Salary: $60,000 - $80,000 (other currencies available) + token allocation from cheqd’s employee pool
Type: Full-time
Start: May 2024 onwards
Location: London (UK) / Remote. Our core team is based in London but we welcome applicants from +/-4 hours time zones.
About the role
We’re seeking an experienced Test Automation & Quality Assurance Engineer specialising in writing Playwright tests, stress/performance testing automation and benchmarking.
cheqd is an innovative Web 3.0 startup building private and secure mechanisms for exchanging digital identity online, enabled through a decentralised blockchain network.
The ideal candidate should have a deep interest in open source software, blockchain, decentralised finance (DeFi), and self-sovereign identity (SSI) with a passion for establishing entirely new paradigms for how data is handled on the Web.
You would report directly to our Lead Engineer, and be responsible for designing and building our core ledger software, API, and client application testing automation and performance benchmarking. We are looking for software leaders with broad experience, a desire to shape the culture of a new team, and a passion for mentoring others. This role will require open-source collaboration and good communication with ecosystem developers.
We’re new but we are moving fast. cheqd started in March 2021 and is backed by Outlier Ventures, Evernym, Titan Block, Torque, 3GR and a consortium of private investors. We would love it if you join us on our mission of liberating data for individuals and giving people control of their privacy.
To find out more about what we have achieved in the past year and where we are heading in the next, check out our reflection on 2023 blog, and our Product Vision and Roadmap for 2024.
Your mission in your first year at cheqd
Our engineering team has 6 developers working in a remote-first model across different time zones.
Expanding the team further, and as a Test Automation & Quality Assurance Engineer you would support various parts of the development of our product; the cheqd network, cheqd SDKs and Creds.xyz web applications and RESTful APIs.
cheqd’s products currently consist of a backend service written in Golang, on the Cosmos blockchain framework, SDKs for web clients (browser, server, iOS and Android) written in TypeScript, and blockchain nodes (our own ones) hosted on Digital Ocean and Hetzner.
Creds.xyz currently consists of serverless and hosted backend services written in TypeScript, client applications written in Svelte Kit and TypeScript, hosted on Cloudflare’s edge network. The code is closed source, as part of the subscription-based paid product suite cheqd is offering, incorporating integrations with partnering stacks, namely Walt.id’s identity backend services, along with internally developed data points, predominantly being (Credentials-as-a-Service or CaaS).
Our vision is to open source as much of our code as possible since the utility of our network relies on having many ecosystem participants using our software.
What you will do
We expect you to build web client applications, RESTful API, SDK library and core protocol testing automations, ensuring best practices according to latest standards. The ideal candidate may have this role evolve into a more senior engineering role in the team.
Your responsibilities would include:
Develop and Execute Automated Test Cases: Design, develop, and maintain automated test cases using Playwright to ensure comprehensive coverage of all features and functionalities of web applications.
Test Planning and Design: Collaborate with the development and product teams to understand product features and functionalities, translating these insights into detailed test plans and cases.
Automated Testing Frameworks Management: Set up, configure, and manage automated testing environments in collaboration with the engineering, product and leadership teams. This includes integrating Playwright with CI/CD pipelines to automate testing processes.
Bug Tracking and Reporting: Identify, document, and report bugs and errors encountered during testing. Work closely with the software development team to ensure timely resolution of issues.
Performance and Load Testing: Utilise Playwright to conduct performance and load testing, ensuring that applications perform under expected load volumes.
API Testing: Conduct comprehensive API testing to ensure our software products' functionality, reliability, and security. This includes designing and executing test cases, performing integration testing with third-party APIs, validating data input and output, assessing authentication and authorisation mechanisms, and identifying potential security vulnerabilities.
Cross-Browser and Cross-Platform Testing: Execute automated tests across various browsers and platforms to ensure compatibility and responsiveness of applications.
Quality Assurance Metrics: Develop and monitor key QA metrics, like defect densities and open defect counts, to measure the effectiveness of testing and the overall quality of products.
Continuous Improvement: Continually update test case scenarios to reflect changes in product specifications and new testing tools or methodologies. Advocate for best practices in QA and contribute to improving the testing process.
Collaboration and Communication: Work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure quality throughout the software development lifecycle. Communicate testing results and feedback to engineers and product managers to facilitate quick and effective corrections.
Documentation: Maintain thorough documentation of all test cases, test results, and bug reports to ensure consistency and knowledge sharing within the team.
Learning and Development: Stay updated with the latest testing tools, methodologies, and industry best practices. Attend workshops, webinars, and conferences continuously to enhance skills in Playwright and other QA automation tools continuously.
Your previous experience and skills
We do NOT expect a candidate to know every language or framework mentioned above, although strong experience with Playwright and/or Jest, Puppeteer is necessary. The ideal candidate is a good specialist who can flex across various stacks and be competent at picking up new frameworks where necessary.
You would typically work with other engineers in the development team and have the flexibility to an extent to choose frameworks/languages you are more comfortable with maintaining.
Professional Experience with Playwright: Minimum of 2-4 years of hands-on experience in writing, executing, and maintaining automated tests using Playwright. Experience with similar testing frameworks, such as Jest, Puppeteer, Cypress, Selenium is also accepted. Candidates should demonstrate proficiency in using Playwright for end-to-end testing of web applications.
Programming Languages: Strong programming skills in JavaScript and/or TypeScript, the primary languages used with Playwright, Linux shell scripting and basic comprehension of system languages, such as Go, Rust, C, C++. Familiarity with other programming languages is a plus.
Familiarity with CI/CD Tools: Experience integrating automated tests into continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines on GitHub Actions or similar tools. (We only use Github Actions internally.)
Quality Assurance Best Practices: A strong background in QA methodologies and strategies, including test plan development, defect tracking, and regression testing.
Cross-Browser Testing Experience: Demonstrated experience in performing automated cross-browser compatibility testing to ensure consistent behaviour and appearance across major web browsers.
Problem-Solving Skills: Ability to troubleshoot and debug testing scripts and software configurations to resolve issues in the testing environment or test execution.
Communication and Collaboration: Excellent communication and teamwork skills, with experience working closely with development, product, and QA teams to refine test requirements and resolve issues.
Continuous Learning: A commitment to continuous learning and improvement, with a track record of pursuing professional development opportunities in quality assurance, automated testing, and relevant technologies.
Other desirable qualities
Prior experience with blockchain application development (especially Cosmos, Hyperledger Indy, or another self-sovereign identity framework) is highly desirable.
Experience with digital identity, especially self-sovereign identity, standards/implementations such as Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs), Verifiable Credentials (VCs), or Hyperledger Aries is desirable.
If you don’t have prior experience, you must have a strong drive to learn about blockchain applications and iterate quickly.
You are genuinely passionate about blockchain and privacy-preserving technology such as self-sovereign identity (SSI)
You want to be a part of the innovation orchestrated by blockchain, digital identity, self-sovereign identity, fintech or DeFi.
You are self-motivated and able to work in a fast-paced environment. You love to constantly learn and keep abreast of trends and developments in the industry.
Personal experience using identity wallets, cryptocurrencies, crypto wallets, decentralised exchanges, lending protocols, etc
How we’ll measure your success
Overall automation and assurance guarantees of the cheqd network as the underlying blockchain and payment rails for our SSI current and prospective partners and Creds.xyz user-facing and RESTful API product suite
Consistently ensuring high standards of the release lifecycle in a vertical stack integration and each counterpart independently.
Providing reports and constructive feedback to the engineering and product team on critical improvements, ideally data-driven impactful actions necessary for bettering performance
Demonstrating a commitment to open-sourcing code and contributing to the community
About us
cheqd is a ground-breaking startup in the space of self-sovereign identity (SSI). SSI is a new paradigm for exchanging trusted digital data related to people, companies, and things in a much more secure and privacy-preserving fashion that puts people in control of their data.
Our mission is to make digital identity more accessible, inclusive, and commercially sustainable. Our core product is a blockchain network that makes exchanging and paying for trusted data easy, inclusive, and secure. We built this core on blockchain technology, as we believe no single company should be in control of such critical Web infrastructure.
Our vision is that this new digital identity applies beyond just the financial industry and will be transformative for almost every industry sector imaginable. Through our network, anyone can verify identities quickly and securely with the ability for organisations to check the data to be compensated for their work.
Our differentiator is that our software rewards all parties involved in a trusted data ecosystem: from the individuals the data belongs to, the reputable organisations that issue and receive digital credentials, and the blockchain node operators on cheqd’s network that facilitate value exchange in a decentralised and democratic manner.
Whilst commercial viability is key, this can’t be to the detriment of inclusion, privacy and sustainability which we will uphold as principles. Read more about our vision for new business models for digital identity.
We have published content through our blog, YouTube channel, Twitter, and Telegram. We are eager to engage with people serious about the space and expect someone to have dedicated time to understand what we’re about when applying.
Diversity & Inclusion
At cheqd, we celebrate differences, believe that inclusion is critical to our success and that diversity brings value, and seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Please let us know if you require any accommodations during the recruitment process. We are open to supporting candidates working remotely anywhere in the world, as long as it can be satisfied under applicable employment laws.