What are the Key Skills Employers are Looking for in a QA Automation Engineer in 2022
For someone looking to stand out in the IT sector, gaining one of the most in-demand skills, automation, could very well be the key to unlocking a host of opportunities. There is a two-fold benefit of obtaining automation skills and becoming a QA automation engineer.
Firstly, the obvious, you want to crack the IT scene and land a good job related to the automation field. And secondly, if this isn’t something that excites you, it could also help land you other roles down the line.
Before going any further, remember that the test automation and as well as quality assurance (QA) space are still dealing with a lot of changes caused by the advancing maturity of DevOps.
To help you in this endeavour, in this article we’ll be covering:
- Who is a QA Automation Engineer?
- Top Skills every QA Automation Engineer Must Have
- FAQs on QA Automation Engineer
Who is a QA Automation Engineer?
Owing to the massive shit towards the continuous influx of software, organizations have had to create testing systems and automation that enable them to implement continual quality checks during development.
Since they are already invested in this part of the process, quality professionals aren’t doing the tests anymore. They’re now designing them, something that requires engineering abilities and mindset.
QA automation engineers are, therefore, needed to get the job done as test automation continues to become more complex and even more extensive. Certain QA engineers even go on to work as QA analysts and collaborate with product teams to determine test cases using analytics tools.
So how can you land the best testing jobs out there as a QA automation engineer? We answer that in our next section.
Top Skills every QA Automation Engineer Must Have
To prepare yourself and land the best testing jobs out there, you need to cultivate the following skills:
- Knowledge of DevOps-Centric Tools and Practices
Automation and DevOps share an intricate relationship. Therefore, several skills and technologies that you associate with DevOps are also extremely relevant for roles that are automation-focused.
Candidates with good DevOps experience are more likely to impress the hiring managers if they’re on the lookout for those who can elevate their automation capabilities. If you look at it from a tooling perspective, the one area that tends to stand out is infrastructure as code.
According to experts, automation engineers these days need to have the following skills:
- UNIX/ Shell scripting basics
- CI/ CD pipelines using tools such as Jenkin
- Resilience testing
- Knowledge of performance testing tools such as Gatling and JMeter
- Understanding of containers, Kubernetes, Docker
- Know how to use Splunk and other query monitoring tools
- Good grasp of cloud services such as MS Azure and AWS
2. Understanding of QA Methodology
Don’t think that the knowledge of manual testing skills has gone for a toss. Even though it is the automated testing era, companies still need people who have a good understanding of both — manual and automated testing skills. These are especially required for lead roles in QA.
When end-to-end testing is fully implemented by development, an organization will still depend on quality experts to have a comprehensive knowledge of the fundamentals of test theory and the methodology.
Generally, the top three competencies most organisations need are — general test knowledge, specific test systems knowledge, and when it comes to more senior candidates, a proper project discussion based on test methodology.
Before appearing for an interview, ensure that you are doing software testing jobs, and ensure that you’re well equipped to walk the interviewers through the advantages and disadvantages of the various testing methodologies along with specific examples of test cases.
3. Test Automation Development Skills
One thing that has been constant in the past couple of years is the continuously rising demand for test automation development skills. These are required across all the significant QA roles available and recruited by hiring managers.
According to many industry experts, QA departments are not where they should be. Most quality professionals and hiring managers think that 85–90% of the test cases need to be automated but currently, a very small percentage has been covered.
To pick up the pace, more and more companies are shifting automated QA from the manual side. Therefore, the need for people who have experience in scripting and automated testing is only going to rise.
4. Expertise in Leading Automation Tools
To get the best testing jobs out there, a QA automation engineer needs to have a good command over the most used automation tools, even the ones that are codeless.
Some automation testing tools you should know:
- Selenium
- SoapUI
- HP — UFT (QTP)
- RFT
- Appium
- Apache JMeter
Further, some popular codeless tools are:
- Katalon Studio
- TestCraft
- Perfecto
- CloudQA
- Sikuli
5. Collaborative Skills
When working in an integrated DevOps space, you’ll soon realize how vital collaboration is for both — QA and test automation professionals. Good quality and test automation professionals are those who know how to work efficiently with different members of the company.
From product managers, developers, and operations staffers to executives, they know how to treat them all as peers and make efforts to understand how their domain knowledge fits into the bigger picture.
6. Quality Reporting, Time Management, Analytical, and Communication Skills
As a QA automation engineer, you’ll be a part of pretty fast-paced software delivery environments. To keep up with this pace, you’ll need to have good time management skills. These skills will help you in helping your team meet the deadlines and even beating them on a regular basis.
Further, since you’ll be working with many different professionals with different backgrounds, you’ll also need quality reporting and communication skills. And if an analytical mind is added to the skillset, it’ll make you the best person to look at the development and delivery pipeline from the automation angle.
Naturally, having such soft skills in your QA automation engineer resume will only boost your chances of getting noticed by recruiters. At the end of the day, to be a good fit for the job, hard and soft skills both matter a lot.
FAQs on QA Automation Engineer
Q1. What skills do QA Automation Engineers need?
To land the best testing jobs out there, a QA automation engineer needs to have great coding skills, good knowledge of the fundamentals of QA methodologies, and knowledge of test automation development along with its tools.
Q2. What qualifications are required to become a QA Automation Engineer?
To become a QA automation engineer, you’ll need to have a bachelor’s in computer science, software engineering, or a related field. You’ll also need to have advanced programming skills. Based on the position and the company you’re applying for, a master’s may or may not be needed.
Q3. What is the salary for QA Automation Engineer in Ireland?
The estimated salary band of a QA Automation Engineer in Ireland can range anywhere from €55,000 — €95,000 per year in Ireland depending on experience.
