Test Automation Engineer

The Company 

The Irish Times Group is Ireland's leading independent quality news publishing organisation. The core activity of The Irish Times Group has evolved from six-day print publishing to a seven-day multi-platform news media organisation. 

The Company is owned by The Irish Times Trust and is managed by The Irish Times DAC. In recent years, the Irish Times Group expanded its interests to include the Irish Examiner, The Echo, Regional newspapers and related digital properties serving millions of readers across Ireland and internationally. 

The Role 

We are seeking a mid-level Test Automation Engineer to build and scale our test automation capability as part of our strategic development capacity expansion. These roles are critical to enabling our growing development teams to deliver features faster whilst maintaining the quality standards our readers expect. 

As a Test Automation Engineer, you will design, develop, and maintain automated test suites for our web applications and mobile apps. You'll work collaboratively with developers, QA, and product teams to establish automation frameworks and practices that scale with our growing engineering organisation. 

Key Responsibilities 

Test Automation Development 

• Design, develop, and maintain automated test suites for web applications and mobile apps (iOS/Android) 
• Write clear, maintainable, and efficient test code following software engineering best practices 
• Implement end-to-end, integration, and regression tests across our publishing platform 
• Build reusable test components and frameworks to accelerate automation coverage 
• Debug and troubleshoot test failures, distinguishing product issues from test infrastructure problems 

CI/CD Integration 

• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines for continuous feedback 
• Configure test execution environments and manage test data 
• Monitor test execution and maintain test suite health 
• Optimise test execution time and reliability 
• Work with DevOps team on test infrastructure provisioning and scaling 

Collaboration & Quality 

• Work closely with developers to understand features and identify automation opportunities 
• Collaborate with QA team to prioritise automation backlog based on business impact 
• Participate in code reviews for both production and test code 
• Contribute to defining and improving testing standards and practices 
• Document automation frameworks, patterns, and processes 

Continuous Improvement 

• Identify areas where automation can improve velocity and quality 
• Evaluate and recommend testing tools and technologies 
• Refactor and maintain existing test suites to prevent technical debt 
• Share knowledge and mentor team members on automation practices 

Requirements & Experience 

Core Technical Skills 

• Strong proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript required, with demonstrable experience in modern frameworks and tools. Experience with additional languages (Python, Java, C#) is beneficial but not essential 
• 2-4 years experience with test automation frameworks and tools such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress (web), Appium, Detox, XCUITest, Espresso (mobile), or REST Assured, Postman (API) 
• Solid experience with Git and collaborative development workflows 
• Hands-on experience integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, or similar) 
• Strong understanding of testing principles, test design patterns, and best practices 

Professional Experience 

• 2-4 years in software testing with focus on test automation 
• Proven track record of building and maintaining automated test suites in production environments 
• Experience working in agile development teams 
• Demonstrable ability to write clean, maintainable code 

Personal Attributes 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities 
• Good communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences 
• Collaborative mindset - comfortable working across development, QA, and product teams 
• Self-motivated with ability to work independently and prioritise effectively 
• Attention to detail whilst maintaining focus on business impact 

Desirable Requirements 

• Experience with multiple testing frameworks and ability to evaluate trade-offs 
• Knowledge of performance testing tools (JMeter, Gatling, k6) 
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) 
• Knowledge of database testing and SQL 
• Experience in digital media, publishing, or content management systems is nice to have 
• Understanding of web performance optimisation and SEO considerations 
• Mobile app testing experience across iOS and Android platforms