Charlotte QA Job Market Intel

Activity Update: Interviews in process, with 1 candidate in final stage. All applicants receive the same Playwright-based assessment before speaking with engineering leadership. The process is intentionally designed to remove resume bias and evaluate skill directly. If you can do the work, you move forward.

Ryan Anderson described it as evaluating how candidates think and execute against real requirements, not how they compare on paper. A few patterns stood out from the first group:

• 2 open reqs
• 250+ applications in 2 days
• 20 candidates completed the assessment, 12 did not pass

Common reasons for not passing:

• Overly complex or unstructured code (missed opportunity for reusable, modular design)
• Missed or partially followed instructions in the prompt
• Over-reliance on AI without validating outputs

What the team looks for:

• Strong fundamentals
• Clear, structured thinking
• Ability to follow requirements precisely
• Clean, maintainable automation approach

This is what skill-based hiring looks like when it’s actually enforced. Personally, I expect to see more companies follow suit over the next 12 months.

The best candidates consistently show strong fundamentals, clear thinking, and precise execution of requirements.

Ryan Anderson, President & COO, Engineering Leader

After Credit Karma’s recent layoffs, I received over a dozen calls from strong engineers. One just hit the market with phenomenal experience, and I had to spotlight him.

Deepak Vasanati is a Senior QE with a decade of experience in consumer fintech who built an AI-powered Quality Engine used across 10+ engineering teams, led large-scale test modernization efforts, and maintained zero P0 production defects for over a year.

P.S. His resume is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time. Clear, concise, and packed with measurable business impact. Honestly, I was starting to wonder if my resume scanner could even give out an A. Worth studying for how he frames impact.

Click To View Resume

If you’re building or scaling a quality engineering function and need someone who can architect the underlying systems, he’s worth a conversation.

Phone’s ringing from folks over @ Credit Karma after the Intuit layoffs. Hearing a decent number of senior QA engineers were impacted.

If you’re hiring and looking for strong quality engineering talent, I’d take a look at the CK roster. There are some really sharp people there.

And if you’re local to Charlotte and were affected, DM me. Happy to help however I can.

Reuters article HERE

I’ve heard great things about The Hartford from my engineering community over the years. I noticed a couple good lookin’ QA gigs open on their site here locally (R2623925-166 && R2624556-166).

I spoke with a few engineers there today who mentioned they’d spot check what’s currently open. From what I gathered, QA seems to be embedded across most development teams.

One person did mention the first role (Senior Staff Engineer) is fairly niche: looking for someone with 10+ years as an application developer alongside deep QA automation experience. Beyond that, broader hiring priorities and business initiatives are still a little unclear to me.

Nice set of openings though and thought it was worth mentioning. If you’re currently interviewing with The Hartford, feel free to DM me: would love to connect and compare notes.

Plan to update if I can get clarity.
Update 5/13: reqs only show open in the system. Reached out to TA’s to check true status.
Update: 6/3- Spoke with a candidate interviewing with the hiring manager tomorrow 6/4. Looks like Michael is one of the internal TA’s over the req. Can’t wait to see how their tech IV process looks like.

Suggested IV prep for The Hartford from current engineer:
Strong understanding of modern test automation frameworks, particularly Playwright, with experience supporting both in-sprint and regression automation initiatives. Practical experience leveraging AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot and MCP-based workflows to accelerate test creation and improve delivery efficiency. Focused on achieving high automation coverage and quality metrics while balancing speed, maintainability, and business objectives. Experienced with defect lifecycle management, test execution tracking, and Agile delivery environments. Familiar with emerging considerations around AI adoption, including governance, tool usage optimization, and cost/token management.

Also curious: if you’ve been getting calls from SMBC in the Charlotte engineering market, I’d be happy to compare notes. Trying to get a better read on the overall landscape and what they’re building locally. Hear great things.

*I do not manage this requirement and simply sharing what I see in the market*