Senior Manual QA Engineer

About FreeBalance FreeBalance is a purpose-led global technology company empowering governments to achieve transparent, accountable, and effective public financial management through its proprietary FreeBalance Accountability Suite™, a comprehensive Government Resource Planning (GRP) solution designed exclusively for the public sector. With over 40 years of experience supporting governments worldwide, FreeBalance drives digital transformation across the entire budget cycle - from policy-based budgeting and accounting to human resource management, performance measurement, treasury, and revenue management - all within a scalable, unified platform that supports fiscal transparency, citizen engagement, and data-driven decision-making. As a Senior Manual QA Engineer, you will join a newly established Quality Assurance team responsible for ensuring the reliability, accuracy, and integrity of the FreeBalance Accountability Suite™ across its 20+ functional modules used by national governments worldwide.    Position Summary  As a Senior Manual QA Engineer, you will serve as a core contributor to FreeBalance’s quality practice, responsible for designing, executing, and maintaining comprehensive test coverage across the GRP platform. You will work closely with Developers, Functional Analysts, and the QA Lead to deliver structured test cases, perform regression testing, and ensure that each release meets defined quality standards before reaching government clients. This role requires deep expertise in functional and end-to-end testing of enterprise web applications, strong analytical thinking, and the ability to understand complex government business workflows. You will contribute to building the QA knowledge base from the ground up, help define testing standards, and mentor other QA engineers as the team scales. The ideal candidate combines methodical attention to detail with a systems-level understanding of financial and administrative workflows (ERP systems testing is a big advantage), and thrives in an environment where process maturity is being actively built. This role reports to the QA Lead and collaborates daily with Developers, Functional Analysts, and the Services Team. Key Responsibilities

Test Design & Execution

 ● Reproduce, isolate, and document defects with clear steps to reproduce expected vs. actual results, and environment details.

● Verify defect fixes and perform confirmation testing on resolved tickets before sign-off.

● Design, write, and maintain structured manual test cases for functional, regression, integration, and smoke testing across GRP application modules.

● Execute test cases against defined builds and environments, documenting results with precision in the test management system.

● Perform end-to-end and exploratory cross-module testing to validate business process flows including budgeting, expenditure, treasury, and revenue cycles.

 Regression & Release Testing

● Execute structured regression test suites during sprint Code Freeze periods.

● Identify and assess the scope of regression testing based on risk level of sprint changes (financial modules, core workflow, UI/configuration).

● Provide QA sign-off with a written release assessment summarizing test coverage, findings, and outstanding risks.

● Maintain and continuously improve regression test libraries as new features and modules are added.

● Track regression trends across releases and report patterns to the QA Lead. 

Defect Management

● Log defects in Mantis Bug Tracker with complete, reproducible information aligned with QA reporting standards.

● Triage incoming defect reports from the Service Team, reproducing on test environment, assess completeness, and request additional information where needed.

● Collaborate with developers on defect clarification, root cause discussion, and fix verification.

● Monitor defect lifecycle and escalate stale or misclassified tickets to the QA Lead.

● Contribute to defect metrics reporting and quality trend analysis.

Knowledge Base & Documentation

● Document testing procedures, module-specific test data requirements, and known system behaviors.

● Contribute to QA standards documentation including test case writing guidelines, naming conventions, and coverage maps.

● Capture and share knowledge about GRP business workflows to reduce onboarding time for new QA team members. 

Cross-Team Collaboration

● Participate in sprint planning and backlog refinement, providing QA input on Definition of Ready and testability of requirements.

● Collaborate with Functional Analysts to clarify expected behavior and align test cases with functional specifications.

● Work with the Development team leads to understand scope of changes and their downstream impact across modules.

● Support the Services Team with defect report quality guidance and escalation triage.

● Prioritize the order of automated testing for QA Automation Engineers and prepare manual test cases for automation.

● Communicate testing status, risks, and blockers clearly to the QA Lead and relevant stakeholders.

Continuous Improvement

● Support and mentor Junior and Mid-level QA engineers as the team grows.

● Contribute to QA process improvement initiatives including shift-left testing practices and Definition of Done criteria.

● Recommend improvements to testing workflows, tooling, and coverage strategies.

● Promote a quality-first mindset across R&D without acting as a release gatekeeper. 

Senior Experience & Qualifications (Required)

Education & Experience

 ● Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related discipline. Equivalent practical experience considered. ● Minimum 8+ years of progressive experience in manual QA for enterprise-scale web applications.

● Proven experience testing complex, multi-module business applications with interdependent workflows.

● Demonstrated experience writing and maintaining structured test case libraries in a professional test management system.

● Experience working within Agile or hybrid SDLC environments, including sprint-based testing cycles.

QA Technical Expertise

Testing Practices

● Advanced expertise in:

○ Functional testing and black-box test design

○ Regression and smoke testing

○ End-to-end cross-module integration testing

○ Boundary value analysis, equivalence partitioning, and exploratory testing

○ Defect lifecycle management and root cause classification

○ Test case writing: preconditions, step tables, expected vs. actual, post-conditions

○ Risk-based test prioritization 

●Proficiency with test management systems (Testomat.io, TestRail, Zephyr, or equivalent).

● Proficiency with bug tracking systems (Mantis, Jira, or equivalent) including structured defect reporting.

● Experience testing in multi-environment setups (Docker, staging, UAT, production-like environments).

● Experience working with SQL or basic database queries for test data setup and result verification.

● Experience testing JSF-based or form-driven enterprise web applications.

● Understanding of REST APIs and ability to perform basic API-level verification. Domain Knowledge 

● Understanding of ERP, GRP, financial management, or government software workflows is a significant advantage.

● Ability to quickly learn and map complex multi-step business processes into structured test coverage.

● Understanding of financial transaction flows (budget allocation, commitments, expenditures, reconciliation) is highly desirable.

● Familiarity with multi-database platforms (MySQL, Oracle, MSSQL) for test data management. 

Software Engineering Practices

● Familiarity with SVN or Git for version control awareness in a development team context.

● Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and building artifact management.

● Ability to interpret Jenkins build logs and identify environment-level vs. application-level failures.

● Basic scripting ability (Python, JavaScript, or Shell) for test data generation or environment validation is a plus. Interpersonal & Leadership

● Excellent communication and collaboration skills with the ability to document findings clearly for both technical and non-technical audiences.

● Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with attention to detail.

● Ability to work independently, manage testing workload across sprint cycles, and escalate risks proactively 

● Flexibility to work across distributed, multicultural, and global teams across multiple time zones.

● Demonstrated ability to mentor junior QA team members and promote quality practices.

Other

● Excellent written and verbal English communication skills.

● Organized, resourceful, and capable of managing multiple priorities simultaneously.

● Ability to work effectively in a distributed, multicultural, and global environment. 

Preferred Experience

 ● Experience testing ERP, GRP, IFMIS, or other large-scale government financial management systems.

● Familiarity with Public Financial Management (PFM) business processes including budgeting, procurement, treasury, and payroll.

● Experience contributing to QA practice build-out in a team where structured QA did not previously exist.

● Exposure to test automation frameworks (Playwright, Selenium, RestAssured) even in a manual-primary role.

● Experience participating in CMMI, ISO, or similar quality maturity initiatives.

● Familiarity with containerized environments (Docker Compose) for test environment management.

● Portfolio of structured test case libraries demonstrating coverage design for complex business applications.

● Experience with Testomat.io or similar modern test management platforms.

● Familiarity with relevant AI-assisted testing tools and methodologies. 

Why This Role Matters

FreeBalance solutions manage real national budgets, government payroll, and public procurement for over 25 countries. A defect that reaches production is not a UX inconvenience - it can block a ministry from disbursing funds, delay salary payments to public servants, or introduce errors into sovereign financial records. The QA team at FreeBalance is being built from scratch. This is not a role where you join an established process and execute within it. You will help define what “good” looks like - from how test cases are written, to how defects are classified, to how regression coverage evolves sprint over sprint

We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. FreeBalance is an inclusive employer dedicated to building a diverse workforce to increase the representation of the designated groups based on each country’s legislation. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates and will accommodate applicants’ needs under the respective labour law throughout all stages of the recruitment process.