QA Tester

QA Tester postings here ask for the same core work: playing builds against test plans, reproducing defects, writing them up so a programmer can act on them, and checking the fix afterwards. Bug tracking and playtesting appear in almost every advert. A growing number add scripting or test automation, because a regression pass on a live game cannot be done by hand every week.

The employers vary. Some adverts come from studios running games that are already live, where QA covers every update and patch. Others come from teams working towards a release milestone. Seniority varies too: a few postings are for a senior tester inside a development team, others for a Head of Quality Assurance who builds the process and the team around it.

The line to a QA Manager runs through responsibility. A tester finds and documents defects. A manager decides what gets tested, with which coverage, and reports quality to production. Many studios hire for the first and promote into the second.