Great questions, and I am glad you are digging into this. The title Quality Engineer can mean very different things depending on the company, the team, or the maturity of the engineering org.
As a QE Director, I will answer based on what my Quality Engineers do and what I look for when hiring, coaching, and supporting them.
What do they do on a daily basis
Quality Engineers on my team are embedded in cross-functional squads. Their daily work includes reviewing user stories, designing test strategies, and writing automated tests across UI, API, and data layers. They contribute to code reviews, investigate bugs, collaborate with developers, and look ahead for risks in upcoming work. Many of them also build tooling, help optimize CI pipelines, or develop workflows that make testing faster and more reliable.
Beyond testing execution, they regularly sit with UX and Design during design reviews to flag usability or accessibility concerns. They join user feedback sessions and participate in product discovery to surface possible risks and pain points early. Their job is not limited to post-build validation. They help shape quality from the very beginning.
Key skills I look for and see used the most as QE
On the technical side, being able to review both testing and development code is essential. My QEs frequently review PRs alongside developers, not just to validate tests but to look at implementation details that could affect reliability, performance, or testability. They are comfortable pulling down source code, exploring logic, and identifying potential issues before bugs ever reach production. This kind of hands-on debugging and early collaboration reduces risk and strengthens the feedback loop.
Other core skills include API testing, test automation in the language of the app or service, understanding of data flows, and experience with CI systems.
On the non-technical side, strong communication, curiosity, collaboration, and critical thinking are huge. QEs need to ask questions, push back when necessary, and help teams think through quality earlier in the process.
Common gaps and how they are filled
The biggest gap I see is when people come from a traditional QA background and have not had much exposure to coding, system architecture, or modern delivery pipelines. Another gap is understanding how to test beyond happy paths and UI interactions. We fill those by pairing, assigning small automation projects, doing architecture reviews together, and creating a culture where asking questions is encouraged. I also see newer QEs struggle with influencing or speaking up without authority, which gets better through mentorship and practice working across teams.
Other insights
The best QEs I have worked with are not just great testers. They are people who think in systems, who care about the user experience, and who actively work to remove friction from the engineering process. A background in QA, support, development, or data can all be valuable. What matters most is the mindset. Good QEs do not just test. They help teams build confidence in what they are delivering.
Hopefully this helps 