of critical user journeys. The Mobile QA Engineer will analyze business and technical requirements, identify risks and acceptance criteria, prepare test scenarios and test data, and communicate defects clearly to developers, business analysts, product owners, and other stakeholders. The role includes planning and tracking quality activities in Jira within an Agile delivery framework. Additionally, the QA Engineer is expected to contribute to release readiness, continuous quality improvement, and shift-left testing practices. The candidate demonstrates solid mobile testing experience, an automation-oriented mindset, attention to detail, and the ability to investigate issues across the mobile application, APIs, backend services, and device environment. Basic Requirements • Ability to understand mobile application architecture, user journeys, business rules, and integrations with backend services. • Capability to plan and execute manual testing independently and to develop or maintain automated tests with limited guidance. • Strong discipline in test design, defect reporting, test evidence, traceability, and quality documentation. • Ability to reproduce, isolate, and investigate defects using logs, API responses, device information, and test data. • Willingness to maintain reusable test cases, automation code, test data, and release-quality documentation. • Familiarity with Agile methodologies (Scrum/Kanban) and cross-functional teamwork. • Understanding of mobile usability, accessibility, performance, network conditions, and device/OS fragmentation. Key Responsibilities Mobile QA Testing Responsibilities • Review requirements, user stories, designs, and acceptance criteria to identify ambiguities, risks, dependencies, and test conditions early in the delivery lifecycle. • Design, maintain, and execute test plans, checklists, test cases, exploratory charters, and regression suites for iOS and Android applications. • Perform functional, integration, end-to-end, regression, smoke, sanity, usability, compatibility, and localization testing. • Validate mobile application behavior across supported devices, screen sizes, operating-system versions, orientations, permissions, and installation or upgrade paths. • Test application behavior under variable network conditions, interrupted sessions, background/foreground transitions, notifications, deep links, and offline or low-connectivity scenarios. • Validate REST APIs, backend integrations, authentication flows, and data consistency using tools such as Postman, Swagger/OpenAPI, or comparable solutions. • Design, develop, execute, and maintain reliable automated tests for critical mobile user journeys using Appium or comparable mobile automation frameworks. • Improve automation coverage, test stability, execution time, reporting, and maintainability while investigating flaky tests and failed runs. • Prepare and manage test data and test environments, including mocks or stubs where appropriate. • Log defects with clear reproduction steps, expected and actual results, severity, evidence, environment details, and relevant diagnostic information. • Perform defect verification, regression impact analysis, root-cause collaboration, and quality sign-off recommendations for releases. • Collaborate closely with mobile developers, backend engineers, business analysts, UX/UI designers, DevOps engineers, product owners, and business stakeholders. Quality, Security & Release Responsibilities • Apply risk-based testing and contribute to quality criteria, test strategy, release gates, and Definition of Done. • Validate secure authentication, authorization, session handling, permissions, sensitive-data exposure, and other relevant mobile security controls. • Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and review execution results to provide timely feedback on build quality. • Support release validation for development, test, staging, and production environments, including app-store candidate builds when required. • Monitor production quality indicators, logs, crash reports, analytics, and customer-reported issues to identify regression risks and improvement opportunities. • Track and communicate testing progress, coverage, defect trends, residual risks, and release-readiness recommendations. Required Skills & Qualifications • 3+ years of hands-on software testing experience, including practical testing of native or cross-platform iOS and Android applications. • Strong knowledge of software testing principles, test design techniques, defect lifecycle, and risk-based testing. • Demonstrated experience in manual functional, regression, integration, exploratory, and compatibility testing. • Practical experience developing or maintaining mobile UI automation using Appium or a comparable framework. • Working knowledge of at least one programming or scripting language used for test automation, such as Java, C#, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or Kotlin. • Experience testing REST APIs and analyzing JSON data, HTTP requests, responses, status codes, and authentication mechanisms. • Experience with Git-based version control and familiarity with CI/CD workflows. • Experience using Jira or a comparable work-management and defect-tracking system. • Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills, with consistent attention to detail. • Good communication skills and the ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams. Preferred Qualifications • Experience with native automation frameworks such as XCTest/XCUITest or Espresso/UI Automator. • Familiarity with cross-platform technologies such as Flutter, React Native, or .NET MAUI. • Experience with device farms and cloud testing platforms such as BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, Firebase Test Lab, or comparable services. • Exposure to performance, accessibility, security, or resilience testing for mobile applications. • Familiarity with log analysis, crash-reporting, monitoring, and analytics tools such as Firebase Crashlytics or comparable solutions. • Experience validating push notifications, deep links, biometrics, payments, or other mobile-specific integrations. • Familiarity with ISTQB practices or relevant testing certifications is considered an advantage. Additional Information • Work environment: Agile, collaborative, cross-functional, with a strong focus on customer experience, product quality, reliability, and continuous improvement. • Location: Office-based or hybrid, depending on project and team needs. • Team structure: Cross-functional mobile product team with direct collaboration across engineering, product, design, business analysis, and operations. Summary This role contributes directly to delivering reliable, secure, and user-friendly mobile applications that support the company’s digital customer journeys. The Middle Mobile QA Engineer will combine disciplined manual testing with sustainable automation, provide clear visibility into product quality and release risk, and help embed quality throughout the mobile development lifecycle.