About Niche

We believe people’s lives are made better by having the right resources to inform their biggest life decisions. Niche is the best place to research U.S. colleges, schools, neighborhoods, and companies. Every month, millions of people use our easy-to-read and comprehensive reports cards, rankings, and reviews to choose the right schools, neighborhoods, and companies for them.

Niche.com is all about finding where you fit in and that mission inspires how we operate every day in our office. On top of that, we want Niche to be a place people truly enjoy working.

About the Role

We’re looking for a driven, resourceful, and systematic Quality Assurance Analyst to join our growing team. The focus of the QA Analyst role is the testing of our code, data, and overall site security. Coordinate with developers, the data team and the rest of the QA team to design and execute tests that root out bugs and keep our website safe from harm.

During the 1st Month:

• Collaborate with various team members to learn about how your role fits within the team, the tech department, and Niche
• Shadow Quality Assurance team members to learn more about our tech stack, the products we support, and our development life cycle
• Conduct exploratory testing to uncover defects in new features for web and mobile—in other words, try to break stuff

Within 3 Months:

• Join a product team and begin working within an Agile development framework
• Solidify understanding of our tech stack, developing a clear mental model of how its layers interact
• Take business requirements and turn them into robust, focused test plans
• Participate in smoke testing of code changes slated for deployment

Within 6 Months:

• Create and execute test plans for data updates
• Grow as a contributing member of a product team, providing reasonable estimates for the testing effort required in various projects
• Provide context and insights about product team work to your functional team
• Take initiative to give feedback on test plans developed by QA team members
• Suggest enhancements to Quality Assurance team standards and practices
• Provide suggestions for what aspects of test plans should be converted into automated regression tests

Within 12 Months:

• Deploy tested releases to production
• Assist in training and mentoring newer hires
• Serve as a subject matter expert for at least one major area of the product
• Research and provide insights into industry best practices with relation to Quality Assurance

What We Are Looking For:

• A love for finding bugs and making software bullet-proof
• An empirical frame of reference (learning by running experiments)
• Deeply curious and eager to self-educate on technical matters
• Demonstrated ability and desire to learn new skills and take on responsibilities quickly
• Highly tech-savvy, as demonstrated by extracurricular tech projects
• Basic knowledge of SQL (PostgreSQL preferred)
• Able to convey criticism in a helpful manner
• Systematic, analytical, and critical thinker who is not afraid to ask questions
• Excellent writing skills

Why Niche?

• Full time, salaried position with competitive compensation
• Comprehensive health plan, including vision and dental, provided at no cost to the employee
• 20 PTO days, 10 Paid Holidays and 3 Volunteer Days Off per year
• Parental leave
• Stock options and SIMPLE IRA Employer Match
• Your ideas and work will make an immediate impact on our company and millions of users

Niche will only employ those who are legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future for this opening.

Candidates only.  No recruiters or agencies, please. All of our open positions are located in our Pittsburgh, PA office. Sorry, we do not offer relocation assistance.

Niche is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive, innovative environment with the best employees. Therefore, we provide employment opportunities without regard to age, race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other protected status in accordance with applicable law.

If there are preparations we can make to help ensure you have a comfortable and positive interview experience, please let us know.