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Senior SQA Engineer

Cogent Labs is hiring a Software Quality Assurance Engineer for its Lahore office.

Job Type: On-site

Role

The Senior QA owns quality outcomes across features, modules, and releases. This role focuses on risk-based testing, pre-implementation validation, release readiness ownership, estimation input, and cross-functional quality alignment.

You are responsible for anticipating risks before development completion, ensuring design completeness before implementation, leading regression cycles, and protecting release stability. You operate independently across multiple projects, adapt effectively within agile delivery environments, mentor junior QAs, contribute to hiring and process maturity, and represent quality in both internal and client-facing discussions with strong initiative and ownership.

Requirements

Experience: 3+ years in manual testing (web/mobile), exposure to medium-to-complex systems and multi-project environments.

Responsibilities

Quality Strategy & Planning %u2014 Define how testing should be approached for new features and releases by identifying critical flows, risk areas, dependencies, and required coverage.
Ensure QA work is planned before execution begins, contribute to release planning discussions, and provide realistic QA estimates based on scope and complexity.
Design QA & Pre-Implementation Validation %u2014 Review feature designs, flows, wireframes, and edge scenarios before development starts to ensure completeness, logical consistency, and alignment with requirements.
Advanced Requirement & Risk Analysis %u2014 Challenge ambiguous requirements, identify business logic and integration risks, and ensure acceptance criteria are complete, testable, and implementation-ready.
AI-Assisted QA Workflows %u2014 Define and standardize responsible AI usage in QA workflows across the team in order to generate, refine, and maintain test cases, tickets, and documentation. Leverage AI to detect potential edge cases, summarize defects, and accelerate testing efficiency.
Test Design Leadership %u2014 Ensure comprehensive coverage across positive, negative, edge, integration, and system-level scenarios; review and refine test cases created by junior QAs.
Complex Issue Investigation %u2014 Perform deep defect analysis using logs, DevTools, Postman, and monitoring tools; clearly differentiate frontend, backend, integration, and environment issues.
Error Monitoring & Analytics Awareness %u2014 Use tools like Sentry and Crashlytics to analyze production errors and leverage Google Analytics to understand user behavior and business impact.
Release Readiness Ownership %u2014 Lead regression and sanity cycles, validate overall system stability, and provide structured Go/No-Go recommendations with documented risk assessment.
Cross-Project Time Management %u2014 Manage QA responsibilities across multiple projects when applicable, balance competing priorities, and proactively escalate scheduling conflicts or bandwidth risks.
Estimation & Planning Input %u2014 Contribute realistic QA effort estimation for test design, execution, regression, and release validation based on feature scope, dependencies, and risk.
Documentation & Product Contribution %u2014 Contribute to creation and refinement of feature tickets, PRDs, and SRS by ensuring clarity, completeness, and testability.
Retrospective & Root Cause Facilitation %u2014 Conduct or actively contribute to sprint retrospectives and RCA discussions to identify systemic improvements and prevent recurring defects.
Agile Adaptability %u2014 Work effectively within agile delivery cycles by adjusting QA priorities based on sprint changes, evolving requirements, and shifting release needs without compromising quality focus.
Client Engagement & Product Enablement %u2014 Record client demos confidently, support UAT sessions, and provide training or walkthroughs for product and business teams when required.
Mentorship & Hiring Contribution %u2014 Review junior QA outputs, provide structured mentorship, support onboarding, and participate in interviews for junior QA positions.
Process & Standards Improvement %u2014 Define and improve QA templates, regression strategies, documentation standards, and structured AI usage within QA workflows.
Collaboration & Stakeholder Alignment %u2014 Work closely with product, engineering, and stakeholders to align quality priorities with business impact and release timelines.
Self-Propelling & Initiative %u2014 Take initiative in identifying gaps, proposing improvements, following up on unresolved quality risks, and driving QA activities forward without requiring continuous direction.
Quality Ownership Mindset %u2014 Take accountability for release stability, anticipate risks early, and focus on systemic defect prevention rather than reactive bug fixing.

Technical Knowledge

Software Development & Testing Fundamentals: Strong understanding of SDLC/STLC, defect lifecycle, requirement analysis, and structured test case design.
Risk & System-Level Thinking: Proficiency in risk-based testing, system and integration testing, and release validation strategy.
Quality Strategy & Regression Planning: Ability to design regression strategies, contribute to QA estimations, and evaluate overall release stability.
Root Cause & Production Awareness: Knowledge of Root Cause Analysis methodologies, production monitoring concepts, and basic analytics interpretation.
Agile Delivery Awareness: Strong understanding of sprint-based execution, changing priorities, and quality ownership within agile environments.

Tools

Jira / ClickUp
Postman
Browser DevTools
Sentry / Crashlytics/Firebase
Google Analytics
Log inspection tools
AI-assisted QA tools
Understanding of automation frameworks (conceptual knowledge expected)

Skills

Strong analytical reasoning
Structured risk prioritization
Ability to challenge requirements constructively
Ability to provide realistic estimations for QA activities
Multi-project time management
Ability to contribute to and refine PRDs, test plans, and tickets with clarity and traceability.
Agile adaptability in changing sprint conditions
Comfortable presenting demo's, test results, clarifying requirements, and showcasing quality improvements.
Excellent written and verbal clarity; proactive in client and team communication.
Self-driven execution with strong ownership and initiative

Cultural Values

You are a quality gatekeeper, not just a tester.
You prevent defects through structured thinking, risk anticipation, disciplined release validation, and adaptability within fast-moving delivery environments.
You elevate team standards, mentor others, and protect business impact through proactive quality leadership and self-driven ownership

Results (What Success Looks Like)

Execution Ownership & Adaptability

QA estimations are realistic and aligned with scope, dependencies, and risks
Sprint or requirement changes are handled with proactive reprioritization
QA activities continue to move forward with minimal follow-up due to strong individual initiative

Release Stability & Predictability

No known high-severity defects are released without documented risk acceptance
Regression cycles are executed before every release
Production defects due to missed test coverage are investigated and RCA is documented.

Early Risk Identification

Significant requirements or design gaps are proactively raised before implementation completion.
Integration risks are flagged before release phase
Critical issues are detected during sprint, not post-release

Technical Depth & Investigation Quality

Complex issues are validated using logs, monitoring tools, and API testing
Duplicate or invalid defect reporting within the team is minimized
Production issues are analyzed using Sentry/Crashlytics and relevant analytics

Multi-Project Reliability

QA commitments across multiple projects, where applicable, are delivered without repeated delays
Priority conflicts are escalated before impacting release timelines

Team & Process Impact