Software Test Engineer

Location: Perth, WA

Work type: Hybrid

Employment type: Contract (12 months)

Ever wanted to be the test specialist behind one of the country's more ambitious engineering programs?

Horizon Digital is a Perth-based custom software and AI consultancy. We build complex, high-impact digital solutions for enterprise clients across government, resources, and private sector, and we do it fast, with agile delivery baked in from day one.

We're embedded with a major Perth-based client on a serious industrial transformation. The software our tester validates runs mission-critical AI and distributed systems in a high-consequence operational environment. Quality is on the critical path. The platform is past proof-of-concept and moving toward full deployment, and the systems that get it there need to behave reliably under real operational pressure.

We're looking for a Software Test Specialist to own the test strategy, build out automated test suites, and validate the ML-enabled services and distributed systems before they reach live operations.

What you'll be doing

• Building and owning the test strategy across the platform, from unit through to end-to-end
• Designing and maintaining automated test suites for distributed services and APIs
• Validating ML-enabled services: data flow, inference behaviour, and model output quality
• Running performance, load, and resilience tests under real operational pressure
• Wiring automated testing into CI/CD so regressions are caught before they reach the field
• Working closely with engineers and data scientists on testability and quality standards
• Leading defect analysis and root cause investigations when things go sideways

What you'll bring

• 4-8 years in software testing or quality engineering with real depth, not breadth
• Hands-on experience testing distributed and backend systems, not just UI
• Strong automated testing frameworks. You write test code, not just click through cases
• API and microservices testing, including contract testing and integration coverage
• Comfortable in containerised environments: Docker and Kubernetes
• Performance, load, and resilience testing using tools like k6, Locust, JMeter, or Gatling
• Linux comfortable, with scripting in Python or Bash
• CI/CD integration as a default way of working, not an afterthought

Desirable

• Validating ML-enabled services in production: data flow checks, inference assertions, drift detection
• Real-time, high-availability, or operational systems exposure
• Familiarity with GitHub Actions, Octopus Deploy, or Artifactory

Why Horizon Digital?

• Work on genuinely complex, cutting-edge AI and distributed systems
• Hybrid working with real flexibility
• A tight-knit, high-performing team that moves fast and backs each other
• Real ownership where your work directly shapes how mission-critical systems run
• 12-month engagement on a program that genuinely matters

Ready to keep mission-critical AI honest before it hits live operations? Apply now or send your CV to ***email_hidden***