QA Specialist (Education Platforms)

You don’t just find bugs you also want to understand why they occur. You dive into code, logs, and APIs, identify the root causes of issues, and collaborate with developers and Technical Product Managers to find structural solutions.

As a QA Engineer at SURF, you’ll work on digital services used daily by Dutch educational and research institutions. You’ll be involved from the start of every sprint, contribute ideas for technical improvements, and help our development teams build reliable and future-proof platforms.

Where you will work

SURF is the IT cooperative for Dutch education and research institutions. Together with them, we work on digital services and complex innovation challenges to improve the quality of education and research.

Within our Accessible and Open Education & Research (AOER) unit, we collaborate with institutions to develop smart solutions for flexible education, digital learning materials, and the sharing of educational data. As a QA Specialist, you’ll play your part in this effort.

The team you will join

You’ll become part of our Development Team: a relatively new and growing team of platform engineers, developers, and designers. We work closely together, share our knowledge, and help each other continuously improve our digital services.

As a QA Engineer, you’ll work on three of our services: Publinova, SURFsharekit, and edusources. You’ll interact daily with developers and Technical Product Managers and work closely with the team behind the Content Exchange Platform, on which these services run.

You’ll be involved in the development process from the very beginning. You’ll test new features, investigate bugs, and work with your colleagues to identify practical improvements. In this way, you’ll make a direct contribution to the quality of our products.

What you will do

As a QA Engineer, you monitor and improve the quality of Publinova, SURFsharekit, and edusources. You are involved in the development process from the very beginning and work closely with developers, Technical Product Managers, and external development partners.

• You evaluate user stories and acceptance criteria and translate them into concrete test scenarios.
• You perform acceptance, regression, and integration tests and identify risks early on.
• You investigate bugs at the technical level by analyzing code, logs, databases, and APIs.
• You report your findings clearly and coordinate with developers and Technical Product Managers on possible solutions.
• You analyze reported bugs and service desk requests and coordinate with external development partners as needed.
• You actively contribute ideas on improving test processes, quality assurance, and the reliability of our services.

Your skills and experience

You’re a hands-on QA Engineer who loves diving into the technical details. You enjoy tracking down bugs, investigating their causes, and working with developers to find solutions. You work meticulously, communicate clearly, and feel right at home in an Agile development environment.

Here’s what we’re looking for, at a minimum:

• Experience conducting acceptance and regression tests in an Agile/Scrum environment.
• Technical insight: you can read and understand code and use this to reproduce bugs and identify their causes.
• Experience with SQL for database analysis and API testing tools such as Postman.
• You can clearly report test results and findings to both developers and non-technical colleagues.
• You work independently, maintain a broad overview, and switch easily between different teams and departments.
• You have a command of Dutch at a minimum B2 level, both verbally and in writing, and can also express yourself well in English.

It is a plus if you:

• Have experience with test automation or are interested in developing your skills in this area.
• Have experience with end-to-end and integration testing or testing multiple services and platforms.
• Have personal experience as a developer or know how to program.
• Have an affinity for education, research, and social issues.

At SURF, we enjoy handling our own recruitment, so we do not appreciate unsolicited outreach.