Quality Assurance Automation Engineer

About Fairphone

Fairphone is more than just a company; we are a global leader in sustainable, modular electronics, on a mission to change the electronics industry from the inside out. Built on strong social and environmental values, we are a diverse and inclusive team from all walks of life creating market consumer electronics that make a real impact.

At Fairphone, you will find a supportive and safe space where everyone can be themselves, collaborate openly, and have the freedom to learn and grow because that's how we innovate and drive change together!

So... are you a proactive, self-motivated team player who loves taking initiative and bringing positive energy? Do you thrive in a fast-moving start-up or scale-up environment? Are you a great communicator who values collaboration and embraces different perspectives? And most importantly, do you feel a strong connection to Fairphone's mission and values? If you're nodding along and thinking, "Yes, that's me!", then check out our vacancy below!

Please know that we acknowledge that we are living in a time where the use of AI can bring many efficiencies and support. However, we want to know the real YOU. Please try to limit the use of AI tools to generate answers to the application; we value authenticity and encourage you to use your creativity!

• Location: Amsterdam (you must have the right to work in the Netherlands)

• Hours: 32-40 hours per week

• Start: 1st of the month

• Contract duration:1st 12-month employment contract with the possibility of extension to permanent

• Deadline to apply: Rolling basis. Please apply as soon as possible.

About your role

As our QA Automation Engineer , you will shape and elevate the quality culture across our web development team. Reporting to the Lead Developer, you will sit at the intersection of technical automation, release management, and critical analysis across our two Agile Scrum development teams.

This is not a traditional downstream testing role. You will shift quality "left" by critically questioning requirements, spotting edge cases, and embedding acceptance criteria into Jira tickets before a single line of code is written. Today, much of our QA work is handled manually by our UX Designers and Implementation Manager. You will lead our transition into a modern, automated QA environment while retaining the pragmatic mindset needed to manage structured manual test plans for ongoing deployments and, around 1-2 major launches a year.

You will establish our automated pre-deploy gates, create scheduled bug-detection scripts, and define clear severity rules. You need to empower our developers to take true ownership of their own unit and integration tests, serving as the authority who makes the final go/no-go call on deployments.

Key Responsibilities & Objectives

Your Key Responsibilities

• Automation Architecture & Ownership: Plan, build, and maintain our end-to-end test automation suites using Playwright with Python.

• CI/CD Quality Gates: Integrate automated testing into GitHub Actions to create automated pre-deployment quality gates and run weekly automated bug-detection scripts across our webshop.

• Refinement & Critical Analysis:Partner with Product Owners and UX Designers during Jira refinement sessions to define rigorous acceptance criteria, edge-case scenarios, as well as non-functional requirements.

• Release & Bug Governance: Establish bug severity rules, manage staging environment improvements, and hold ultimate accountability for the go/no-go release decisions.

• Manual Release Planning: Design and execute structured manual test plans, ensuring cross-device and -browser compatibility, usability, and performance. For frontend as well as for APIs and backend.

• Enforce Quality Standards & Developer Accountability:Establish firm quality guardrails and hold developers accountable for their code's baseline quality. You will persistently challenge user stories, pull requests, and test coverage to ensure teams strictly adhere to quality rules before any increment moves to production.

• Process Advice: Provide active input on refining our team's Definition of Done and improving our staging environment infrastructure alongside the Lead Developer and Product Owners.

Key Objectives

• Build the Automation Foundation: Establish an automated CI/CD pre-deploy quality gate in GitHub Actions using Playwright (Python bindings) to safeguard our storefront and backend logic.

• Embed Shift-Left Quality: Actively participate in Jira refinements, applying extreme critical thinking to identify technical edge cases and acceptance criteria before development begins.

• Guide the QA Transition:Balance immediate needs (~30% manual test planning & release strategy) with long-term goals (~70% test automation setup and developer coaching).

• Elevate Increment Quality:Take ownership of improving the overall quality of software increments shipped to production, driving a continuous reduction in post-release bugs and regression defects.

Your Skills & Experience

• Minimum 3+ years of experience in Software Quality Assurance with a focus on web application test automation.

• Hands-on experience setting up automation frameworks from scratch using Playwright (Python bindings preferred) or Cypress.

• Practical experience configuring automated quality pipelines within CI/CD workflows using GitHub Actions.

• Experience with, or an eagerness to explore and adopt, AI-assisted testing and development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, AI test generation tools) to accelerate test coverage, script maintenance, and bug detection.

• Strong background in Agile Scrum environments, with proven success driving critical thinking, edge-case discovery, and acceptance criteria writing during user story refinement.

• Solid understanding of web architectures and e-commerce platforms (experience with Python-based backends or platforms like Odoo is an advantage).

• Ability to balance automated suite development with hands-on manual test strategy for major commercial releases.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English; comfortable handling various projects at the same time, coaching team members and driving process improvements.

What Fairphone can offer you?

• The opportunity to create an impact on the electronics industry around the world.

• A diverse work environment full of international, passionate, warm-hearted team members.

• 25 paid holidays per year (based on a full-time contract) next to the other public holidays in the Netherlands. You’ll also get a day off on your birthday! Additionally, the longer you stay, the more holidays you get!

• Daily, healthy lunch, organic FairChain coffee, and many more tasty things.

• You will join Fairphone’s collective pension scheme, and we will contribute to building your pension.

• You will receive a MacBook, Fairbuds, and a Fairphone as working devices.

• Hybrid working model: We are remote-friendly and also contribute up to €250 toward your home office set-up.

• Public transport allowance - we fully cover your 2nd-class commute from your home to the office

• Bike allowance - We support you with a bike purchase of up to €300, and you’ll also have a yearly repair budget of up to €100! We also cover 23 cents per km for your biking distance from home to the office (or train station) and back!

• Grow with us! We encourage you to develop at Fairphone. In addition to €500 for L&D, we’ll support your career goals with coaching (Inuka), workshops, or courses that you can join with your development budget. You will get access to Udemy with unlimited courses and trainings.

• Kitchen with beautiful views to the IJ waterfront.

• There’s a gym in the building where you can build healthy habits, stay active and have fun with your colleagues, as well as a subscription to our mental & physical well-being services (Inuka & Urban Sports)