Sr. QA Engineer, Apple

New York 3 days agoContractor External
Negotiable
A recognized Media company is hiring a Senior QA, Apple for a long-term contract in New York. This role requires onsite presence 3 days per week. Key Responsibilities • Lead the design and execution of a comprehensive QA strategy for our Apple SDKs, covering iOS and tvOS platforms. • Develop and maintain robust test coverage across functional, regression, performance, and exploratory domains. • Drive improvements in QoE KPIs (e.g., video start time, rebuffering ratio, playback failures) by proactively identifying risks and validating across device variants and OS versions. • Investigate and resolve platform-specific issues related to AVFoundation, FairPlay DRM, AirPlay, and video rendering behavior. • Collaborate closely with iOS/tvOS developers, product managers, and QA peers to ensure testability and quality outcomes. • Actively participate in agile ceremonies and cross-functional planning discussions, representing QA priorities and quality risks. • Own defect management processes and drive triage discussions with developers and stakeholders. Design new test scenarios based on limited information, and effectively reproduce intermittent or hard-to-find bugs consistently. • Validate playback across multiple Apple OS versions and device generations, including 4K and HDR scenarios. • Enhance automation coverage and contribute to CI pipeline integration using Apple tooling and device farms. • Improve and maintain automation frameworks for both UI and backend validations, ensuring alignment with CI/CD pipelines. • Support release certification processes, including device matrix validation, ad tracking, and media performance benchmarks. • Contribute to the evolution of QA best practices and promote a culture of engineering excellence in mobile media. Qualifications • 4+ years of experience in QA engineering, with a strong focus on iOS and/or tvOS platforms. • Skill in detecting and ccurately reporting visual artifacts, audio/video synchronization issues, and general quality degradation of streamed content. • Good awareness of Apple device capabilities relating to Airplay, Homepods and other technologies. • Proficiency in XCTest, XCUITest, Appium, and media debugging tools such as Xcode Instruments and Charles Proxy for simulating varied network conditions. • Experience working in CI/CD environments with tools like GitHub Actions, Jenkins, QMetry, and Jira. • Prior experience in OTT, DRM (e.g., FairPlay), or video playback performance testing. • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills across diverse device models and OS versions. • Excellent communication and collaboration skills within distributed engineering teams. • Proven ability to balance quality, delivery speed, and pragmatism in a dynamic development environment. Preferred Qualifications • Scripting experience (e.g., Python, Bash, Swift) to support automation and infrastructure. • Familiarity with AirPlay behavior, Dolby Vision/HDR10 playback, and accessibility compliance. • A good understanding of video streaming technologies like HLS, and familiarity with types of Video/Audio codec for quality validation. • Experience with testing ad integration (e.g., VAST/SSAI) to ensure seamless ad breaks, proper ad loading, and accurate metrics reporting. • Experience validating structured data (e.g., XML, JSON) and APIs (REST/SOAP) for backend playback services. • Demonstrated commitment to delivering seamless, high-quality streaming experiences across the Apple ecosystem.