[Hiring] Software Development Engineer in Test @Alpen Labs

Role Description

As a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET), you will serve as the quality gate between engineering and production, ensuring every release meets the standards required for users entrusting us with their Bitcoin.

Working at the intersection of engineering and product, you will:

• Develop automated testing frameworks.
• Define release validation strategies.
• Evaluate software readiness across our blockchain infrastructure and developer tooling.
• Develop a deep understanding of user workflows and translate them into scalable automated tests.
• Continuously improve the quality, reliability, and performance of our systems.

This is more than a traditional automation role. You'll be responsible for ensuring we test the right things—not simply more things—using sound engineering judgment to balance product quality, release velocity, and user impact in a fast-moving startup environment.

We value engineers who embrace modern AI tools to build better testing systems and deliver higher-quality software faster.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background with extensive experience building automated testing frameworks.
• 4+ years of experience as an SDET, QA Automation Engineer, or similar software quality engineering role, leveraging AI to build and scale QA automation for large-scale production systems.
• Proven experience testing production software in Web3, blockchain, fintech, or other high-reliability distributed systems.
• Hands-on experience with backend, API, integration, and end-to-end testing.
• Strong proficiency with Python for automation and API testing.
• Experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience working with Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud-native environments.
• Ability to read and understand Rust code to effectively reason about system architecture and behavior.
• Familiarity with EVM-based systems; experience with Bitcoin infrastructure, bridges, or zero-knowledge systems is a strong plus.
• Strong understanding of regression testing, release management, and risk-based testing methodologies.
• Experience collaborating closely with engineering and product teams throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or similar) to accelerate QA automation, generate test cases, improve test coverage, optimize CI/CD pipelines, and enhance engineering productivity is strongly preferred.

Personal Qualities

• Thinks like both an engineer and an end user, balancing technical rigor with practical product quality.
• Exercises sound judgment about what should—and should not—block a production release.
• Curious and analytical, with a passion for understanding complex distributed systems.
• Highly detail-oriented and methodical when investigating defects and edge cases.
• Strong communicator who collaborates effectively across engineering and product teams.
• Comfortable operating independently in a fast-paced startup environment with evolving priorities.
• Continuously explores new technologies and AI-powered workflows to improve software quality and engineering efficiency.
• Takes ownership of product quality and continuously seeks opportunities to improve testing processes.