
QA Engineer at Phonely (Canada)
Phonely· Canada·
Role details
Job description
At some point in the future, every business will answer their phone with voice AI. We are building the platform that makes it possible, and we’re making sure the experience of using it doesn’t suck. Phonely builds conversational voice AI agents for high volume phone workflows. Our customers use us to qualify leads, book appointments, route calls, and resolve real customer conversations in production. We are growing fast and just getting started.
About the Role
We’re hiring a dedicated QA engineer. You’ll be the last set of eyes on a feature before it ships, responsible for testing what engineers build for both correctness and UI/UX quality. A big part of this role is automating yourself out of the repetitive parts. You’ll be the primary owner of our automated end to end test suite and you’ll expand and maintain it as the product grows. This is an early-career role with a lot of room to grow. You’re the first QA hire, which means you’re not inheriting a process, you’re building one. No specific prior experience is required.
What You’ll Do
- QA new features and bug fixes across Phonely’s product, testing happy paths, edge cases, regressions, and general UI/UX quality
- Build automated tests to cover every non-human part of your job
- Own, maintain, and expand our automated end to end test suite
- Reproduce bugs reported by customers and internal teams, then write them up clearly enough that an engineer can fix them without a follow-up call
- Push back when something isn’t good enough to ship
- Build the QA process from scratch as our first dedicated QA hire
What We’re Looking For
- Some experience building or testing software: QA, software engineering, solutions/FDE, or similar
- Enough technical depth to inspect logs, HTTP requests, and browser behavior, and the instinct to use AI to move faster doing it
- AI native. You reach for the model before you reach for the manual
- User empathy and real opinions. You’re the last touchpoint before a feature ships, so you need to notice when something is bad and have the chutzpah to say so
- A technical background. A degree in CS or engineering is preferred, or equivalent hands-on experience
- Significant overlap with North American working hours
Nice to Have
- Experience with Playwright, Cypress, or similar E2E frameworks
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and running tests in them
- Any exposure to voice, telephony, or real-time systems
Why Join Phonely
We’re super cool. Our team is a group of ex-athletes, founders, and builders with low egos, and a high belief that life is not about taking the easy road, but challenging ourselves to find the most we can be. Working at Phonely feels like family, we eat most meals together as a team (the company pays for food), we go on runs, hikes and surf together when we’re not working. Also we rent out Airbnbs in cool places (Rocky Mountains, Costa Rica) for our annual offsite so you can still see the world while on the grind.
Interview Process
- 15-min intro call
- Deep dive on your experience with a member of the engineering team
- Practical exercise: find the bugs in a live feature and write them up
- Final conversation with leadership
Why work at Phonely
- Culture: Values include customer obsession, intensity (fast shipping and iteration), attention to detail, and trust (building for regulated environments).
- Team: Composed of AI researchers, engineers, operators, and customer‑obsessed builders – described as “people who know voice AI is hard.”
- Impact: Work on a platform that handles 100K+ daily calls for 10K+ businesses, from small clinics to Fortune 500 enterprises.
- Growth: Join an early‑stage (Series A) company backed by Y Combinator, with significant runway and customer traction.
- Work Model: Not explicitly stated as remote or hybrid; HQ in San Jose, CA. Careers page lists open positions.
- Perks: Opportunity to shape the future of voice AI, work with PhD researchers, and build at the intersection of AI and real‑world customer communication.