QA Automation Engineer (Node.js & Distributed Systems)

About You You are a QA Automation Engineer passionate about building reliable automation frameworks and ensuring the quality of complex backend systems. You enjoy validating APIs, distributed architectures, and asynchronous messaging while collaborating closely with engineering teams to deliver high-quality software. You thrive in Agile environments where automation, continuous improvement, and technical collaboration are key to delivering scalable and resilient applications. You are proactive, detail-oriented, and committed to identifying risks early while promoting quality throughout the software development lifecycle. Note: This role operates under a 6-month contractor model. You Bring to Applaudo the Following Competencies: Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field is desired, or equivalent professional experience. 3+ years of experience in QA Automation. Strong experience designing and maintaining automated test suites. Experience testing backend services and APIs. Experience testing Node.js applications. Experience working with messaging technologies such as RabbitMQ, Kafka, Amazon SQS, or similar platforms. Experience testing applications hosted on AWS. Understanding of distributed systems and asynchronous architectures. Experience performing functional, integration, regression, and API testing. Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills. Excellent communication and collaboration skills. Upper-Intermediate English proficiency or higher. You Will Be Accountable for the Following Responsibilities: Design, develop, and maintain automated test suites for backend services. Perform API, functional, integration, and regression testing. Validate asynchronous messaging workflows and distributed system interactions. Test applications and services hosted on AWS. Collaborate closely with developers to embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle. Identify, document, and track d