QA/Testing
SDET
Also written as Software Development Engineer in Test, Test Engineer
An engineer who builds testing infrastructure — frameworks, harnesses and tooling — rather than writing test cases against a finished product. Writes production-grade code that happens to test things.
Think of it like
Like the engineer who designs the crash-test rig, rather than the technician who drives the cars into the wall.
Junior or senior?
Junior sounds like
Writes automated tests in an existing framework.
Senior sounds like
Has built or substantially rebuilt the framework, and can explain what they optimised for.
Ask them
“What testing infrastructure have you built from scratch? What did you get wrong the first time?”