Álvaro
Data Scientist
“In a climate this uncertain, Shakers gives you a layer of reassurance and confidence. What I like most, without a doubt, is the flexibility and getting to work on top-tier projects.”
Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Build your career as a QA Tester and QA Engineer
Projects where the quality is you: what gets tested, against which criteria and which regression gets automated. Shakers connects you with teams that release every week and want QA inside their flow, not at the end.
What gets read about the craft is either the course syllabus or the eternal manual-versus-automation debate. Neither tells you how a real team's QA works by project: what gets tested, what gets automated and who signs off the criteria. Here is that.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
+3,000
Tech projects published on Shakers
+90
Tech, Product and Data specialisms are part of Shakers
6 months
Average length of a project with Shakers
4.7/5
Our AI Builders' satisfaction on Trustpilot
AI Builder careers powered by Shakers
See how other AI Builders access better projects, build their reputation and grow their careers.
Amelia
AI Agent Developer
“I have been building AI agents for years. Thanks to Shakers I stopped chasing clients and started genuinely choosing which projects I wanted to work on. I work with some of the best companies in Europe, at my own rate, and I focus on what I am good at and what I love: building.”
Join Shakers
Luz
Backend Developer & Data Engineer
“Shakers adds a lot of value because it connects you with sharper projects, already filtered and better defined. It saves you a big part of the upfront work of understanding the client, quoting and weighing up whether it is worth it, and that means that as a contractor you can go far more directly to the opportunities that genuinely fit you.”
Join Shakers
Rubén
Software Developer
“Life as a contractor has a lot going on and it is not always easy. We like to focus on what we are good at, but you also have to manage clients, invoicing and go looking for work. For me, Shakers has been key because it does that prospecting for me, it gives the client confidence from the very first moment, and it lets us be part of a community with real enthusiasm.”
Join Shakers
Alejandro
AI Developer
“Shakers was key to getting my company off the ground: it gave me the flexibility to keep contracting while I built my next chapter. Without Shakers, I would have had to raise funding or push the project back.”
Join Shakers
Toño
Product Designer
“With Shakers I have landed recurring projects that give me peace of mind and room to grow professionally. It is not just about reaching quality clients: it is feeling that you have a network behind you, one that connects you with real opportunities and helps you move forward as a freelancer.”
Join ShakersThe decisions a QA Engineer owns every week
A QA Engineer answers for product quality: they decide what to test and against which criteria, turn requirements into test cases and chase the defect to its root, by hand or automated. The boundary: the QA judges what deserves a test and evaluates the result; the Test Automation Engineer builds the framework that runs those tests hands-free. Their daily workshop: Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Postman, SQL and Jira. The market no longer interviews pure manual QA: automating the regression is part of the craft.
You decide what enters the regression and what gets checked by hand, what severity each defect has and what goes untested because the risk does not pay for it. You also decide what quality blocks: a story without acceptance criteria does not pass. The product belongs to the team; the quality criteria are yours.
SeleniumPlaywrightCypressPythonJavaScriptTypeScriptJavaSQLPostmanPytestAPI testingJiraCI/CDAppiumGitAgile/Scrum
Test planTest casesRegressionDefectsPlaywrightISTQB
Free to join, no hidden fees
How Shakers works for talent
Create your profile
Tell us who you are, what you can do, the projects you want to work on and what your availability and rate are.
Get your certification
We certify your experience and your use of AI so companies understand and trust what you bring.
Match with projects
We connect you with well-paid projects that fit your expertise and your preferences.
Software Engineering projects that live up to your expectations
Work on real projects, with teams that need your expertise, without wasting time looking for opportunities.
Projects that fit you
Work with companies that need your stack and experience to take their projects to production.
Opportunities that come to you
Our AI matching connects your profile with the projects that fit your preferences.
You build. Shakers handles the rest
Set your own terms based on your seniority. We manage contracts, payments and paperwork.
What a QA delivers on a Shakers project today
The brief arrives with the symptom
Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with the team that releases with fear, not with a list of technologies to memorise.
A net that runs by itself
The test plan for what is critical and the regression suite running in the client's pipeline. Every release carries its net, manual or automated.
Stories with clear acceptance
You turn requirements into acceptance criteria and the defect lands in Jira with steps, severity and evidence: whoever fixes it, works first time.
Tests told, not promised
Having held the quality of a real product and knowing how to tell it: which regression you automated, with which stack and what stopped breaking thanks to it.
The defect with root cause
Catching the symptom is easy; finding the cause and documenting it so it does not come back is not. Your defect card is the one developers thank you for.
Where your brief ends
Quality criteria and automated regression; neither the whole framework nor the pipeline. If the project needs Test Automation or DevOps, you say so at kickoff.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What is the day-to-day of a QA on a real project?
Stories refined with acceptance criteria, a regression that gets reviewed and defects documented with steps and severity. Less checking blind; more deciding what deserves a test.
Is AI going to replace QA?
AI generates cases and runs suites; deciding what deserves a test and judging the result stays human. The market confirms it: 493 active job ads in Spain ask for quality assurance.
How much does a QA Tester earn in Spain?
What a market with 493 active job ads mentioning quality assurance sets: it rises with automation and command of the stack. By project, the budget is agreed on scope before you accept.
How do you move from manual QA to automation?
By automating the regression you run by hand: Playwright or Cypress on the language you master, into a real project's pipeline. Your manual criteria are the edge: you know what is worth automating.
Can a junior QA, or one without experience, join the collective?
The filter is certification, not years: a junior with real test cases, an automated regression and well documented defects passes it just like a senior. ISTQB helps; it is not a requirement.
How do you join Shakers as a certified QA Engineer?
You create your profile, pass the certification process and enter the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which quality projects you take on.
The daily shape of the craft
A story refined, a regression reviewed, a defect with steps and severity. Less checking blind, more criteria.
The tools are the craft
493 active tech job ads in Spain mention quality assurance and 207 ask for a QA Engineer, per Shakers market analysis (n=31,162, September 2026). The stack has turned: Playwright in 279 job ads, Cypress in 248 and Selenium in 194. QA automation is not a separate territory: it is a skill the market takes for granted.
How people get here
Two doors: the manual tester who automates their own regression, and the developer who enjoys breaking software with criteria. ISTQB orders the vocabulary; projects, the career.
What this role is not
They do not fix the defect: they document it and return it to its author. If the brief is the whole framework, Test Automation Engineer; if the pipeline, DevOps. Your product is the criteria.
The roles a quality project crosses
Five roles cross your path as you look after a product's quality, from the one who builds the framework to the one who fixes what you find.
Test Automation Engineer
Builds the framework that runs the tests hands-free: when the brief is the automation infrastructure and not the criteria, the project is theirs.
Backend Developer
Fixes what you document: the defect with steps, severity and evidence lands in their queue. Quality and backend close the cycle of the defect together.
DevOps Engineer
Sustains the CI/CD where your automated regression runs: continuous quality. When the brake is in the deployment and not the tests, the brief starts there.
Full Stack Developer
Writes what you put to the test and signs the acceptance criteria with you: in small teams, the regression net you hold up is theirs too.
Java Developer
The QA of the financial sector shares a queue with them: banking and government release Java with regressions that allow no failure and audited tests.
Boundaries between these roles are agreed per project: the job title doesn't set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want to be the net for teams that release?
Pass Shakers certification and choose which quality projects you take on.
