SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) Manager

Job Description

Quick Facts

• Work Policy: Remote (Czech Republic via Employer of Record; optional flexible hybrid access to offices in Prague and upcoming Brno R&D hub; collaborates across a 7–8 hour offset with US teams)
• Job Type: Full Time
• Salary Range: CZK 150,000 – CZK 220,000 gross per month (plus performance bonus eligibility)
• Experience Level: 8+ years in software engineering or test automation, including 3+ years leading developers or SDETs
• Core Tech Stack: Python 3, PyTest, Playwright, SQL, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Git, CI/CD (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Jenkins), Qase, TestRail

About 8am

8am develops purpose-built software that enables legal, accounting, and service-based businesses to operate more efficiently, maintain compliance, and drive profitable growth. Trusted every day by more than 250,000 professionals across the United States, the platform powers operational workflows, client experiences, and payments. As the organization scales, it is investing heavily in a next-generation Unified AI Platform—featuring agent orchestration, RAG, and LLM routing—and establishing a new Czech Republic R&D hub.

About the Role

8am is hiring an SDET Manager to lead its team of Software Development Engineers in Test across the United States and Czechia. At 8am, SDETs operate as software engineers first whose product is the test automation infrastructure—frameworks, automated test suites, and CI/CD quality gates that govern what reaches production. Reporting to the U.S.-based Director of Quality Engineering, you will manage full-time Core and embedded SDETs alongside contract SDETs supporting payments and practice management products.

You will run the group like a high-performing product engineering team with code reviews, design standards, a backlog, and a technical roadmap, while partnering closely with QE Managers and the SDET Architect to focus engineering effort on high-risk customer workflows. This position is hired through an Employer of Record (EOR) partner in the Czech Republic and offers founding-team impact in the new Czech R&D hub following a 1-to-6-month integration period with U.S. teams.

What You’ll Do

• Manage, mentor, and scale full-time Core and embedded SDETs through hiring, regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, technical coaching, and career growth planning.
• Oversee contract SDETs as project demands require, guiding their priorities and holding their code to the same engineering standards as full-time staff.
• Define and own engineering standards and automation strategy across Quality Engineering, including scripts authored by Quality Engineers within the shared framework.
• Collaborate with the SDET Architect to design and roll out both AI-driven automation and traditional algorithmic test automation.
• Own the CI/CD quality gate roadmap, ensuring Core and embedded SDETs build and maintain pipeline gates across all products as AI accelerates engineering output.
• Spearhead the migration of legacy tests from Metis (the existing Ruby on Rails test runner) onto Themis.
• Partner with Engineering Managers of squads hosting embedded SDETs to align on priorities, gather feedback on automation effectiveness, and drive targeted improvements.
• Manage the SDET backlog by triaging automation requests, prioritizing by customer impact and risk, and coordinating with QE Managers on embedded SDET allocation.
• Remain technically hands-on by contributing to framework architecture and code, reviewing pull requests, and setting quality bars for ephemeral test environments, test data management, and test code.
• Decide alongside QE Managers where individual tests and suites execute in the delivery lifecycle (check-in, nightly, full regression, or post-deployment).
• Maintain fast, reliable quality gates by tracking and quarantining flaky tests and conducting root-cause analysis to distinguish automation issues from true product defects.
• Collaborate with nonfunctional QE specialists across Performance, Data, and Security to expand both functional and nonfunctional automated regression coverage.
• Curate AI-generated test automation by evaluating ephemeral tests produced by agentic tooling against tickets and promoting high-value tests into gated regression suites.
• Feed test automation metrics into organizational quality KPIs—including Defect Leakage Rate—and showcase new capabilities in demos.
• Maintain and update SDET framework guides and standards inside 8am’s internal QE Practice Hub, while partnering with DevOps and Engineering to keep every product testable and deployable via automation.

What You’ll Need

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience, paired with 8+ years in test automation or software engineering.
• 3+ years of leadership experience managing SDETs or developers in an Agile setting using product engineering practices (coding standards, code reviews, backlogs, and technical roadmaps).
• Strong programming proficiency in Python 3 (a hands-on Python coding exercise is part of the interview process).
• Proven experience designing and owning test automation frameworks—preferably PyTest—alongside Playwright for UI automation and back-end API automation across microservice and monolithic cloud architectures.
• Hands-on experience with Git and CI/CD platforms (such as Jenkins, CircleCI, or GitHub Actions) to enforce automated pipeline quality gates.
• Sound engineering judgment regarding test pyramid layers and identifying high-value automation candidates.
• Strong SQL skills against complex database schemas—including generating test data for automated suites—and familiarity with messaging systems such as RabbitMQ or Kafka.
• Experience working with test management platforms (such as TestRail or Qase) and integrating with their APIs to report execution results.
• Familiarity with AI evaluation (eval) testing, including constructing evaluation datasets and scoring AI model outputs.
• Hands-on interest and experience in AI-assisted software development, combined with the critical judgment required to review AI-generated code.
• Clear written English communication skills to collaborate effectively across a 7-to-8-hour time zone offset with U.S. teammates.

Benefits

• Monthly gross salary between CZK 150,000 and CZK 220,000, plus performance bonus eligibility and employee referral rewards.
• Flexible Time Off (FTO) alongside 13 paid public holidays following the Czech calendar.
• Paid sick leave supplemented by the Czech social security system.
• Full statutory Czech benefits including pension, social security, public health insurance, and work accident coverage.
• Parental, maternity, and paternity leave aligned with Czech statutory regulations, plus additional company-paid paternity leave from 8am.
• Access to Coursera (including the Gen AI Academy), ongoing professional development, regular feedback, and clear advancement paths toward Staff and leadership roles.
• International collaboration across the U.S. and Europe with potential travel opportunities to company events and U.S. offices.
• Access to office spaces in Prague and the upcoming Brno R&D hub for optional in-person collaboration and a flexible hybrid schedule, supported by local team events and community initiatives.