QA Analyst (Manual / Exploratory Testing)

About the Role

We are looking for a highly skilled QA Analyst who excels in manual test execution, exploratory testing, and end-to-end validation of business requirements. You will play a central role in ensuring product quality through deep domain understanding, risk-based testing approaches, and close collaboration with product owners, developers, designers, and business stakeholders.

This role is ideal for someone who thrives in dynamic environments, ranging from fintech platforms to rapid MVP launches and enterprise-scale modernization efforts, and who is passionate about uncovering hidden issues through thoughtful, context-driven testing.

Responsibilities

Test Planning & Business Validation

• Analyze business and functional requirements to ensure clarity, completeness, and testability.
• Define test coverage strategies based on project type and risk profile.
• Translate requirements into well-structured test scenarios, acceptance criteria, and edge cases.
• Validate that delivered features meet business expectations, regulatory constraints, and user experience goals.
  

Manual & Exploratory Testing

• Execute functional, regression, integration, and UAT test cycles across Web, Mobile, and API-driven systems.
• Perform exploratory, context-driven testing to uncover edge cases beyond scripted scenarios.
• Identify, investigate, and document defects with high-quality reproduction details.
• Collaborate with developers and product owners throughout the sprint to clarify issues and retest fixes.
• Validate workflows end-to-end to ensure consistency across services and distributed systems.

Quality Advocacy & Collaboration

• Participate actively in backlog refinement, sprint planning, and release readiness sessions.
• Help teams identify quality risks early (shift-left mindset).
• Support cross-team quality initiatives aimed at improving test processes, documentation standards, and release confidence.
• Assist in shaping acceptance criteria, test charters, and exploratory testing sessions.

Test Documentation & Reporting

• Maintain clear test cases, checklists, exploratory notes, and traceability to requirements.
• Provide timely test summaries and risk assessments for release decisions.

Must-Have Skills

• 3+ years in manual testing, business validation, or quality assurance.
• Strong command of exploratory testing techniques (session-based, charter-based, heuristics).
• Experience designing and executing manual tests for Web, Mobile, APIs ecosystems.
• Ability to decompose complex requirements and identify logical test paths, dependencies, and risk areas.
• Familiarity with Agile and DevOps environments (Scrum, Kanban, CI/CD workflows).
• Competence with QA management and collaboration tools (e.g., Jira, Confluence).
• Strong defect investigation and root-cause communication skills.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Experience verifying compliance requirements (GDPR, PCI-DSS).
• Understanding of observability concepts (logs, metrics, traces) for issue investigation.
• Knowledge of BDD-style acceptance criteria (Gherkin) for business alignment.
  

Soft Skills & Cultural Fit

• Sharp analytical and problem-solving abilities with a user-centric mindset.
• Excellent communication across multidisciplinary teams.
• Curious, investigative mindset—comfortable testing beyond the “happy path.”
• Ownership mentality and commitment to delivering high-quality outcomes.
• Continuous learner driven by improving processes and discovering better ways to test.

Why Join Us?

• Be part of a cross-skilled culture focused on continuous learning and innovation.
• Collaborate closely with Dev, Product, and Design teams to shape quality early.
• Work on diverse, high-impact projects across industries.
• Contribute to the evolution of Quality as a Service for global clients.

About Payforge

Payforge is a specialist professional-services company focused exclusively on payments and fintech. We help clients deliver high-quality, scalable technology solutions in an evolving global financial landscape.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Payforge is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds.