Staff Augmentation
Automation EngineersVetted. Embedded. Ready in Days.
Playwright and Selenium specialists who build frameworks your team can actually maintain, page objects, stable selectors, parallel execution, CI/CD integration, and who leave documentation, not dependency.
Experience levels
Mid · Senior · Lead
Engagement model
Full-time dedicated, billed monthly
Typical start
Typically within days of a scoping call
Recruitment fee
Zero, monthly billing only
Core stack & skills
Framework owners, not test writers
The difference between an Automation engagement that pays off and one that quietly fails is almost never the number of tests written.
The difference between an Automation engagement that pays off and one that quietly fails is almost never the number of tests written. It is whether somebody owns the architecture. Suites collapse because nobody was responsible for the selector contract, the test data strategy, the runtime budget or the flake backlog, and each of those is an ownership problem before it is a technical one.
An embedded Automation Engineer from our team owns those decisions. They negotiate the data-testid contract with your frontend developers, build API-driven data setup so tests are independent, keep the suite inside a runtime budget that fits your merge gate, and treat every flaky test as a defect with a root cause rather than a candidate for a retry.
How we vet, and why it is not a CV screen
Every Engineer is assessed by our Senior QA leadership before they reach a client, and the assessment is practical rather than biographical.
Every Engineer is assessed by our Senior QA leadership before they reach a client, and the assessment is practical rather than biographical. Candidates work through problems from real engagements: diagnose why this suite is flaky, design coverage for this feature under time pressure, review this test code and say what you would change. A CV tells you what someone has been near. A working session tells you how they think when the answer is not obvious.
We also screen for the things that decide whether an embedded Engineer succeeds: whether they write a defect report a developer can act on, whether they push back when a requirement is ambiguous, and whether they can explain a technical risk to a product owner without either patronising them or hiding behind jargon. Those matter more than tool familiarity, which is learnable in a fortnight.
Stack and typical first work
Our default is Playwright with TypeScript, and we build in Selenium with Java, Python or C#, or Cypress, where that is what your team maintains.
Our default is Playwright with TypeScript, and we build in Selenium with Java, Python or C#, or Cypress, where that is what your team maintains. The framework belongs in the language your Engineers read, not the one currently in fashion.
First work usually falls into one of three shapes. Greenfield: architecture, selector contract and CI wiring first, then a thin vertical slice covering one critical journey end to end before coverage scales. Rescue: trace-based diagnosis of an existing flaky suite, fixing the handful of root causes behind most intermittent failures until the gate is believed again. Or migration: moving off a legacy suite side by side, highest-value journeys first, with both suites gating releases until parity is proven. The full engagement is described under Automation Testing.
How the commercials work
Engagements are billed as a monthly rate per Engineer, with no separate recruitment fee and no placement charge.
Engagements are billed as a monthly rate per Engineer, with no separate recruitment fee and no placement charge. You interview the person we match before anything starts, and you can decline, matching is our job, not a fait accompli. An NDA is available before you share any details, and everything the Engineer produces lives in your repositories under your ownership.
Typical time to start is days after a scoping call rather than the weeks or months a hiring process takes, because we are matching from an existing team rather than opening a search. If the engagement needs to end, it ends with a handover rather than a cliff. Full commercial detail, including how project and fractional models compare, is on the pricing page.
Engagement path
From first call to embedded Engineer
Four steps, typically days rather than the weeks a hiring process takes.
Scoping call
Your stack, CI, existing suite if any, release cadence and where Automation is expected to pay off first. A Senior Automation Engineer takes the call.
Matching
Matched on framework, language and domain, with overlap hours agreed rather than assumed. We say so if the right person is not free.
You interview
Technical interview against your real problems. Declining costs nothing and is a normal outcome of honest matching.
Architecture, then coverage
Selector contract, data strategy and CI wiring land first, then coverage grows sprint by sprint in the order the risk map dictates.
Deliverables
What the engagement includes
Everything the Engineer produces lives in your repositories and your tooling, under your ownership.
Handover pack
6 artefacts · yours to keep
A named Automation Engineer owning framework architecture inside your team
A framework in your repository, under your licence, in your team's language
CI integration with a runtime budget that fits your merge gate
An agreed selector contract negotiated with your frontend developers
API-driven test data so specs run independently and in any order
A contribution guide and pairing so your developers can extend the suite
Self-check
Signs you need this role
If more than one of these is true, it is usually cheaper to fix now than after the next release.
Automation exists but nobody owns its architecture or its flake backlog
The suite is slow enough that people skip it under deadline pressure
Coverage stopped growing when the Engineer who built the framework left
Red builds are re-run as a first response rather than investigated
A migration off a legacy suite keeps being postponed for lack of an owner
A Senior Engineer replies within one business day. NDA first.
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers, written the way we'd say them on a call.
Still curious? Talk to usKeep reading
Where to go next
Teams hiring Automation Engineers usually read these next.
Need Automation Engineers?
Share your stack and timeline, interview matched Engineers this week.
- A Senior Engineer replies, not a sales layer
- Within one business day, every time
- NDA available before you share any details
16+
Years QA leadership
16
Testing disciplines
6
Markets served
1
Business day to reply
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