Charlotte QA Job Market Intel

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*

One of the more interesting conversations I sat in on recently wasn’t about building AI workflows. It was about maintaining them.

Ovidius AI was discussing a challenge I think a lot of AI implementation firms run into:

How do you maintain delivery quality as AI systems become more complex?

The workflows themselves weren’t the issue. The team already builds across tools like N8N, Next.js, Supabase, and multiple LLMs.

The challenge was operational:

regression testing,
edge cases,
inconsistent AI outputs,
error categorization,
and building QA processes that don’t cost as much as the projects themselves.

That led to an interesting discussion with Ben Fellows and the team @ LoopQA around what QA for AI systems actually looks like in practice.

Not just “does this app work,” but:

• how to design reusable test harnesses
• where AI-generated test cases fit
• how to think about deterministic vs. generative outputs
• and how teams build trust and operational visibility around AI-driven workflows

It feels like a lot of companies are entering a new phase of AI adoption. The challenge is no longer just building workflows. It’s figuring out how to scale, validate, and trust them in production.

Thanks to Jason / Ben & team for the practical discussion.

Seeing continued demand for senior-level Quality Engineers with automation experience, particularly around modern QA practices, automation coverage, and supporting evolving engineering workflows which is exciting to see.

Example: Hearing TQL recently interviewed for this role and believe this is more of a backfill for an existing team than a broader hiring push. Big but exciting shoes to fill. The role still appears to be open on their website. Definately worth checking out. Click HERE
Charlotte, NC
Salary Listed: $85,000 –  $110,000 base salary, benefits package, and company perks

**I do not manage or oversee this position**

If you’re applying to jobs without also reaching out to recruiters or hiring managers in your space, you’re leaving opportunities on the table. But knowing how and when to engage is what actually matters.

Top: what my LinkedIn inbox looks like
~8–10 messages/day.
Owen (my boss) gets about double.

Nothing wrong with the messages.
But when everything sounds the same, it all blends together.

Especially when you’re skimming between meetings…
you don’t get much time to “figure out” what someone means.

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Bottom: how I try to approach outreach

I don’t always get a response.
Some of it works, some of it doesn’t.

But the goal is simple:
if someone reads it once, they should immediately know:

• what I’m asking for
• why it matters to them

No decoding required.

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Most outreach fails because it optimizes for sounding professional instead of being understood.
Make it easy on the other person to respond.

Genuine question:
Do you think “professional language” actually helps outreach…or has it just become noise we’ve all learned to skim past?

Sample Messages: