QA Automation Engineer (Test Automation & AI) - Hybrid Algarve
Location: Greater Faro / Loulé, Algarve - Hybrid (2-3 days/week in office)
Employment Type: Full-time
Seniority Level: Mid-Senior
Compensation: €35.000-€45.000 gross annual (depending on experience)
About Aiera
We're helping, a fast-growing, well-funded American startup in the financial technology industry, to build their first European engineering hub in the Algarve.
Aiera develops a next-generation financial research platform, including its own AI models tailored to financial markets, used by institutional investors and financial professionals globally.
As a QA Automation Engineer in this new Algarve team, you'll play a key role in ensuring quality, reliability, performance, and UX for both traditional web features and AI-powered workflows across the platform.
Why This Opportunity Stands Out
* Real impact on product quality: Your work directly affects the stability, performance, and usability of a platform used by demanding financial professionals.
* Modern testing & automation stack: Work with pytest, Selenium, and other frameworks (Playwright, Cypress, etc.), plus CI/CD (GitHub Actions), to build robust, scalable test automation.
* AI domain: Help test AI-powered features and language-model-based tools, where output quality and edge cases really matter.
* Cross-functional collaboration: Partner closely with backend, DevOps, product, and support to define testing strategies, investigate bugs, and keep quality high as the platform evolves.
* Developer-friendly culture: Low bureaucracy, high ownership, and direct collaboration with senior engineers and leadership in the US.
* Lifestyle + career: Grow your tech career in a US-backed fintech while living a mediterranean lifestyle in the Algarve.
What You'll Work On
As a QA Automation Engineer, you will:
* Collaborate with the QA Lead and engineering teams to design and maintain scalable automation frameworks for UI, API, and backend services.
* Design and document test plans, test cases, and scenarios for both manual and automated testing, focusing on critical user journeys and high-risk areas.
* Build and enhance reusable test automation frameworks
* using Selenium and Playwright, or similar tools where appropriate.
* Develop and maintain API testing frameworks for
* REST and GraphQL APIs,
* and WebSocket endpoints that power real-time data pipelines and streaming features.
* Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions) to ensure:
* Continuous validation during deployments, and
* Reliable nightly or scheduled regression runs.
* Perform manual testing to validate:
* Application functionality and correctness
* Usability and UX of key workflows
* Basic performance and behaviour under load (in collaboration with DevOps where needed)
* Test AI-powered features and language-model-based tools:
* Define and run test scenarios and evaluation sets for model outputs (relevance, correctness, consistency).
* Validate edge cases, failure modes, and guardrails (e.g. hallucinations, incomplete answers, unexpected behaviours).
* Help compare model versions (A/B) and track quality regressions when models, prompts, or data change.
* Execute and maintain automated test suites, updating them as features evolve to keep coverage high and relevant.
* Investigate and reproduce bugs:
* Use logs, browser dev tools, and test environments to narrow down issues.
* Provide clear, actionable bug reports (steps, expected vs actual behaviour, scope, environment).
* Use tools like Jira (or similar) to log, track, and follow up on defects.
* Collaborate with developers to ensure timely resolution of defects and regression issues, aligning on impact and priorities.
* Participate actively in agile ceremonies when needed (daily stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews, retrospectives) and be a key voice for quality in each cycle.
* Suggest and help implement improvements to testing processes, tools, and data, always looking for ways to increase efficiency and reliability.
Who We're Looking For
Must-have qualifications
* 4+ years of experience in QA / software testing, including web applications in a professional software development environment.
* Hands-on experience with test automation, including:
* pytest (or similar Python-based testing frameworks), and
* Selenium (or similar browser automation tools) as a core part of your test automation work.
* Solid understanding of testing methodologies and types (STLC awareness is a plus): functional, regression, integration, exploratory, and basic performance/load testing.
* Proven experience designing and documenting test plans, test cases, and scenarios.
* Comfortable investigating and reproducing bugs, using browser dev tools, logs, and test environments.
* Experience using bug tracking and collaboration tools such as Jira or similar.
* Ability to read and understand technical specs, API docs, and logs; comfortable working around backend services and APIs.
* Professional proficiency in English (written and spoken).
* Willingness to work 2-3 days/week in the office in the Greater Faro / Loulé area.
Nice-to-have
* Programming & backend familiarity
* Experience working in environments with a backend focus (microservices, real-time data, etc.).
* Comfortable with Python and related frameworks for writing tests, utilities, or lightweight automation.
* Experience with GraphQL and testing or interacting with APIs (REST, GraphQL, WebSockets).
* Understanding of relational databases (e.g., Postgres, MySQL) and using them to validate data flows and test results.
* Automation & tooling
* Experience with additional automation tools/frameworks such as Playwright, Cypress, TOSCA, or similar.
* Experience with API testing (e.g., Postman, REST clients, or pytest-based API tests).
* Familiarity with performance testing tools (e.g., Locust, JMeter, k6).
* Experience with BDD practices and Gherkin syntax (feature files, scenarios).
* Familiarity with test management tools and plugins such as Zephyr for Jira (test case management, traceability).
* Practical exposure to the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) and related QA processes.
* Domain & AI
* Experience testing AI / ML-based systems (e.g. LLM tools, recommendation engines, search/ranking).
Location & relocation
We're especially interested in candidates who are:
* Already based in the Algarve and seeking an international engineering/product environment, or
* EU / EEA / Swiss / Brazilian citizens (or others with the right to work in Portugal without sponsorship) interested in relocating to the Algarve.
How You Work (About You)
You'll thrive here if you:
* Have 3+ years in a professional software development environment and enjoy working closely with engineers (especially around backend & APIs).
* Are interested and excited by the challenges and opportunities of startup life: changing requirements, fast iteration, and high impact.
* See quality as a shared responsibility, not just a final gate.
* Are curious and systematic, and you enjoy exploring how features (and AI models) can fail in real-world scenarios.
* Care about clarity - in test cases, automation code, bug reports, and communication with teammates.
* Communicate well with cross-functional teams and are comfortable clarifying requirements and testing expectations.
* Participate actively in agile rituals and like having a say in what gets shipped and how.
* Are always looking for ways to improve testing processes, tools, coverage, and automation frameworks, not just execute predefined scripts.
* Value taking initiative and getting things done over rigid processes.
If you're energized by the idea of ensuring quality for a mission-driven, AI-focused fintech, and you'd like to grow your QA/automation career in the Algarve, we'd love to hear from you.