Senior QA Automation Engineer

Who we are:

Mama Money is a growth stage fintech startup working to help migrant workers in South Africa send money home. Since 2015 we have been providing reliable remittances, at a socially fair price, to those that need it most. Mama HQ is in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa.

We are 131 people strong (and counting) from 19 countries across Africa, Asia, the UK, and Europe. Our culture is built around the well-being of our team members and making a difference in our communities. “Just be lekker!” personifies our approach to work: we trust the wisdom of our talented and diverse team to do what is best for our customers and get the job done responsibly, without pedantic policies.

We’ve been around since 2015 and have earned a few accolades along the way, made some new friends, and expanded our reach. We've had some great times and some tough times, but we continue to focus on helping people rather than maximizing profit.

We’re seeking a Senior QA Engineer to champion a quality-first approach within our agile development team. In this role, you’ll be deeply involved throughout the entire software development life cycle, helping to ensure our products meet the highest standards.

How you will be working at Mama:

When a new feature is introduced by the product owner and architect during refinement, you’ll help ensure the team fully understands the requirements and system architecture. Using a tester’s critical mindset, you’ll question assumptions, uncover edge cases, and identify areas to improve testability, while forming an initial test strategy.

Once planning begins under the tech lead’s guidance, you’ll formalise this strategy into a document covering test scenarios, key integration points (API, app, queues, etc.), test data, and result verification.

As development progresses, you’ll deploy and configure updates in the QA environment, execute test cases, identify and investigate bugs, and log them with clear reproduction steps.

After development, you’ll verify the complete solution and sign off for production. You’ll also drive automation efforts, both for new and existing features, working with the QE Lead, maintaining test suites, and serving as the team’s automation expert.

Skills & tool experience we’re looking for:

• Proven experience as a QA tester within an Agile software development environment (5-8+ years).
• Demonstrable experience in developing test strategies & writing test cases.
• Extensive experience with back-end systems testing with a variety of methods of interacting with components (i.e. REST, SQS, database, and through front end interfaces.)
• Strong SQL skills and familiarity with relational database tools such as DBeaver, SQL Server, or MySQL Workbench.
• Experience seeding databases with test data is a plus.
• Proficiency with version control systems like Git.
• Experience working with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP); familiarity with AWS services such as EKS, RDS, SQS, and API Gateway is a plus.
• Hands-on experience using API tools such as Swagger, Bruno and Postman.
• Experience with scripting (writing and updating) using JavaScript.
• Knowledge of configuring mocks for isolated service testing would be a big plus.
• Skilled in exploratory testing with a sharp eye for identifying bugs and user experience issues.
• Strong multitasking abilities with the flexibility to manage and reprioritise multiple workstreams in a dynamic environment.
• Solid troubleshooting skills with the ability to trace and report bugs efficiently and clearly.
• As a Senior, you will be expected to positively influence software quality beyond the boundary of your team.

In your first 90 days at Mama Money you will:

• Onboard all our tools and processes, and familiarise yourself with the various teams and departments at Mama Money.
• Develop a deep understanding of what Mama Money does, and what your team does, from the point of view of our customers.
• Work in your team, advocating quality, writing and performing tests as needed to deliver functionality.
• Have one-on-one’s with your line manager, and develop a training and career growth plan based on your personal goals, as well as the needs of the business.
• Regularly give and receive feedback, and suggest improvements.