QA Engineer (Automation/Manual - Java)

Project Overview
N-iX is seeking a skilled QA Engineer (Automation/Manual - Java) to join a key digital transformation initiative for a leading Tier-1 commercial retail bank.
In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring the top-tier quality, performance, and resilience of a core product workflow built on top of the Temporal orchestration platform (Java / Spring Boot) running in AWS EKS. You will cover the full testing lifecycle—from analyzing complex integration flows and designing stubs/mocks to automating REST API tests and validating end-to-end customer journeys in the bank’s flagship mobile banking application (digital card issuance, reissue, digital identity document validation, and parent-child profile linkage in the core registry).

Team Structure
You will be an integral part of a dedicated delivery team comprising:
1 x QA Engineer (Automation/Manual - Java)
1 x Engineering Manager
1 x Project Manager (PM)
1 x Business Analyst / System Analyst (BA/SA)
1 x Solution Architect
5 x BackEnd Java Developers

Key Responsibilities
Design, build, and maintain robust API test automation frameworks in Java (REST Assured, TestNG/JUnit) for asynchronous Temporal workflows and Spring Boot services.
Perform functional, integration, and regression testing of end-to-end customer journeys across staging, pre-release, and production-like environments for web/mobile channels.
Work extensively with mocks and stubs for core banking interfaces (core processing engine, central customer registry, enterprise logging, central document repository, and automated photo verification systems) to enable early and continuous integration testing.
Define test data requirements and coordinate with the client’s testing department to order synthetic test profiles (verifying parent-child relationships, minor age restrictions, and tax ID validation).
Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI). Monitor SonarQube quality gates, log and track defects in Jira, and perform root-cause analysis for failed workflow executions.
Collaborate with the client’s central QA team and business stakeholders during User Acceptance Testing (UAT), performance benchmarks, and security release validations.

Requirements
5+ years of experience in Quality Assurance with a strong balance between Automation (Java) and Manual API testing in complex enterprise, banking, or fintech environments.
Proficiency in Java 17+, REST Assured, JUnit/TestNG, WireMock/Mockito (or similar mocking tools), and Maven/Gradle.
Deep understanding of RESTful API testing, JSON/XML contract validation, HTTP protocols, and testing asynchronous or event-driven architectures (Kafka, background execution workers).
Proven experience in designing, building, and maintaining custom mock services from scratch to simulate complex backend interactions, including the ability to actively extend and support dynamic API stubs for application integration testing.
Hands-on experience testing multi-tier architectures using mocks/stubs, analyzing backend logs (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, Kibana), and managing complex test data setups.
Strong experience with Git, GitLab CI/CD, Postman/Swagger, Jira, Confluence, and SonarQube.
Detail-oriented mindset, strong analytical problem-solving skills, ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment, and clear communication skills in Ukrainian and English.