Associate Software Quality Engineer

About the Role Ascend Learning is hiring an entry-level Associate Software Quality Engineer to join the Software Quality Engineer team. The Associate Quality Engineer will contribute to ensuring our Healthcare products meet established quality standards including reliability, usability, and performance. The role requires being thorough and collaborating to maintain high quality across the product lifecycle.

What You'll Do

• Support Load & Performance (LnP) testing activities: Execute and maintain platform-level tests to help ensure SLA compliance
• Develop and enhance service-level JMeter tests with guidance to identify issues early in the SDLC
• Assist in integrating performance tests into CI/CD pipelines
• Contribute to AI-enabled quality engineering practices: Use AI tools to generate and optimize test cases, scripts, and test data
• Leverage AI to assist with performance analysis, anomaly detection, and root cause investigation
• Support team adoption of AI tools to improve productivity and coverage
• Assist in evolving testing toward white-box and shift-left practices: Contribute to API and service-level validation frameworks
• Work with developers to improve testability and observability
• Participate in the end-to-end testing lifecycle: Functional, integration, regression, API, and performance testing
• Engage in Agile ceremonies and collaborate with cross-functional teams
• Support quality engineering standards and reporting: Help identify performance and reliability issues
• Track and report key metrics (response time, throughput, error rates)

What We're Looking For

• High school diploma or GED required; Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience preferred
• Performance engineering experience
• Experience with JMeter
• AI-assisted development/testing preferred
• Familiarity with tools like GitHub Copilot and Claude for test generation and optimization
• Ability to leverage AI for productivity and quality improvements
• White-box and API testing or development background preferred
• Understanding of system internals, microservices, and distributed systems
• Ability to collaborate with developers and validate at service level
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills

Nice to Have

• AI-assisted quality engineering practices experience
• Experience with AI tools for test generation and optimization (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude)

Compensation & Benefits

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• On-site workout facilities (Leawood, Gilbert, Burlington)
• Community outreach groups
• Tuition reimbursement