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Join ShakersShakers for expert talent
Work as a Test Automation Engineer by project
Projects where the framework is yours: what gets automated, at which point of the pipeline the suite runs and what blocks the release when something breaks. Shakers connects you with teams that still test every regression by hand.
What gets read about the role is either the ISTQB certification syllabus or the job ad that explains it in English. Neither tells you how a real team's suite gets automated in Spain, commit by commit and release by release. Here is that.
- Higher-paying projects
- More continuity between projects
- Greater recognition for your experience
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Join ShakersThe decisions a Test Automation Engineer owns every week
A Test Automation Engineer designs, builds and sustains a team's test framework: they write the Playwright, Cypress or Selenium suites that run on their own in the CI/CD pipeline, catch regression before the release and leave a coverage report. Their boundary with the QA Engineer is the object: the criteria of what to test is set by QA; the system that executes it with nobody in front, by this role. Framework, CI/CD and stable suites are their daily workshop.
You decide what gets automated first (smoke and regression) and what stays manual and exploratory, which framework the suite runs on and where in the pipeline it executes and blocks. You also decide what the framework refuses: an unstable test goes to quarantine, not the release. The product belongs to the team; the suite that protects it is yours.
PlaywrightCypressSeleniumTypeScriptPythonJavaPytestCI/CDGitHub ActionsJenkinsPostmanAppiumDockerSQLGitJira
PlaywrightCypressSeleniumE2E testsAPI testingRegression testsCI/CDCoverage reports
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 Test Automation Engineer delivers at Shakers
The brief arrives with the regression
Shakers is hiring infrastructure: the project arrives with the team that tests every release by hand, not with a list of technologies.
Suites that hold themselves up
The first smoke and regression cases running in the client's pipeline, with stable selectors and a coverage report on every run.
The suite lives in CI/CD
The team's GitHub Actions or Jenkins run your tests on every commit: the result is visible, auditable and blocks the release when it should.
Frameworks sustained, not recordings
Having maintained real suites and knowing how to tell a flaky: what broke, why and what you changed so it stopped breaking.
What gets automated and what does not
Choosing by repetition and risk, not fashion. Sometimes the honest answer is a manual test that explores, and defending it.
Where your brief ends
You build the how; what to test is set by QA and the pipeline is held by DevOps. If the project needs something else, you say so at kickoff.
Frequently asked questions
Any other questions? Write to us and we will reply.
What does a Test Automation Engineer do each day?
They build and maintain the test framework: they write suites, integrate them into the pipeline so they run on every commit and keep them stable as the application changes.
Which tools get used daily?
Playwright, Cypress or Selenium depending on the house; TypeScript, Python or Java as language; GitHub Actions or Jenkins as the runner and Postman for API tests. The framework belongs to the client.
How do you move from manual QA to Test Automation Engineer?
By automating the regression you already run by hand: nobody knows better what repeats. First the language of the house, then the framework; the ISTQB CTAL-TAE seals the level.
How much does a Test Automation Engineer earn by project?
The market and scope set it: how many suites you sustain, which part of the pipeline your work covers and whether there is a quality on-call. At Shakers you agree the budget before accepting.
Is AI going to replace automated testing?
AI already generates cases and repairs selectors, but the framework does not remove criteria: it removes repetition. Deciding what deserves automation and what stays manual is still engineering work.
How do you join Shakers as a Test Automation Engineer?
You create your profile, pass the certification process and enter the collective: only 4 percent make it. Then you choose which automation projects you take on.
The daily shape of the craft
The suite you review before the merge, the flaky that goes into quarantine before it breaks a release and Friday's coverage report. Less manual repetition and more framework that protects on its own.
The tools are the craft
243 active tech job ads in Spain mention test automation, according to Shakers market analysis (n=31,162, September 2026). The stack has already turned: playwright (279) ahead of selenium (194), with cypress (248) in between.
How people get here
Two frequent doors: the manual QA who automates the regression they already ran, and the developer who cares for their own tests. The ISTQB CTAL-TAE seal accredits the level in both.
What this role is not
You do not decide alone what gets tested: the criteria is set by QA; you build the how that runs with nobody in front of it. If the brief is the whole pipeline, the page is DevOps'.
The roles your test framework crosses
Five roles cross your path as you build the test framework, from the one who decides what to test to the one who holds the pipeline.
QA Engineer
Owns the criteria: what to test, when and how deeply. Your framework runs their decisions; when the pain is the what and not the how, the brief is theirs.
DevOps Engineer
Owns the pipeline where your suite lives: if the brief is building the road of the software and not its tests, the project passes to their page.
Backend Developer
Writes the application your suites exercise: their unit tests are born with the code and yours test it end to end.
SRE
Holds the production your suite protects: when what breaks is no longer the release but the system itself, the on-call becomes theirs.
Platform Engineer
Paves the road your suite travels: self-service environments and runners once the team scales and testing spreads across it.
Boundaries between these roles are agreed per project: the job title doesn't set them.
Take the next step with Shakers
Want projects where the suite is yours?
Pass Shakers certification and choose which automation projects you take on.
