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Software Development Engineer Test Sdet Jobs in Novato, CA

Sr Software Development Engineer

San Francisco, CA ยท On-site

$144K - $190K/yr

Establish patterns, shared libraries, and dev tools that raise the baseline engineering quality and ... in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or ...

... SDET, or quality engineering roles, with a hands-on automation focus. * Genuine enthusiasm for AI-assisted and emerging test automation tools and techniques, this role is as much about mindset and ...

Qualifications * 5-8 years of experience in software test engineering, SDET, or quality engineering roles, with a strong hands-on automation background. * Required: Direct experience testing Software ...

The Opportunity We are seeking a skilled Software Engineer to join the Adobe Express Mobile App ... in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or ...

... SDET, or quality engineering roles, with a hands-on automation focus. * Genuine enthusiasm for AI-assisted and emerging test automation tools and techniques, this role is as much about mindset and ...

Lead Software Engineer in Test

San Francisco, CA ยท On-site

$180 - $230/hr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Retirement

  • PTO

Automate New Feature Testing: partner with engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle ... Have 7+ years of experience in test automation or software engineering, with at least 3 years in a ...

New

Lead Software Engineer in Test

San Francisco, CA ยท On-site

$180K - $220K/yr

  • Medical

  • Dental

  • Vision

  • Retirement

  • PTO

Automate New Feature Testing: partner with engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle ... Have 7+ years of experience in test automation or software engineering, with at least 3 years in a ...

Showing results 41-60

Software Development Engineer Test Sdet information

See Novato, CA salary details

$13

$64

$87

How much do software development engineer test sdet jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 13, 2026, the average hourly pay for software development engineer test sdet in Novato, CA is $64.29, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $56.44 and $72.84 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a software development engineer test SDET, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), you need strong programming skills in languages like Java, Python, or C#, along with a solid understanding of software testing methodologies and computer science fundamentals. Familiarity with automation testing frameworks (such as Selenium or TestNG), CI/CD tools, and version control systems is typically required, and certifications like ISTQB can be beneficial. Analytical thinking, attention to detail, and effective communication are key soft skills that help in identifying issues and collaborating with development teams. These skills and qualities are crucial for ensuring software quality, reducing bugs, and accelerating release cycles in fast-paced development environments.

What is the difference between Software Development Engineer Test Sdet vs Software Engineer in Test SDET?

AspectSoftware Development Engineer Test (SDET)Software Engineer in Test (SDET)
CredentialsBachelor's in CS or related field, certifications like ISTQBBachelor's in CS or related field, certifications like ISTQB
Work EnvironmentDevelops automated tests, collaborates with developers, focuses on testing frameworksDesigns testing tools, writes automated tests, often involved in CI/CD pipelines
Industry UsageCommon in tech companies, especially in QA and testing teamsUsed interchangeably with SDET, prevalent in software development firms

Both roles focus on automation testing and quality assurance, requiring similar skills and certifications. The main difference lies in terminology preference; 'Software Development Engineer Test' and 'Software Engineer in Test' are often used interchangeably in the industry to describe professionals who develop testing frameworks and automate quality checks within software teams.

How does a software development engineer test SDET typically collaborate with developers and QA teams during the software development lifecycle?

As an SDET, you will work closely with both developers and QA teams throughout the software development lifecycle. This collaboration involves participating in code reviews, designing and implementing automated test frameworks, and ensuring that new features are testable and meet quality standards. SDETs often write test cases alongside developers, provide feedback on code quality, and help troubleshoot issues that arise during testing. This cross-functional teamwork not only improves product quality but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and shared responsibility for delivering reliable software.

What is a software development engineer test SDET?

A Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) is a professional who combines the skills of a software developer and a tester. SDETs are responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining automated testing frameworks and tools to ensure the quality and functionality of software products. They work closely with development teams to identify test cases, create automation scripts, and sometimes contribute to the development of the application itself. SDETs play a critical role in continuous integration and delivery pipelines, helping organizations achieve faster and more reliable software releases.

QA Engineer (SDET) - AI, Data & Platform Quality

Extractable

San Francisco, CA โ€ข On-site

Full-time

Posted 24 days ago


Job description

Programmatic QA โ€ข Testing for LLMs & Agents โ€ข Data Quality โ€ข Platform Reliability
About Finalytics.ai
Finalytics.ai is the leading provider of personalization for the financial industry. Our platform combines data integrations, machine learning, and real-time technology to make digital experiences more relevant and higher-converting for credit unions and banks. We're a growing startup led by industry veterans, building the next generation of AI-driven personalization.
Why This Role Is Different
QA at Finalytics goes well beyond clicking through a UI. Our platform makes model-driven decisions, runs LLMs and agents that generate content and answer questions, and depends on data pipelines that feed those models every day - and all of it has to be tested programmatically.
We're looking for an engineering-minded QA team contributor to help build quality across three areas: our core personalization features, our LLM and agentic capabilities, and the data that powers them. This is a coding role, embedded in the same repo and release flow as our engineers that will report directly to the CTO. You won't just find bugs - you'll build the automated tests, evals, and data checks that let a small team ship trustworthy AI every sprint.
Our stack is Python/Django with a JavaScript personalization tag, backed by MySQL, Celery, BigQuery, and AWS.
What You'll Do
1. Programmatic QA of Core Features
  • Extend our scenario test runner - a proprietary harness that captures real production personalization requests and replays them across environments, asserting on expected algorithms and content selection. Grow it into automated regression across every client.
  • Write automated tests in Python with pytest across our tiers - unit, integration, HTTP, and end-to-end.
  • Build headless Playwright end-to-end tests to verify how personalized content and tracking render on real client pages.
  • Harden the pre-deploy quality gate and pre-commit checks that block bad changes automatically.

2. Testing & Standardizing LLMs and Agents
  • Design evals for non-deterministic AI features - our conversational analytics assistant, AI content builders, and generative SEO - measuring correctness, grounding, and regression across prompt and model versions.
  • Test the tool-calling and agentic layers - that function-calling loops pick the right tools and guardrails hold on adversarial input.
  • Validate our agent/MCP interface - contract conformance, rate limiting, authorization, and safe failure.
  • Help set our standards for shipping AI - catching hallucinations and drift, and benchmarking prompt/model changes before clients see them.

3. Data Quality Engineering
  • Build automated data-health checks that flag stale rollups, incomplete coverage, and broken aggregations before they hit a client dashboard.
  • Validate data pipelines end-to-end - rollups, funnel/rate/financial ingestion, and BigQuery - with drift detection across environments.
  • Guard model inputs so the signals our ML depends on stay accurate and complete.

4. Reliability & Performance
  • Track platform performance - response times, JS load, and page speed - and help keep it fast.
  • Stand up quality dashboards - uptime, coverage, data-health, and eval scores.

5. Collaboration & Bug Lifecycle
  • Work in the codebase alongside engineers to diagnose issues across development, release, and deployment.
  • Drive the bug lifecycle - reproduce, capture with a failing test, and verify the fix.

What We're Looking For
  • 3+ years in QA/SDET or test automation with a code-first approach.
  • Strong Python - you write clean test code and can read the app you're testing.
  • pytest (preferred) and browser automation (Playwright or Selenium).
  • API and contract testing experience.
  • A genuine interest in testing AI - comfortable with non-determinism, evals, and prompts.
  • Data-savvy - strong SQL, and the instinct to validate pipelines and reconcile data.
  • Building automated quality gates into the deploy and release process.

Nice to Have
  • Testing or evaluating LLM applications - evals, prompt regression, tool-calling agents, or MCP.
  • Data or analytics QA - BigQuery or ETL/rollup validation.
  • Django, MySQL, or Celery experience.
  • Security testing with SAST/DAST tooling.
  • Familiarity with machine learning.
  • Financial industry, personalization, or CMS/marketing-platform experience.
  • Familiarity with AWS.
  • SaaS startup experience on a fast-moving, multi-tenant platform.

Why Finalytics
  • Frontier work - help define what QA means for AI, agents, and data-driven personalization in finance.
  • Direct impact - help shape how quality works across the platform, reporting straight to the CTO.
  • Automation-first culture - your work is code, in the same repo and release flow as engineering.
  • Remote-first, collaborative, low-ego team growing with a scaling fintech.