QA Automation Engineer

## About the Role Optifly is building advanced airline scheduling and optimisation software used by some of the world's leading airlines. Our platform solves highly complex operational planning problems involving aircraft, schedules, slots, crews and network constraints. We are looking for our first QA Automation Lead to define and build our quality engineering function from the ground up. You will own the automation strategy, establish testing frameworks, improve release quality and work closely with engineers, optimisation specialists and product teams to help scale a platform operating in one of the most challenging optimisation domains in the world. Previous experience testing optimisation, planning, logistics, scheduling, simulation, OR, supply chain or decision-support systems is highly desirable. ## What You'll Do - Design and implement Optifly's automation strategy from the ground up. - Build and maintain automated testing frameworks across frontend, backend and database layers. - Define release quality standards and testing processes. - Work closely with Product, Engineering and Operations Research teams. - Validate complex optimisation outputs and business workflows. - Improve release confidence and support a predictable bi-weekly release cadence. - Drive a culture of quality, ownership and accountability across the engineering organisation. ## What We're Looking For - Significant experience building automation frameworks from scratch. - Strong experience testing cloud-hosted web applications. - Experience with AWS-hosted environments. - Experience testing Java-based backend systems. - Experience testing modern web applications (Angular experience advantageous). - Strong SQL skills. - Experience with API testing and database validation. - Ability to operate independently with minimal supervision. ## The Type of Person Who Thrives Here - Takes ownership. - Doesn't wait to be told what to do. - Comfortable operating in ambiguity. - Pragmatic and commercially minded. - Enjoys solving difficult problems. - High standards and attention to detail. - Willing to challenge existing processes. - Comfortable working in a fast-moving startup environment. ## What We Offer Initial engagement as a contractor, with the opportunity to transition into a permanent leadership position as the team grows.