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Permanent & Contract · Canada

Hire QA & Automation Engineers

Screened for testers who automate what actually breaks, not just happy paths.

Why STACK IT

Built to hire QA and automation engineers, not fill seats.

Most agencies optimize for volume. We optimize for the one hire who’s right, vetted by people who understand the work.

A calibrated 3–5 person shortlistTypically within five business days, candidates chosen for your team, not a résumé flood.

Recruiters who speak test

We screen for how a tester decides what to automate and what to leave, and how they reason about risk and coverage. No candidate reaches you without two recruiters signing off.

Every candidate is real

Fake profiles, proxy interviews, and AI-assisted answers are everywhere in tech hiring. We meet each candidate face-to-face on video and screen for AI patterns, so who you interview is who shows up.

Screened to stay, not just to start

A hire that leaves in a year isn't a win. We align trajectory, growth, and total comp so the engineer grows with your team instead of moving on.

You pay only when they start

Success-based and non-exclusive, no upfront fees, no retainers. We invoice on your engineer's first day, not before.

How we screen

The QA & Automation Engineers Evaluation Rubric.

We screen for how QA and automation engineers actually think. Every shortlist is judged against the same five criteria that predict whether someone delivers in your codebase.

Open any criterion to see what separates a strong hire

Strong signal

Automates the high-risk, high-churn paths first and knows what is cheaper to test by hand.

Falls short

Automates everything or nothing, with a brittle suite no one trusts.

Strong signal

Targets coverage by risk and impact, not by chasing a percentage.

Falls short

Reports a high coverage number while the risky paths go untested.

Strong signal

Knows their automation stack deeply and keeps the suite fast and stable.

Falls short

Copies snippets without understanding why tests flake or slow down.

Strong signal

Tracks a flaky or failing test to its real cause and makes it reliable.

Falls short

Re-runs until it passes and moves on, leaving the flake in place.

Strong signal

Works with developers to catch issues early and build quality in, not just file bugs.

Falls short

Throws defects over the wall late, after the cost of the fix has climbed.

A candidate only reaches your shortlist after they meet all of our standards.

Hire QA and automation engineers with confidence.

Real technical screening, a calibrated shortlist in days, and candidates vetted for fit, not just resumes. Let’s start your search.

  • Pay only when they start
  • First candidates in 24–48 hrs
  • Screened for skills and fit

Specializations

QA & Automation Engineers, across your whole stack.

Whatever your team runs on, we screen for the people who do the work right.

Test Automation

End-to-end suites that teams actually trust.

Selenium Playwright Cypress

API Testing

Contract and integration testing for services.

Postman REST

Performance Testing

Load and stress testing before users find the limit.

JMeter k6

CI/CD & Pipelines

Tests wired into the pipeline, fast and reliable.

Jenkins GitHub Actions

Mobile & Cross-Browser

Coverage across devices and browsers.

Appium BrowserStack

Test Strategy & Coverage

Risk-based plans that focus effort where it counts.

Risk-based Coverage

The cost of waiting

An open role isn’t free.

An empty seat doesn’t delay work, it redistributes it. The longer the search drags, the more it costs.

Every week a role stays open, the cost lands on the team you already have.

  • Work waits in the backlog while priorities pile up.
  • They cover work that isn’t theirs, until something slips.
  • The longer the seat stays empty, the harder the restart.

Speed isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between a gap and a setback.

Time to fill this role

Industry average National, by experience & seniority
~62 days
With STACK IT typical placement
2–3 weeks
48 hrs
First qualified candidate
3–5 days
Calibrated shortlist
18%
Fewer delivery delays once they start

How you hire

Permanent or contract, your call.

Two models, one standard of quality. Bring on the QA and automation engineers you need the way that fits your timeline and budget.

Permanent

Permanent hire

Best when you’re building the team for the long term.

  • You only pay when they start, success-based, no upfront fee.
  • Full-cycle vetting for technical and cultural fit.
  • Backed by our 90-day replacement guarantee.
OR

Contract

Contract hire

Best when you need delivery capacity now, without adding headcount.

  • We’re the employer of record: payroll, compliance, and onboarding handled.
  • Most contractors placed in 5–10 business days.
  • Convert to permanent anytime, with a buyout discount that grows each month.

Not sure which fits? Compare permanent vs. contract

FAQ

Hiring QA and automation engineers, answered.

The questions teams usually ask before starting a search with us.

We test automation judgment, not just framework names. We walk through test suites a candidate has built, probe how they decided what to automate and what to leave manual, how they handled flaky tests, and how they wired testing into CI. Good automation is coverage that catches real regressions, not a green dashboard that tests nothing important.

Strategy. A strong QA automation engineer knows what is worth automating and builds suites a team trusts, versus someone who automates everything and ends up with brittle, ignored tests. We screen for that judgment.

Both. Standing up a test framework can fit contract, while owning quality across a growing codebase is usually permanent.

You will typically see a first vetted candidate within 24 to 48 hours and a calibrated shortlist within about five business days.

Permanent hires are success-based: you pay only when someone starts, with no upfront fee, backed by our 90-day guarantee. Contract runs on a transparent hourly rate. We will walk you through the specifics on an intro call.

Still have a question? Talk to a recruiter

Bill 190 compliant by default.

Every search keeps your hiring audit-ready in Ontario.

See the Bill 190 checklist
  • Salary-range disclosure
  • AI-use transparency
  • Decisions within 45 days