Flutter SDET / QA Automation Engineer

We are seeking an experienced Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) or QA Automation Contractor to architect and implement a robust integration testing framework for our Flutter mobile application. Our app relies on a complex Python backend utilizing Firebase (Cloud Firestore, Realtime Database, and Authentication). Because the backend logic is highly stateful and complex, we do not want to rely on heavy local mocking. Instead, your primary objective will be to build an end-to-end (E2E) testing suite that interacts with a live, dedicated staging environment using a "Tenant Isolation" data strategy. The Challenge & Architecture You will not be required to spin up local Docker containers for the backend. The backend has been configured to route test traffic to specific testing databases/shards (Firestore and RTDB). However, because Firebase Authentication is a shared user pool, you will need to implement strict data management and namespacing (using randomized UUIDs and emails) within your Flutter tests to ensure parallel test runs do not collide. Key Responsibilities Test Architecture: Design, build, and maintain the integration testing suite using Flutter’s integration_test package (experience with Patrol is a major plus). Data Isolation Strategy: Implement robust test data management, generating unique test users and project IDs on the fly to prevent data collisions in a shared Auth environment. Test Teardown & Maintenance: Write automated cleanup scripts to delete test users and data via API calls during the test teardown phase (tearDownAll). CI/CD Integration: Integrate the Flutter test suite into our existing CI/CD pipeline (e.g., [GitHub Actions / Bitrise / Codemagic]), handling environment variables and headless execution. Documentation: Document the testing framework, how to run tests locally, and how to add new test cases so our internal developers can contribute in the future. Required Skills & Experience Flutter & Dart: 3+ years of professional experience developing or testing Flutter applications. QA Automation: Proven experience writing end-to-end (E2E) and integration tests for mobile apps. Firebase Ecosystem: Strong understanding of Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, and Realtime Database. You must understand how to interact with real databases during testing without corrupting shared environments. State Management: Familiarity with Flutter state management solutions (e.g., [Provider / Riverpod / BLoC]) to effectively intercept or drive app state during tests. CI/CD Pipelines: Hands-on experience configuring automated mobile testing in CI/CD environments. Bonus / "Nice to Have" Experience with Patrol for handling native OS dialogs (permissions, location, etc.). Basic understanding of Python, simply to read and understand backend configuration files and database routing logic. Familiarity with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Service Accounts and Firebase Admin SDK concepts.