QA & Test Engineer Jobs

Quality assurance and validation engineering is one of the career paths that most directly reflects Ireland's outsized role in global pharmaceutical manufacturing — and with 240 active jobs spread across Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Meath, and Kerry, the geographic reach is broader than many tech-focused disciplines.

The biopharma sector accounts for the lion's share of demand. AbbVie, with a major manufacturing presence in Sligo, hires Senior Product QA Managers responsible for ensuring that all products meet the requirements of the FDA, HPRA, and company standards, with compliance to marketing authorisations and current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). MSD in Carlow recruits Quality Control Specialists who execute QC activities in alignment with Global Quality Policies and cGMP expectations — roles that require strong cultures of data integrity and inspection readiness. Alexion (now part of AstraZeneca's Rare Disease group) has multiple positions at its Dublin facility including QC Analysts working with chromatography and compendial methods in a cGMP laboratory, and QA Warehouse Managers overseeing quality under EU GMP Annex guidelines. PCI Pharma Services in Meath hires QA Regulatory Compliance Specialists managing Product Specification Files and clinical supply chain quality systems.

The tech sector brings a different flavour of QA. GlobeTech, a software localisation provider established in 1997, recruits Localisation QA Engineers in Cork to work on consumer electronics products — testing the most innovative software in the world across multiple languages. Revolut in Mullingar hires Quality Analysts with language skills (Swedish, in one current listing) for its sales quality assurance function, ensuring that the fintech's 70+ million customer interactions meet its service standards.

If you're wondering what qualifications and skills are needed, the answer splits along industry lines. For pharma QA, a science degree (chemistry, biology, or pharmaceutical science) is the standard entry point, with knowledge of GAMP5, cGMP, GDP, and ICH guidelines differentiating stronger candidates. For software QA, the emphasis shifts to test automation frameworks (Selenium, Cypress, Playwright), CI/CD pipelines, and programming skills. At the senior end, Robotics Test Engineers working on AI/ML systems represent the cutting edge of the field. The career ladder runs from Graduate QA Engineer and QA/QC Inspector through to QA Manager and Director of Quality — with the pharmaceutical track offering particularly strong compensation given Ireland's critical role in global drug manufacturing and supply chain compliance.