QA Engineer resume example. Plus the keywords recruiters search for.
A QA engineer resume that shows the tests you automate, the time you save and the bugs that never reach customers — with the automation, API testing and ISTQB keywords engineering teams search for.
Reviewed by Nazir Elmurodov · Updated
/ The example
QA Engineer resume example.
Natalia Cruz
QA Engineer
Salt Lake City, UT · natalia.cruz@email.com · github.com/nataliacruz
Summary
QA engineer with 5 years in insurance and health software. I build test automation that runs in CI/CD on every pull request, plan testing around risk, and work inside Agile teams so quality is part of the sprint instead of a gate at the end.
Experience
QA Engineer, Bonneville Software · Mar 2023 – Present
- • Built a Playwright and TypeScript suite of 600 end-to-end tests that runs on every pull request in GitHub Actions
- • Cut regression testing from 3 days of manual work to 40 minutes, letting the team release weekly instead of monthly
- • Wrote 250 API tests in Postman collections that run in the pipeline, catching contract breaks before front-end work starts
- • Introduced risk-based test planning for each sprint; customer-reported defects fell from 18 to 5 a quarter
Software Test Analyst, Granite Peak Insurance · Jun 2021 – Feb 2023
- • Wrote and ran 400+ manual test cases in TestRail for a policy administration system
- • Handled defect tracking in Jira with clear reproduction steps, halving tickets returned as "cannot reproduce"
- • Automated 120 smoke tests with Selenium WebDriver and Java
- • Wrote SQL queries to set up test data and check back-end results
Education & certifications
B.S. Information Systems, University of Utah, 2021 · ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)
Skills
Playwright · Selenium · TypeScript · Java · Postman · API testing · TestRail · Jira · SQL · GitHub Actions
Natalia Cruz
QA Engineer
natalia.cruz@email.com · Salt Lake City, UT
github.com/nataliacruz
Summary
QA engineer with 5 years in insurance and health software. I build test automation that runs in CI/CD on every pull request, plan testing around risk, and work inside Agile teams so quality is part of the sprint instead of a gate at the end.
Experience
QA Engineer — Bonneville Software
Mar 2023 – Present
• Built a Playwright and TypeScript suite of 600 end-to-end tests that runs on every pull request in GitHub Actions
• Cut regression testing from 3 days of manual work to 40 minutes, letting the team release weekly instead of monthly
• Wrote 250 API tests in Postman collections that run in the pipeline, catching contract breaks before front-end work starts
• Introduced risk-based test planning for each sprint; customer-reported defects fell from 18 to 5 a quarter
Software Test Analyst — Granite Peak Insurance
Jun 2021 – Feb 2023
• Wrote and ran 400+ manual test cases in TestRail for a policy administration system
• Handled defect tracking in Jira with clear reproduction steps, halving tickets returned as "cannot reproduce"
• Automated 120 smoke tests with Selenium WebDriver and Java
• Wrote SQL queries to set up test data and check back-end results
Education
University of Utah
B.S. Information Systems · 2021
Certifications
ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)
Skills
Playwright, Selenium, TypeScript, Java, Postman, API testing, TestRail, Jira, SQL, GitHub Actions
Why it works
It shows both halves of QA work — automation and test planning — with the numbers that matter to an engineering manager: tests running in CI, regression time saved and fewer customer-reported defects. Tools and the ISTQB certification are named exactly as job posts write them.
Use this as your starting point
Opens in the editor with every section filled in. Swap in your own details and download a PDF or Word file free.
Start from this exampleSample resume. Names, companies and figures are illustrative.
/ Summary examples
Three summary examples. Pick the one closest to you.
Two or three lines: your level, your field and one result.
- Entry level
ISTQB Foundation Level certified tester with a year of manual testing for a web app and personal Playwright projects on GitHub. Detail-minded and clear in bug reports.
- Mid level
QA engineer with 5 years of manual and automated testing. I built a 600-test Playwright suite and cut regression from 3 days to 40 minutes.
- Senior
QA lead who has set test strategy for 4 product teams, built shared automation frameworks and mentored 6 testers into automation roles.
More for other jobs and situations (no experience, career change, senior): resume summary examples.
/ Bullet points
Bullet point examples. From duty to result.
Turn duties into results: what you did, how, and what changed.
Automation
Instead of: Wrote automated tests
Write: Built 600 Playwright end-to-end tests in TypeScript that run on every pull request
Speed
Instead of: Made testing faster
Write: Cut regression testing from 3 days of manual work to 40 minutes, enabling weekly releases
API testing
Instead of: Tested APIs
Write: Wrote 250 Postman API tests that run in the pipeline and catch contract breaks early
Test planning
Instead of: Planned tests
Write: Introduced risk-based sprint test planning; customer-reported defects fell from 18 to 5 a quarter
Defect reporting
Instead of: Logged bugs
Write: Wrote Jira defect reports with clear reproduction steps, halving "cannot reproduce" returns
Manual testing
Instead of: Did manual testing
Write: Wrote and ran 400+ manual test cases in TestRail for a policy administration system
/ Keywords
Keywords and skills for QA engineers.
These come up often in QA engineer job posts. Include only the ones you can back up in an interview, and use the exact wording from the post you're applying to.
- Test automation
- Playwright
- Selenium
- TypeScript
- Java
- API testing
- Postman
- Regression testing
- End-to-end tests
- Test planning
- Test cases
- TestRail
- Jira
- SQL
- CI/CD
- Agile
- Defect tracking
- ISTQB
/ ATS tips
ATS tips for QA engineers.
Show automation and judgment
Hiring managers want both: tests you've automated and how you decide what to test. One bullet about each helps.
Measure time saved and bugs prevented
Regression time, release frequency and customer-reported defects are the clearest results for QA work.
Name the framework and the language
"Playwright with TypeScript" or "Selenium with Java" is what recruiters search for. "Automation tools" isn't.
Mention where tests run
Tests in a CI/CD pipeline on every pull request show a more mature setup than tests run by hand before a release.
List the ISTQB level exactly
Write "ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL)" so both the full name and the abbreviation can be found.
How does your QA engineer resume compare?
Free ATS score, missing keywords and fixes in about 10 seconds.
/ Questions
QA Engineer resume FAQ.
Writing the cover letter too? See Natalia's cover letter, annotated
Is the ISTQB certification worth it for QA engineers?
It can help, especially early in your career or with employers that ask for it. The Foundation Level (CTFL) is the entry point and a prerequisite for ISTQB's higher levels. Automation experience usually matters more after a few years.
Should a QA resume focus on manual or automated testing?
Match the job post. Most QA engineer roles now expect some automation, but strong manual testing, test design and exploratory testing are still valuable. Show both if you do both.
QA engineer, SDET or test analyst — which title should I use?
Use the title you held. In your summary and bullets, describe the work in the language the post uses — automation framework, API testing, test strategy — where it's accurate.
How do I show test automation skills without a work example?
Link a GitHub repository with a small, well-organized test suite against a public demo app, and describe it in one bullet with the framework, language and what it covers.
Should I list bug counts?
Raw bug counts can mislead. Customer-reported defects going down, faster regression or more frequent releases are better signs of good QA.