Senior QA Engineer
Ocho People | Technology Recruitment
• Senior QA Engineer opportunity within a founding Belfast engineering team at a global digital asset firm
• Greenfield QA function — genuine opportunity to shape standards, tooling and automation frameworks from scratch
• High performance, real time trading systems used in live global markets
• Hybrid working, Belfast based
• Salary £55,000 to £60,000
About the Company
Our client is a leading digital asset firm providing institutional-grade trading, market making and investment solutions across global digital and traditional markets. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Singapore, they serve institutional clients worldwide across spot, derivatives and structured products, with a growing global footprint and strategic licences across key jurisdictions. Following the establishment of a strategic engineering hub in Belfast, they are investing long term in building core trading systems and infrastructure locally, with a major platform launch planned for 2026. This is a flat, engineering led organisation that genuinely values technical excellence and gives its people real autonomy.
The Role
This is a Senior QA Engineer position within the founding Belfast engineering pod, joining at a pivotal moment in the team's growth. You will take a lead role in building out the QA function from the ground up — defining standards, designing automation frameworks and embedding quality early across the full development lifecycle. Working alongside software engineers, DevOps and product teams, you will ensure the reliability, accuracy and performance of real time trading systems that operate in live global markets. This is a role with real ownership and long term influence, ideal for a senior engineer who wants to do more than just execute test plans and is ready to shape how quality engineering is done.
Key Responsibilities
• Design, develop and maintain automated test suites for back end services, APIs and data pipelines
• Lead the development of QA strategy, test approach and automation standards across the engineering team
• Execute manual and exploratory testing for new features and integrations
• Integrate automated tests into CI and CD pipelines to support continuous delivery
• Collaborate with developers to improve testability and identify issues early in the delivery cycle
• Validate performance, reliability and accuracy of real time market data and order flow systems
• Support release activities including regression testing, defect triage and production validation
• Drive continuous improvement of QA processes, tooling and documentation
What You'll Need
Essential:
• 3 or more years of QA or software testing experience with a strong focus on automation
• Solid experience testing back end systems, APIs and distributed services
• Hands on experience with automation frameworks such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium or similar
• Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Java, JavaScript, Python or C#
• Strong understanding of software development and testing lifecycles in Agile environments
• Familiarity with CI and CD pipelines, version control and modern DevOps practices
• Strong debugging, analytical and problem solving skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience
Nice to Have:
• Exposure to cloud based systems, ideally AWS
• Experience working with high performance or real time platforms
Why Apply?
• Salary £55,000 to £60,000
• Hybrid working with a Belfast base
• Founding team member — rare opportunity to shape QA practices and standards from day one
• Work on high performance trading systems operating in live global markets
• Flat, engineering led culture with genuine autonomy and technical focus
• Exposure to modern architectures, automation frameworks and CI and CD at scale
• Long term investment from a globally ambitious organisation building something significant in Belfast
How to Apply
For a confidential conversation about this opportunity, please reach out to Nick Napier directly on LinkedIn or submit your CV via the link below.
