QA & Automation Engineer - AI/ML applications

Job Description

QA & Automation Engineer for AI/ML applications

The Quality Assurance (QA) & Automation Engineer for AI/ML applications automates and runs the tests that keep our team's Generative AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications and services reliable and correct. Key focus areas will include automated testing of our search, exploration, and AI agent applications, and of data-serving APIs and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, to support releases as they move to production. You'll also build end-to-end regression tests for the data products behind them, feeding mock source data through the pipelines and verifying results through their APIs. These products support critical use cases spanning early-stage scientific research to post-market surveillance, including systematic literature reviews, competitive intelligence, target identification, and safety monitoring.

You'll be mentored by experienced engineers and work directly alongside developers, data scientists, and scientific subject matter experts. You'll help shape a growing quality practice, see your work keep critical tools reliable, and ultimately help bring therapeutics to patients. As you grow, you'll have opportunities to step into Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)-level engineering, covering test infrastructure, advanced framework design, and automated CI/CD gating. The position is embedded within a cross-disciplinary team of data scientists, bioinformaticians, and engineers dedicated to using cutting-edge AI/ML and data science techniques to drive drug discovery and development.

Your responsibilities

• Requirements validation: Participate in requirements reviews, check for testability and gaps, and assist in defining clear test cases and acceptance criteria

• UI test automation: Build and maintain automated end-to-end UI tests for our web applications that run in CI/CD pipelines and cover critical user workflows, working closely with developers

• API testing: Build and maintain automated API and integration tests for our REST APIs and MCP servers, including contract tests, to catch issues early

• Release confidence: Execute test runs, validate releases, and apply quality gates to keep defects out of production

• Data product testing: Build mock datasets and end-to-end regression tests that verify data pipelines and their downstream APIs before release

• Quality insights: Assist in tracking and reporting quality metrics, such as defect leakage, test coverage, and test suite reliability

• Shaping the practice: Contribute to the team's QA strategy, adoption of test automation tooling, and maintenance of testing frameworks

• AI-assisted testing: Use coding agents to generate and extend tests, verify that they test the right behavior and edge cases, and contribute to the team's agent-assisted test workflows

What you should have

• 3+ years of professional experience in software testing, QA engineering, or test automation

• 2+ years of experience writing and maintaining automated test suites integrated into CI/CD pipelines

• Experience automating tests for web applications and REST APIs

What we offer:

• Exciting work in a great team, global projects, international environment
• Opportunity to learn and grow professionally within the company globally
• Hybrid working model, flexible role pattern
• Competitive salary & incentive pay
• Pension and health insurance contributions
• Internal reward system and referral scheme
• 5 weeks annual leave, 5 sick days, 15 days of certified sick leave paid above statutory requirements annually, 40 paid hours annually for volunteering activities, 12 weeks of parental contribution
• Cafeteria for tax free benefits according to your choice (meal vouchers, sport, culture, health, travel, etc.), Multisport Card
• Vodafone, Raiffeisen Bank, Foodora, and discount programs
• Up-to-date laptop and iPhone
• Parking in the garage, showers, refreshments, massage chairs, library, music corner

Additional job details

In addition to building and maintaining our suite of tools, our team consults on how software capabilities, data products, and AI/ML can support the projects of our 5,000+ stakeholders (scientists, engineers, regulatory liaisons, data scientists, etc.) across our multi-national organization. We strive to enhance data science, NLP, and AI literacy across these groups.

As part of our work, our team has opportunities to coauthor internal and external presentations, white papers, manuscripts, and/or open-source code releases. We invest in your professional growth by providing access to specialized learning platforms, opportunities to attend industry conferences, participation in internal communities of practice, and the chance to learn the science of drug discovery and development directly from domain experts.

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Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully

Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

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