SDET: responsibilities, education, skills and career path

Hybrid developer-tester building test tooling, frameworks and quality engineering into products.

Entry

Senior

Coding

Very High

Key skills

Programming (Java/Python/Go)Test framework designAPI & contract testingCI/CD engineering

Common progression

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Career overview

The SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) is a developer who builds quality into the product: test frameworks, tooling, service virtualisation, performance harnesses and CI integration. They write production-grade code whose purpose is testing. The role sits between QA and engineering and leads to Test Lead, QA Lead or DevOps Engineer positions.

Main responsibilities

Build and maintain test automation
Write, test and review production code
Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines
Design and document REST APIs
Write unit and integration tests
Keep technical documentation up to date
Prepare and execute change requests in production
Analyse application logs to identify root causes
Mentor junior team members and review their work
Automate recurring tasks with scripts

Technical skills

Programming (Java/Python/Go)90%

Test framework design90%

API & contract testing85%

CI/CD engineering82%

Service virtualisation75%

Performance testing72%

Docker / Kubernetes75%

Observability for tests70%

Technologies

JavaPythonGoTypeScriptSeleniumCypressPlaywrightRestAssuredPactJMeterGatlingDockerKubernetesJenkinsGitLab CIGitHub ActionsGitAllurePostman

Education level

Education requirements vary depending on the company, country and experience. Professional experience, certifications and technical skills can sometimes compensate for formal education.

High School / Bac

Less common

Bac+2 (2-year degree)

Less common

Bac+3 (Bachelor)

Less common

Bac+5 (Master / Engineering)

Common entry point