Senior/Lead QA Engineer – Contract

Job description

WHY SALESAPE? Join SalesApe, one of the fastest-growing AI companies, recognised as a leader in cutting-edge AI technology and backed by over $20 million from top VCs. We’re at the dawn of a powerful evolution, set to transform society with our tech. Our mission? To tackle inequality by empowering a huge market of non-tech SMBs—93% of all businesses, think construction, automotive, real estate, and more. While the tech industry has compounded its growth with computing power, these businesses have been technically starved. With AI agents and our natural language interface technology, we’re unlocking huge productivity gains for our clients. It’s deeply rewarding to see firsthand the transformation in small businesses as they embrace their agent—not just as a tool, but as a trusted, hard-working member of their team. The emotional bond our clients feel toward their agent is undeniable—they often tell us their ‘Ape’ has become part of the family. Our vision is to become the ‘ brain’ of a business spinning out agent worker, freeing up time and simplifying operations, to ensure humans spend more time in real-life interaction. IF YOU’RE READY FOR INTENSE, HIGH-ENERGY, MEANINGFUL WORK, COME MAKE A REAL IMPACT WITH US AT SALESAPE OUR MISSION AND PURPOSE: As we started building with large language models and AI-powered natural language interfaces, I had an aha moment. It hit me just how significant this inflection point is: compute—the raw power of computers—is now accessible to people who don’t use computers." "And when I thought about that, I realized the closest invention humanity has seen to this shift was electricity. When electricity arrived, it didn’t just light up homes—it transformed industries, democratized wealth, and empowered everyone, from factory owners to farmers, to grow and thrive. Today, with AI, we have the opportunity to do the same for the real economy." "For the last two decades, the tech industry has had an incredible advantage. Computers have been like co-pilots for us, quietly amplifying our productivity and enabling us to grow faster than ever before. But 95% of businesses—builders, plumbers, and real estate agents—have been technically starved. These businesses make up 50% of GDP, five times larger than the entire tech industry, but they’ve never had access to the tools they need to compete." "This is the inequality we’re solving. APE AI is democratizing technology, bringing the power of compute to businesses that have been left behind. And what’s so rewarding is that we’re not just helping faceless corporations—we’re empowering real people. Small business owners who pour their hearts into their work. People whose success directly impacts their families, their communities, and society at large. It’s deeply rewarding to see firsthand the transformation in small businesses as they embrace their agent—not just as a tool, but as a trusted, hard-working member of their team." "For me, this mission is personal. I’ve spent my career building companies that encourage people to connect in real life, to be physically active, and to engage with their communities. This isn’t just about productivity—it’s about health, happiness, and thriving societies. Humans weren’t built to spend their lives staring at screens. We’re wired to interact, to move, to be part of the real world. And what excites me is that Ape AI is helping to make this possible—empowering businesses that create real-world value to thrive at the same pace as the tech giants." "This isn’t just about technology. It’s about fairness. It’s about giving the power of compute to the people who need it most, so they can grow, thrive, and make a difference. That’s our mission, and it’s something we can all be proud of." THE ROLE ROLE OVERIEW SalesAPE is looking for a Senior/Lead Contract QA Engineer to own quality across our fast-moving product. You'll build and scale our QA function from the ground up—setting the quality bar, driving automation, and helping us move toward continuous delivery safely. This role sits at the intersection of engineering rigour and AI innovation, and you'll work closely with product engineers and prototypers to balance speed with safety. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE - Own the QA strategy end-to-end: from triaging risk to implementing automation - Design and implement a scalable QA process tailored for small, fast-moving teams - Set the quality bar for what's required to ship to production safely, even at higher cadence - Automate as much as possible, including integration, E2E, and regression testing across our Django and NextJS stack - Apply AI to QA — whether it's test case generation, diffing, log analysis, or something we haven't thought of yet - Collaborate closely with product engineers and prototypers to balance speed and safety WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR Essential - Experience standing up QA functions or frameworks in early-stage teams — at senior or lead level - Fluency with AI-assisted development and testing approaches; this is an AI-native role, not just AI-aware - Ability to prioritise testing pragmatically, balancing risk vs. velocity - Fluency in QA tooling and frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Pytest, Cypress) - Comfortable working across a full-stack environment (backend APIs, front-end UIs, async jobs) - Hands-on experience with CI/CD tooling (we use GitHub Actions) - Clear communicator who collaborates well with engineers and product leads Nice to Have - Experience testing AI-based or ML-driven products - Familiarity with pytest, factory_boy, or coverage.py in Python - Comfort writing or reviewing testable frontend components in React/NextJS - Experience working in a startup or similarly fast-moving environment WHAT WE OFFER - A foundational role helping us move from weekly to continuous delivery - The opportunity to shape how we integrate AI into our testing strategy - A high-trust, low-ego team focused on fast iteration - A funded, product-led startup at an exciting inflection point - Freedom and autonomy as principal values - Contract role — 3-month initial term, rolling monthly thereafter; transitions to a day-rate once the test framework is built - Rate equivalent to £75k per annum