Lead QA Engineer

Published on April 16, 2024

Circle is building the modern community platform for every creator and brand in the world: think "Shopify for creator/brand-led communities". We make it really easy for creators and brands to bring their discussions, members, and content all into one place.

About Us
Circle is building the world’s leading all-in-one platform for online communities. We make it possible for creators, coaches, educators, and businesses to bring together their audience with engaging discussions, live streams, events, chat, courses, and payments — all in one place, all under their own brand.

We’re proud to be a fully remote company of around 130 (and growing!) team members from 30+ countries around the world. We strive to find exceptional talent, empower them to do their best work, and in turn, have a meaningful impact in their own lives. We don’t track hours, but we manage for outcomes in an a-synchronous culture.

Twice a year, we bring the whole company together for incredible company retreats in beautiful places around the world!

About the role
We're looking for a Lead QA Engineer (Mobile/Web) to join our Engineering team as we aim to make Circle the top choice for creator/brand-led communities.

You'll be working on both mobile and web automation test frameworks. You’ll also lead and manage the QA team, help organize & coordinate work, and serve as a people manager.

We have a preference for candidates in North/South American (AMER), and European (EMEA) time zones.
What you'll be doing
  • Drive Circle’s product quality cycle, ensuring a seamless user experience.
  • Ship often and ship with care.
  • Design, develop, and implement robust test automation frameworks for Android and iOS platforms using Appium/WebdriverIO, and for our web application using Watir (built using Ruby on Rails and React).
  • Work autonomously on prioritizing and defining our QA roadmap.
  • Improve the quality of our codebase and identify architectural deficiencies in your product area.
  • Engage in considerate, but robust, PR reviews with Circle's engineers.
  • Lead and mentor the QA team, playing a key role in hiring and managing performance.
  • Collaborate closely with Circle's product and design leaders to deliver exceptional user experiences.
  • Work closely with our engineers to create a world-class user experience and quality mindset.
What you'll need to be successful
  • Strong alignment with our values. Find our values on our career page if you haven’t read up on them yet.
  • You are proficient in English (spoken, written, and reading) at a CEFR Level C1 / ILR Level 5.
  • 8+ years experience working as a QA Engineer on complex web applications.
  • Strong proficiency in Watir for web automation.
  • Familiarity with both mobile and web test automation is necessary, but a high degree of proficiency in both is not a requirement. Or, put another way: you should be able to individually build most small to medium features end-to-end across the stack, but you can be much better at web than at mobile or vice-versa.
  • 2+ years experience with managing and mentoring direct reports (engineers/QA). You are a strong technical role model.
  • Ability to coordinate/project-manage work and keep the team organized combined with proactive communication and excellent judgment.
  • A desire to work in an environment which values speed of iteration and individual autonomy, while also embracing personal accountability and the ability to collaborate effectively as part of a dynamic team.
  • Motivation to understand the business and user needs, delivering impactful results.
  • Comfortable in a fast-paced environment with a certain level of ambiguity.
  • Adaptable with the ability to change direction quickly if necessary.
  • Familiar with agile software development principles.
  • Strong judgement and attention to detail when it comes to architectural, product, design, and process decisions. Your judgement should inspire a high level of trust within the team
Bonus points
  • Experience with Elasticsearch / Sidekiq / Kafka / GraphQL
  • Previous experience working with community platforms.
  • Experience working on CRM/Marketing tools, with email deliverability, or in the creator space.
  • Experience at a fast-growing start-up.
 Salary range: $150,000 - $170,000 per-year-salary 
Cash compensation is a starting point, and we want all of our team members to be able to grow in their roles. In addition to equity, benefits and perks, our cash compensation is subject to an annual review and increase on a once per year basis on the hire date anniversary.
The fun stuff
Fully remote: work from anywhere in the world!
Autonomy and trust to do your job: we care about outcomes over everything else.
Paid time away: all employees are given 35 days of PTO annually. We also offer a paid sabbatical after 5 years.
Generous U.S. benchmarked compensation and startup equity no matter where you are in the world.*
Awesome medical coverage with 100% coverage for you and your family, or medical reimbursement options where applicable!*
Parental leave for parents expanding their family, or just starting one.
Home office stipend to help you get up and running.
Learning & development stipend to help you level up your professional skills.
Annual bonus potential for roles that don't already receive variable income or commission.
Company retreats: Twice a year, the Circle team gets together for a fully paid company retreat in incredible places around the world! We’ve had past retreats in Colombia, Portugal, and Mexico, with more planned on the horizon.
Check out our Careers page for more.
*Your role, location and unique circumstance may affect this.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
As a fully-remote international company, diversity is baked into our DNA. Here’s how our CEO, Sid Yadav, frames our hiring mission: “let’s find talent in underserved and under-represented corners of the world, set them up to do the best work of their lives, and in turn, change their life.” To achieve this hiring mission, we offer competitive U.S.-benchmarked compensation no matter where someone’s located in the world, and we proactively seek candidates who expand representation of backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences in our teams.

Equal Employment Opportunity
Circle is an equal opportunity employer and as such, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws.
If you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.