What is the role of the QA engineer / automation tester?

Evolution from a manual tester

The role of the automation tester is often an evolution of the role of the traditional manual tester. As software complexity and the need to deliver changes quickly grows, manual regression testing becomes too time-consuming and error-prone. Automation testers have both testing (understanding requirements, designing test cases) and programming (writing test scripts, working with automation tools) skills.

Key responsibilities

The main tasks of the QA engineer / automation tester include:

• Requirements analysis and automation strategy design: Understand the functional and non-functional requirements of the application and identify the areas and test scenarios that are best suited for automation.
• Selection and configuration of automation tools: Selection of appropriate test automation frameworks and tools (e.g. Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium, Postman, JMeter) depending on the application technology and type of testing.
• Creating and developing test scripts: Writing stable, readable and maintainable test automation scripts (e.g. API testing, UI testing, performance testing) in the programming language of choice (e.g. Java, Python, JavaScript, C#).
• Create and manage a test framework: Building or customizing a test automation framework (skeleton) that makes it easy to create, run and report test results.
• Integration of tests into CI/CD pipelines: Incorporate automated tests into continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines so that they are automatically run after each code change or before each deployment.
• Execute tests and analyze results: Running automated test sets, analyzing results, identifying and reporting defects found.
• Maintain and update test scripts: Regularly update and maintain existing test scripts in response to changes in the application to ensure their stability and reliability.
• Team Collaboration: Work closely with developers, business analysts, manual testers and DevOps engineers to ensure quality at all stages of the manufacturing process.

Necessary skills

An effective automation tester should have a combination of skills:

• Testing skills: Knowledge of testing methodologies, test case design techniques, ability to think analytically and identify potential problems.
• Programming skills: Proficiency in at least one programming language used to write test scripts, knowledge of object-oriented programming basics, data structures and algorithms.
• Knowledge of automation tools: Practical ability to use popular frameworks and tools to automate API, UI, performance testing, etc.
• Knowledge of DevOps/CI/CD tools and practices: Understanding of how CI/CD pipelines, version control systems (Git), containerization (Docker) work – for effective test integration.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills: Ability to analyze test results, diagnose causes of errors and propose solutions.
• Communication skills: Communicate effectively with team members about bugs found and testing progress.

Role in quality assurance

Tester automation plays a key role in the modern quality assurance process. By automating repetitive testing, it enables faster delivery of product quality feedback, increases confidence in the release process, and allows manual testers to focus on the more complex and exploratory aspects of testing.

Summary

A QA Engineer / Automation Tester is a specialized role that combines testing and development competencies. His or her work creating and maintaining automated tests is essential to ensure the speed, efficiency and reliability of the testing process in modern, agile and DevOps-oriented software development teams.