Senior Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

Are you passionate about testing and get excited by helping to shape the testing strategy and framework at an organizational level?. We’re looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to join us at Thinkific. 

As a Senior SDET you will lead the design and evolution of our testing frameworks, enable teams to adopt best in class automation practices, and expand our overall test coverage across front end, back end and distributed systems. You will partner with Engineering, QA, Product and Operations teams to improve quality, strengthen CI/CD pipelines and influence how we build reliable software at Thinkific.

In this role you will provide technical leadership, mentorship and architectural guidance while helping teams deliver confidently through automation, observability and continuous improvement practices. You will report to the Engineering Manager and play a critical role in shaping Thinkific’s quality strategy.

Your goal will be to advocate for quality at all times and keep the development team accountable to QA best practices. Here’s how you’ll accomplish this: 

• Lead the evolution of Thinkific’s test automation strategy by designing scalable and maintainable automation frameworks for web, API, integration and component level testing
• Develop advanced automation suites across front end, back end, services and integrations using modern tools such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium or similar
• Drive improvements to our CI/CD delivery pipeline by optimizing build efficiency, reliability and parallelization
• Act as a technical mentor and coach for engineers and SDETs while elevating skills in test design, automation patterns and quality best practices
• Collaborate with Product Managers, Developers, QA and Operations to ensure clarity of requirements, testability and quality expectations
• Establish test strategies and quality guardrails for large features, system redesigns, architectural initiatives and cross team projects
• Introduce and evaluate new tools, frameworks and testing technologies through POCs and experimentation
• Influence long term quality direction by contributing to the QA automation roadmap and organizational testing strategy
• Champion observability and monitoring using tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, New Relic or similar to improve product reliability
• Lead root cause analysis for complex issues and ensure preventive automation is created as part of a continuous quality mindset
• Maintain and enforce quality assurance policies and procedures for consistency across teams and product areas

The person we have in mind likely:

• Has 5 plus years of experience in automation and software testing including building automation frameworks and guiding teams
• Demonstrates deep expertise in end-to-end testing, integration testing, API testing and service level automation using tools like Playwright, Cypress, Selenium or Protractor
• Has strong experience designing automated test frameworks for Ruby on Rails and React applications
• Understands modern software engineering principles, testing patterns and automation architecture
• Has hands-on experience with CI and CD tools such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins or Semaphore and has optimized pipelines at scale
• Possesses strong knowledge of quality engineering including test strategy, testability analysis, test design patterns and risk based testing
• Has experience with monitoring, observability and log aggregation tools such as Grafana, Prometheus, New Relic or Airbrake
• Brings experience with performance and load testing using tools like JMeter, K6 or Gatling
• Is comfortable working in distributed systems, microservices or cloud based architectures
• Excels at mentorship, technical leadership and uplifting others through coaching and pairing
• Is a creative problem solver who thrives in ambiguous or fast moving environments
• Communicates effectively to influence cross team decisions and drive alignment
• Loves to learn, experiment and explore new technologies while bringing fresh ideas to elevate quality across the organization

These things would also be nice, but we think you could learn them on the job: 

• Experience establishing testing standards and governance across multiple teams
• Experience shaping or owning a company wide test automation roadmap
• Experience with AI driven testing tools or autonomous test generation
• Familiarity with education technology platforms or LMS systems
• Experience building test environments, synthetic data systems or contract testing frameworks

We’re committed to fair and transparent pay that reflects both where you’re at and where you can grow. This role has a salary range of $86,400-$108,000-$129,600 in Canada, designed to capture the full journey from developing skills to excelling in the position. Most new hires start between the minimum and midpoint, which aligns with being fully capable in the role. Salaries above the midpoint are typically reserved for team members who have demonstrated strong, consistent performance, deep expertise, and a significant positive impact within the role. 

For high-demand or hard-to-fill positions like this one, we may hire above midpoint for candidates who bring exceptional experience, skills, or impact potential.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging & Accessibility

This is just our initial idea of who we’re looking for! At Thinkific, we know that people have unique career journeys. If your experience is close to what we’ve described but you feel that you might be missing a few of the requirements, please still apply! We believe in equal opportunity and are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across every facet of our business.

We’re also committed to providing a comfortable and accessible interview experience for every candidate. If there are any accommodations our team can make throughout our hiring process (big or small), please let us know.