Junior Test Engineer

Salary Range: 90000 to 110000 (Currency: USD) (Pay period: per-year-salary)

hatch I.T. is partnering with Expression to find a Junior Test Engineer (VOR). See details below:

About The Role:

Expression is seeking a Junior Test Engineer to help improve the quality, reliability, and usability of VOR, their platform for connecting data, AI agents, and workflows to support complex operational needs.

You will work alongside developers, product owners, and experienced engineers to test web applications, APIs, data integrations, and AI-enabled workflows. You will help investigate unexpected behavior, identify gaps in the user experience, and build repeatable ways to verify that the product works.

They are looking for someone who asks good questions, enjoys figuring out how systems behave, and is eager to use AI and automation in their work. Test plans provide a starting point; curiosity and sound judgment help uncover the problems they miss. You do not need to arrive as an automation expert, but you should want to learn how to turn repetitive testing into reliable automated checks.

Location and Clearance:

• Clearance: Eligibility to obtain a clearance is required.
• Location: Hybrid or Remote. Our HQ is located at the heart of Washington, DC. If you are local you are welcome to use our office and all the perks that it offers.

About the Company:

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Washington DC, Expression provides data fusion, data analytics, software engineering, information technology, and electromagnetic spectrum management solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, and national security community. Expression’s “Perpetual Innovation” culture focuses on creating immediate and sustainable value for their clients via agile delivery of tailored solutions built through constant engagement with their clients. Expression was ranked #1 on the Washington Technology 2018's Fast 50 list of fastest growing small business Government contractors and a Top 20 Big Data Solutions Provider by CIO Review.

Responsibilities:

• Test VOR’s web interfaces, APIs, and workflows, including how users connect data sources, configure tools and agents, and review workflow results.
• Explore real user scenarios, edge cases, and failure conditions to find issues beyond documented acceptance criteria.
• Work with developers and product owners to clarify expected behavior and identify quality risks early.
• Document defects with clear reproduction steps, expected and actual results, and useful evidence such as screenshots, logs, or API responses.
• Use approved AI tools to help explore test scenarios, generate test data, draft automation, and investigate failures. Review and verify their output.
• Build and maintain automated tests with guidance from experienced engineers, prioritizing repeatable checks that protect important user journeys.
• Help evaluate AI-enabled features for grounded responses, useful citations, appropriate tool behavior, and consistent handling of uncertainty.
• Test permissions, data boundaries, approval steps, and error recovery to help ensure workflows behave appropriately.
• Investigate failed tests, distinguish product defects from test or environment issues, and verify fixes.
• Contribute clear testing evidence and communicate remaining risks to support release decisions.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related fields and 1 year of professional experience.
• 2+ years of foundational experience with software testing or development through employment, internships, coursework, or personal projects.
• Basic understanding of functional, regression, and exploratory testing.
• Ability to translate a user goal or requirement into meaningful test scenarios, including unexpected inputs and failure cases.
• Willingness to learn scripting and test automation using languages such as Python or JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Openness to using AI tools thoughtfully, checking their work, and improving your approach through experimentation.
• Strong analytical skills and the persistence to investigate an issue when the cause is unclear.
• Ability to explain findings clearly and collaborate constructively with others.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Exposure to browser automation tools such as Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium.
• Experience testing APIs with tools such as Postman, curl, or automated test frameworks.
• Familiarity with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and reading application logs.
• Basic knowledge of SQL, data validation, or testing data ingestion and retrieval.
• Experience using AI coding assistants or testing applications that incorporate language models.
• Exposure to containers, cloud environments, or enterprise software.
• Eligibility to obtain a U.S. security clearance.