Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) - Conversational AI Platform

The Client Engineering team is looking for a Mid to Senior Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to own and evolve our test infrastructure for YAVA, our conversational AI platform supporting voice and chat channels. Serving millions of customer interactions across multiple touchpoints, our platform combines sophisticated NLP, backend services, and frontend experiences to deliver seamless conversational flows.

Note: This is not a traditional manual QA role. You are an engineer with a testing focus, embedded directly with developers to contribute to sprint work, build test strategies, design custom test harnesses, and ensure platform reliability-including AI Agent capabilities., Test Strategy & Architecture

• Collaborate with Product, Architecture, and Engineering teams to define test strategy, coverage goals, and acceptance criteria.
• Understand how all elements of the system software ecosystem work together and develop QA approaches and tools that fit the overall strategy.
• Design, build, and maintain reusable test harnesses and frameworks that eliminate decision paralysis for engineers, providing clear patterns for framework selection, data setup, and test implementation.
• Create comprehensive documentation and examples so developers can write and own tests without reinventing solutions.
• Identify testing gaps and recommend/implement robust solutions.

Conversational AI & Full-Stack Testing

• Develop specialized test strategies and automation for Conversational AI systems, multi-turn conversations, intent recognition, and orchestration logic across Voice and Chat channels.
• Validate complex workflows, agent interactions, and LLM/AI responses using approaches such as LLM-as-a-judge.
• Support testing across Java/Node.js backends, REST APIs, and full-stack scenarios (API, backend, and frontend layers).
• Build automated test plans and harnesses for API-level, backend service, and end-to-end user journeys.

Quality Ownership & Collaboration

• Act as a release stakeholder to ensure defects are resolved per SLA and end-customer experience is protected and continually improved.
• Monitor and report on test execution and quality metrics.
• Educate, mentor, and train engineers on test-driven development, automation patterns, and test harnesses.
• Pair with developers on complex testing scenarios and contribute to automated test implementation and general development tasks when harness work is complete.

• Location: Must be located within commuting distance of Hartford, CT or Wellesley, MA (or be willing to relocate for this onsite role).
• Experience: 5+ years of total software engineering experience, with 3+ years specifically focused on test automation and SDET work.
• Core Engineering: Strong proficiency in at least one backend language (Java or Node.js) with solid object-oriented design (OOD) experience.
• API Expertise: Deep expertise in REST API testing, request/response validation, mocking, and contract testing.
• Testing Frameworks: Proficiency in frameworks like JUnit, Jest, or equivalent (experience building custom frameworks is a strong plus).
• Tools & Platforms: Experience with SOAPUI, Postman, Bruno, Playwright, Selenium, Cucumber, Hammer, and Cyara.
• Domain Experience: Proven voice and chat test automation expertise, with familiarity in testing methodologies for conversational systems and LLM/AI responses (e.g., LLM-as-a-judge).
• CI/CD & Data: Hands-on knowledge of GitHub Actions (or similar CI/CD pipelines) and test data management strategies.
• Soft Skills: Strong communication skills with the ability to document design patterns, mentor teammates, and clearly articulate testing strategies., * Deep hands-on technical expertise in automation, building custom test frameworks, tools, and APIs.
• Direct experience working with conversational AI platforms or testing AI agents.
• Experience with API mocking or contract testing tools.
• Knowledge of performance and load testing frameworks