QA Engineer - Mortgage

Job description

What is Loancrate? We started Loancrate to make home-buying simpler and less expensive for lenders and borrowers. Today, mortgage lenders are stuck running their companies on software products built 20 years ago. These products are slow, unstable, and don't lead to material improvements in efficiency. When using these systems, the average human cost to originate a loan is still over $11,000. Loancrate builds AI-native tooling to automate mortgage workflows. Our ultimate goal is fully automated origination, which has the potential to save lenders over $16B in operating expense per year. Since starting in 2020, our remote team has enabled our customers to power >$85 billion in new home loans. We care about collaboration, very open communication covering the good & the bad so that we learn from our decisions quickly, and ultimately having fun while we're building. You'll fit in well if you like diving deep quickly! The Opportunity Automating mortgage origination only works if the software actually works the way a lender needs it to — every screen, every workflow, every edge case. We're looking for a QA Engineer to make sure it does, before our customers ever see it. You'll be the person who knows our product inside and out from a lender's point of view. You'll click through real loan scenarios in our UIs, run workflows end-to-end the way a processor or underwriter would, and catch the bugs, regressions, data inconsistencies, and broken edge cases that only show up when someone who actually understands mortgages goes looking for them. The work is detailed and methodical in the way good QA work is. It's also unusually high-leverage: the bugs you catch don't reach customers, and the test cases you build become the regression backbone we trust on every release. This is a foundational role. You'll be the first dedicated QA person, embedded with Engineering and Product rather than buried in an ops org. As we scale, you'll have the opportunity to lead the QA function — hiring, training, and setting the bar for what "ready to ship" means at Loancrate. If you've spent years working in or alongside loan origination software and want to put that expertise toward building something rather than processing files one at a time, this is that opportunity. What You'll Do • Test our UIs and workflows end-to-end — running real loan scenarios through the product the way a processor, underwriter, or closer would, across loan types and document conditions. • Find the bugs before customers do — visual glitches, broken validations, workflow dead-ends, incorrect calculations, data that doesn't persist, integrations that quietly drop fields, and the long tail of edge cases that only break under real mortgage conditions. • Write clear, reproducible bug reports — with the exact steps, the loan scenario in play, expected vs. actual behavior, and screenshots or recordings — so engineers can fix the issue without a second round of questions. • Build and own the regression test suite — a curated set of manual test cases and lightweight automated scripts (Playwright / Cypress or similar) that cover our core flows and grow with the product. • Own release readiness — run pre-release verification on every meaningful change, sign off on what's ready to ship, and flag what isn't. • Partner directly with Engineering and Product — sitting in on design reviews, asking the "but what happens when…" questions early, and helping shape features so they're testable and correct by construction. • Define the playbook — QA SOPs, bug severity rubrics, release checklists, and quality metrics that future team members will follow. • Hire, train, and lead the QA team — within 12-18 months, you can be running the function and owning how Loancrate thinks about software quality. What Success Looks Like Within your first 90 days, you will: • Be testing across our core product surfaces and surfacing bug patterns the team didn't know existed. • Have produced the first version of an internal QA playbook — how we test, how we triage bugs, how we decide what's ready to ship. • Have built an initial regression suite covering our highest-leverage user flows, with a mix of manual checklists and light automation. • Have a direct working relationship with Engineering and Product, with a regular cadence for design review, release sign-off, and bug triage. By the 12-18 month mark, you'll be hiring and leading the QA team (if you want the opportunity). Preferred Skills and Background It's okay not to have all of these — these are just some skills we're excited about! 🏦 Mortgage operations experience — processing, underwriting, closing, post-closing, QC, or similar. You know what a 1003 looks like and can spot when something on screen doesn't reconcile with what the loan file says. 💼 Hands-on experience with a loan origination system (Encompass, Empower, Byte, etc.) — you've lived inside one of these systems and know where they break. 🐞 QA or software testing experience — manual test design, exploratory testing, regression suites, release verification. Bonus if you've worked in a regulated or financial software environment. 🤖 Comfort with light test automation — you don't need to be a software engineer, but you should be willing to write and maintain simple Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium scripts (or pick them up quickly). 🔍 Genuine attention to detail — the work rewards people who like catching things that are subtly wrong and don't let them slide. 📝 Clear written communication — the bug reports, test plans, and checklists you write get used by other people, so they need to be precise and easy to follow. 📊 Comfort with structured data and developer tools — reading JSON, inspecting API responses, using browser dev tools, navigating logs. You don't need to code, but you shouldn't be afraid of these tools. 🧩 Process-oriented thinking — you see patterns in bugs and naturally want to systematize how they get caught next time. 🤝 Curiosity about AI and how it's changing mortgage workflows — you don't need an ML background, but you should be excited to work closely with people who do, and to think about how to test AI-driven features. 🏗️ Prior team lead, training, or SOP-writing experience — onboarding new hires, running calibration sessions, or building QA programs from scratch. Perks & Benefits • Robust medical coverage (100% of employee + family premiums covered) • Vision & dental coverage • 401(k) • HSA / FSA • Access to lender partner's employee loan program • Remote-first culture — work from wherever you do your best work • Flexible time off — we trust you to manage your time Loancrate is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected characteristic.