About this role.
Tala is hiring a Senior Software Development Engineer in Test to strengthen automated quality assurance across backend microservices and mobile applications. The role focuses on designing and maintaining scalable test frameworks, embedding automated validation in CI/CD pipelines, and supporting reliable releases across multiple markets. This senior individual contributor will partner closely with engineering, product, data, credit, risk, and business teams while validating third-party integrations such as payments, communications, and analytics platforms. Candidates need at least seven years of test-framework development experience, strong JVM-language skills, BDD expertise, and practical knowledge of APIs, service integration, and Agile delivery. The position also emphasizes using AI-assisted development tools to improve test design, debugging, root-cause analysis, and engineering productivity.
Role DNA
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4/5Autonomy Level
4/5Communication Load
4/5Salary analysis
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Core skills
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Sample interview questions
I would create a layered framework that separates test data, service clients, assertions, configuration, and reporting. I would prioritize fast API and contract tests, run them in parallel with environment-specific configuration, and use a smaller set of end-to-end tests as release gates. Clear observability, retries only for known transient failures, and actionable reports are essential to keeping the suite reliable.
I would combine contract tests, sandbox integration tests, and controlled mocks for failure scenarios that cannot be safely reproduced externally. Test coverage would include authentication, idempotency, timeouts, malformed payloads, duplicate events, reconciliation behavior, and provider outages. I would also monitor production integration health to validate assumptions and identify gaps in automated coverage.
I track execution time, failure patterns, and flaky-test rates as engineering metrics. I remove unnecessary UI dependencies, use deterministic test data and stable selectors, isolate external dependencies, and avoid arbitrary sleeps in favor of explicit conditions. Flaky tests should be quarantined only temporarily, with a named owner and a defined remediation plan.
I would work with product and engineering to express scenarios in concise business language that captures acceptance criteria and important risk paths. Step definitions would remain reusable and focused on domain actions rather than UI mechanics. Regular reviews would ensure the feature files remain valuable documentation while lower-level technical cases stay in unit or API test layers.
I use AI tools to accelerate routine tasks such as drafting test scaffolding, generating boundary-case ideas, explaining failures, and refactoring repetitive code. I treat outputs as suggestions and validate them through code review, security checks, and execution against real requirements. The greatest value comes from reducing time on boilerplate so I can focus on risk analysis, test strategy, and quality outcomes.
About Tala
Tala is AI-native credit infrastructure for the global majority, combining proprietary risk intelligence with an expanding network of capital and distribution partners to power credit access at scale. Backed by more than $500 million in funding, Tala has distributed more than $7 billion in capital to more than 13 million customers across Africa, Latin America, and Asia—building one of the most robust datasets on thin-file borrowers anywhere in the world. Our mission is simple yet bold: to unleash the economic power of the global majority. We are looking for daring, data-driven leaders passionate about building the trust and credit infrastructure for the global majority.
Our pioneering work and proven impact have earned us consistent recognition, including being named to:
CNBC’s Disruptor 50 for five years.
CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies for two consecutive years.
Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for nine consecutive years.
Visionary investors, persuaded by the economic power of the global majority, have committed half a billion dollars in equity and debt to Tala’s success.
Given the global nature of our team, we operate on a remote-first approach with office hubs in Santa Monica, CA (HQ); Nairobi, Kenya; Mexico City, Mexico; Manila, the Philippines; and Bangalore, India.
Most Talazens join us because they connect with our mission. If you are energized by the impact you can make at Tala, we’d love to hear from you!
The Role
We are looking for a Software Development Engineer in Test (Sr. SDET) who is passionate about using cutting-edge test automation tools and technologies to create robust test frameworks and test suites in order to speed up the product delivery process without compromising quality and performance. This hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves role will ensure quality control across Tala’s backend services and mobile applications in multiple markets.
What You’ll Do
Design, develop, and maintain scalable test automation frameworks and suites to expand coverage across microservices and integrate them into CI/CD, regression, and release processes.
Partner with engineering, product, and SDE/QA teams to support releases, identify quality risks, and communicate issues in a timely manner.
Build tools and test solutions to validate integrations with third-party services such as payment providers, vendors, communication platforms (SMS/Email), analytics systems, and other external dependencies.
Integrate automated test execution into the software development lifecycle to enable continuous quality validation.
Collaborate with Engineering Managers, Squad Leads, Product Managers, and other stakeholders to define quality strategies and rollout plans.
Work closely with cross-functional teams (Product, Data, Credit, Risk, and Business Development) to identify opportunities for automation and improve overall product quality.
Maintain, review, and continuously improve existing test frameworks, tooling, and quality engineering processes.
Leverage AI-powered tools and agents to improve test design, automation development, debugging, root-cause analysis, and engineering productivity.
What You’ll Need
Minimum 7+ years of experience in building test tools and frameworks using Groovy/Kotlin/ Java/ Scala, Jenkins or similar CI-CD tools, Linux/ Mac OSX for either backend or frontend services
Experience with BDD testing paradigm and one of the Behavior Driven Testing frameworks such as Spock or JBehave or cucumber
Knowledge in microservices and automation.
Experience working in an Agile development process (Scrum/ Kanban)
Experience with one or more version control systems such as Github, Gitlab
Experience with REST APIs, contract testing, and service integration testing is preferred.
Experience leveraging AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Gemini, Claude) to improve test automation development, test design, debugging, and productivity.
Compensation
Additional Information
Our vision is to build a new financial ecosystem where everyone can participate on equal footing and access the tools they need to be financially healthy. We strongly believe that inclusion fosters innovation and we’re proud to have a diverse global team that represents a multitude of backgrounds, cultures, and experience. We hire talented people regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Annual salary information is not provided for this position. Explore salary ranges for similar roles in our Salary Directory ›
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