Level: 2
Salary band: £35,000-£45,000
Bonus: 5% (performance-based, discretionary)
Hybrid working - minimum 2 days per week at the office

Automata is building a world-class company to disrupt the life science industry and empower scientists by making automation a reality for every lab.

We work with labs across the world to understand their specific workflows and needs and develop personalised solutions that range from diagnostic, and drug discovery to synthetic biology. Our LINQ platform allows us to simplify everyday automation tasks, while supporting more advanced paths for specialised workflows, in a fast, flexible, and cost-efficient way.

We are looking for a Junior QA Engineer to help maintain and improve the reliability and dependability of our LINQ Cloud Platform, ensuring high confidence and satisfaction for our customers. In this role, you will collaborate closely with cross-functional software and hardware teams to ensure the LINQ Cloud and LINQ Workcell platforms are scalable, reliable, secure, and perform optimally at all times. Your efforts will support Automata's mission to deliver lab automation solutions globally.

Why is this role important for Automata?

As our Junior QA Engineer, you'll be responsible for helping ensure that our LINQ software is bug-free and fabulous and works perfectly with our LINQ automated hardware lab benches.

Here’s a sneak peek into your exciting day-to-day should you get the position:

• Hunt for bugs: Dive into our software and break things to find and squash as many bugs as possible. Your mission: leave no bug unturned!
• Play with robots: All those software-only jobs out there are boring. Fancy getting hands-on with awesome robots and real-world lab equipment? You’ll be responsible for integration testing between our software and hardware, as well as emulating the type of flows our customers go through on our systems.
• Test like a pro: Execute test cases and ensure our products meet the highest quality standards. Think we might be missing a test case? You have the power to write your own tests and improve our coverage.
• Automation enthusiast: Bored of performing repetitive tasks? Interested in coding? Like discovering new tools that make you more productive whilst making your job and life easier? If it’s a yes to any of the above, we think you’ll fit right in! With help and guidance from our amazing developers, you’ll be responsible for building our automated testing suite and finding automated solutions to find and squash even more potential bugs.
• Collaborate: Work closely with our developers and designers to understand project requirements and deliver top-notch results.
• Learn and grow: Get hands-on experience with the latest testing tools and techniques. We’re here to support your growth every step of the way. We even have an awesome well-being and development budget to help you achieve your goals.
• Report findings: Document and report bugs, glitches, and other quirks with precision and clarity. Produce high-quality bug reports that contain detailed steps to reproduce issues, making our developers' lives easier. Help us keep track of everything with style!"

What it takes:

• Detail-oriented: You have a keen eye for the little things that make a big difference.
• Problem solver: Do you love a good challenge? So do we! Use your analytical skills to troubleshoot like a boss.
• Team player: Great things happen when we work together. If you love collaboration and good vibes, you'll fit right in.
• Curious mind: Eager to learn and always looking to improve. We’re all about growth and development.
• Tech-savvy: Technophobes beware, a basic understanding of the software development lifecycle and basic testing principles are required. Don’t worry, we’ll teach you the rest!
• Coding and programming: Appreciation for programming and competency to write basic scripts in languages such as Typescript, Javascript, Python, etc.
• Communicator: It might seem obvious, but in this role, you’ll need excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Time management: Just like our workflow scheduler in our LINQ app, you’ll need fantastic time management skills to optimise and prioritise your workload throughout the week and meet any deadlines set for you the team, or the company.
• Test tool knowledge: Experience with any testing tools or frameworks (Cypress, Playwright, JIRA, Github, etc.).
• QA Experience: Previous experience in a QA or testing role is a plus, but not a deal-breaker.

We prefer:
Automated testing over manual checklist testing
Collaboration over working solo
Asking questions over struggling to find an answer
Curiosity and exploration over task repetition

What gets us excited?
We’re passionate about the future of Technology and Automation and our growing success is built upon like-minded individuals who share our passion.

We are excited to grow our QA team and look forward to working with a motivated individual passionate about a career in quality and testing. If this sounds like a good fit and has ticked the right boxes, you will love having the opportunity to build something that immediately adds value.

We are an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Discrimination of any kind based on race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status is strictly prohibited.