API and Front-End QA Automation Engineer

The application period will close on April 15, 2026 00:00 CEST. Please note that if we receive a high volume of qualified applicants, the posting may close sooner, so we encourage candidates to submit their applications as soon as possible.

Background: Global Fishing Watch is an international, non-profit organization committed to advancing ocean governance through increased transparency. We create and publicly share knowledge about human activity at sea to enable fair and sustainable use of our ocean. Founded in 2015 through a collaboration between Oceana, SkyTruth, and Google, Global Fishing Watch became an independent non-profit organization in June 2017. Using cutting-edge technology, we create and publicly share map visualizations, data and analysis tools to enable scientific research and drive a transformation in how we manage our ocean. To pursue our unified organisational strategy, by 2030 across 30 countries we aim to empower institutions and people to 1) support the reduction of illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and destructive fishing practices 2) better enforce and protect the rights of 1 million small scale fishers and 3) improve the effective designation and management of marine protected areas and other area based conservation measures. 

The Position

Global Fishing Watch is looking for a talented, automation-first QA Engineer who is passionate about quality in software products and building products that matter. Our tools give users the ability to explore and analyze complex geospatial and temporal datasets through innovative, non-traditional interfaces — interactive maps, vessel tracking dashboards, analytical tools, and a growing public API platform.

Automation is the core of this position, but it might include some minor manual testing. The ideal candidate brings deep hands-on experience building robust, maintainable automated test suites for both front-end applications and APIs — and can demonstrate a track record of successfully integrating those suites into CI/CD pipelines.

You will work closely with the product team during story definition and with the engineering team throughout implementation. Your work will directly improve the reliability and confidence of our releases.

Products You Will Test

You will work across the following products and platforms:

• Interactive maps showing vessel tracks, fishing activity heatmaps, encounters on the high seas, port visits, and carrier vessel activity — rendered through time using our latest map platform;
• Vessel identity and carrier vessel tracking features, including new layers and datasets added to GFW's core map over the past several years;
• The GFW Public/Private APIs — a major strategic expansion now providing external developers and researchers with programmatic access to GFW's datasets and services. API quality, reliability, and contract testing are a core responsibility of this role.
• Tools for users to upload, display, and analyze their own datasets alongside GFW's datasets;

Our Stack

Testing

• Playwright and Vitest (primary E2E and integration automation framework — required)
• Cypress (used on select products — experience is a plus)
• Selenium (legacy; knowledge helpful but not the focus)
• Jest and axios

Front-end

• Modern JavaScript / TypeScript (ES6+)
• React (hooks) and Redux
• Mapping and dataviz: Deck.gl, D3, turf
• CSS3, CSS Modules

Backend & Infrastructure

• Node.js (Nest and Koa), Go, Python, PostgreSQL, Clickhouse
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Docker
• CI/CD: Google Cloud Build

Tooling & Collaboration

• Git and GitHub
• Postman

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain automated test suites for GFW's front-end products and public API — this is the primary and non-negotiable function of this role;
• Lead end-to-end test automation using Playwright, covering functional, regression, cross-browser, and performance scenarios;
• Own API test automation: write and maintain contract tests, functional tests, and integration tests for GFW's public and internal APIs;
• Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines (Cloudbuild), ensuring tests run reliably on every relevant trigger;
• Design and document test cases for user stories; validate acceptance criteria with the product team before implementation begins;
• Define and maintain test suite organization — smoke, regression, and full suites — and determine which cases warrant automation vs. manual execution;
• Run and maintain regression suites when new features are released or underlying data versions change;
• Conduct periodic regression runs on production environments;
• Work closely with the product team during user story definition to ensure testability and clear acceptance criteria from the start; Creating a test plan for every release;
• Report bugs clearly in the issue tracking system and follow up until resolution working closedy with product to understand impact of the bug and define priority;
• Define, record, and report on QA metrics to assess coverage, test reliability, and areas of product risk;
• Advance GFW's overall QA strategy, tooling, and infrastructure over time.

Candidate Description

Required Technical Skills

Automation is the core of this role. Candidates who cannot demonstrate hands-on automation experience will not be considered.

• 5+ years of hands-on experience building and maintaining automated test suites for production web applications — please be prepared to discuss specific projects and outcomes;
• Proven, recent experience with Playwright for end-to-end browser automation (required);
• Solid experience with API test automation: writing contract tests, functional API tests, and integration tests;
• Experience working in Agile teams with sprint-based delivery;
• Experience with CI/CD integration of automated tests (GitHub Actions or equivalent);
• Experience with performance and cross-browser testing;
• Experience with test plan and test case development, including defining what to automate vs. test manually;
• Willing to comb through a complex network of interdependent tools, resources, user roles, and permissions;
• Detail-oriented, with a mindset geared toward finding edge cases and breaking things.

Preferred Technical Skills

• Experience with Cypress in addition to Playwright;
• Experience testing non-traditional, data-heavy applications using maps, charts, heatmaps, or other data visualizations;
• Strong proficiency with Git and modern branching strategies;
• Familiarity with Docker and containerized test environments;
• Experience with cloud platforms, particularly Google Cloud Platform;
• Open-source collaboration experience.

Communication & Collaboration Skills

• Strong written and verbal communication in English — most day-to-day collaboration is async and written. Having also good verbal Spanish is a plus;
• Comfortable working remotely and independently in a small, fast-moving organization;
• Proactive and highly organized — owns tasks end-to-end without needing to be chased;
• Team player who is willing to teach and learn across disciplines;
• Intellectually curious and open to suggesting and evaluating new tools, approaches, or strategies;
• Flexible and able to adapt to shifting priorities and evolving requirements;
• Able to communicate clearly with a wide range of stakeholders — from engineers to product managers to senior leadership;
• Comfortable managing multiple ongoing tasks, sharing estimations, raising risks and meeting deadlines.

The successful candidate will meet most, but not necessarily all, of the criteria above. If you don’t think you check all the boxes, but believe you have unique skills that make you a great fit for the role, we want to hear from you!

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Additional Information

Note: The application period for this role closes on April 15, 2026 00:00 CEST.

Reporting to: 

Director, Technology and Engineering

Manages: NA

Please note: Visa sponsorship is not supported at this time. 

Candidates must be authorized to work for GFW without visa sponsorship for at least two years after their start date, or for the entire duration of their contract if on a fixed-term agreement.

Individuals on student visas must be eligible for full-time employment on their visa and have valid work authorization (such as Optional Practical Training (OPT) or equivalent) that remains valid for at least two years or the duration of their contract. Candidates relying on a spouse’s visa for work authorization are not eligible, as they must independently qualify for employment.

Location: This is a remote role, but candidates must be legally authorized and based in Argentina, Chile, Brazil or Colombia for this role.

Permanent/Fixed Term/Contractor: Contractor

Duration: 1 year with possibility of expansion.

Full Time hours: Yes 

Recruiting process: Recruiting Process: A cover letter along with a CV will be requested to see how your experience and interest connect to the position. We expect the cover letter to allow applicants an opportunity to explain details on how their skill set aligns with the role and provide a better understanding of their suitability for the position. If selected for consideration, the hiring process for this position will include an initial call with our Talent Acquisition team, followed by a formal 45 minute interview with 1-3 team members. Candidates advancing beyond this round will be asked to take a technical assessment and/or submit a representative code sample. Lastly, a final interview with 2-4 teams members to review your assessment and assess functional skills.

Compensation: A compensation range for this position is USD 30-40/h for Argentina, USD 30-35/h for Chile, USD 30-35/h for Brazil, and USD 30-35/h for Colombia- Compensation is commensurate with experience and will vary depending on the hired candidate’s country of residence, in accordance with local laws and regulations. GFW offers pension/retirement, health and other benefits commensurate with similar level GFW employees in the country of employment. The position may be a GFW employee, an employee of our Employer of Record Partner, or a contractor depending on the country of residence.

Equal opportunities: Global Fishing Watch is an equal opportunities employer. Global Fishing Watch is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within our organization and in the greater ocean management and conservation community. We believe that diverse backgrounds, skills, knowledge and viewpoints make us a stronger organization. Bringing together professionals who possess broad experiences and a spectrum of perspectives will enable us to reach our goal of improved ocean governance faster. We hire and promote qualified professionals without regard to actual or perceived race, color, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or parental status, national origin, age, physical or mental disability or medical condition, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Our organizational goals match the urgent challenges facing our global ocean, and our mission is designed to help secure a healthy ocean for all. We are committed to building a workforce that is representative of humanity’s diversity, by providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all employees of Global Fishing Watch and for our partners, vendors, suppliers and contractors.

Accessibility and Accommodations: We are committed to ensuring an inclusive and accessible recruitment process. If you are selected for an interview and need accommodations or adjustments at any stage, please let the Talent Acquisition Manager know during your initial call. We’ll do our best to support your needs. Any information you share will be kept confidential and used only to ensure you have a positive experience.