QA automation

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

In a standard 40-hour work week, you write and maintain code that automatically tests software functionality and performance. Around 40 percent of your time is spent coding test frameworks and fixtures in Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, or Java. Another 25 percent goes to triaging failed overnight test runs in CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or Jenkins) and debugging network or race-condition errors. The remaining time is split between analysing product specifications to design test cases (20 percent) and managing Docker environments and pipeline integrations (15 percent).

Daily tools include Playwright, Cypress, Selenium WebDriver, Postman, REST Assured, k6, JMeter, and Jira. Shift work is rare, and night work is generally limited to major scheduled production releases.

Will AI replace this job?

ILO/NASK 2025 exposure score: 0.55, Gradient 3. This is for ISCO-08 2519 Software and applications developers and analysts not elsewhere classified, on a 0.0 to 1.0 task-overlap scale. It is not an occupation-level job elimination score; the official indices measure task exposure. The ILO classifies this group as a strong candidate for AI-assisted workflows, not net workforce reduction.

The exposure is not spread evenly across the week. The most exposed part is about 40% of the job: writing boilerplate test scripts, drafting standard API requests, and generating synthetic test datasets. The moderately exposed part is about 25%: reading CI/CD execution logs and triaging failure traces, where automated diagnostics can summarize errors but engineers still isolate external dependencies. The low-exposure part is about 35%: investigating race-condition flakiness across distributed services, designing end-to-end quality strategy, reviewing pull requests for architectural testability, and coordinating acceptance criteria across engineering teams.

What do you need to start?

There is no legal licensing requirement to work as a QA Automation Engineer. Tech companies often hire candidates based on a strong GitHub portfolio and technical skill without demanding a formal degree. However, work visa pathways, such as the German EU Blue Card or the US H-1B visa, strictly require an accredited Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Information Technology.

The standard global industry qualification is the ISTQB Certified Tester scheme from the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB), starting with the Foundation Level (CTFL) and advancing to the Test Automation Engineering (CT-TAE) certificate. While widely respected during CV screening, these credentials do not replace live coding and framework architecture skills during technical interviews.

Where do you study, and for how long?

Uzbekistan does not offer dedicated undergraduate degrees in QA Automation. Instead, students enter through 4-year Computer Science or Software Engineering programmes. Inha University in Tashkent (IUT) offers a 4-year English-taught B.Sc. in Computer and Information Engineering at an annual domestic tuition of UZS 40,400,000 for the 2025/2026 academic year. Other local institutions include Westminster International University in Tashkent (WIUT), Tashkent University of Information Technologies (TUIT), and Amity University Tashkent.

Abroad, Poland is a major Central European hub. Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) offers a 3.5 to 4-year English-taught B.Sc. in Computer Science with international tuition at EUR 11,040 per year (EUR 5,520 per semester) for 2024/2025. In Czechia, Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU / CVUT) offers a 3-year Bachelor in Informatics with English-track tuition ranging between EUR 5,000 and EUR 5,800 annually.

In Germany, Technical University of Munich (TUM) offers a 3-year Informatics bachelor taught in German (with English modules) charging non-EU tuition of EUR 4,000 to EUR 6,000 per year. In the United Kingdom, the University of Manchester provides a 3-year B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science with international fees between GBP 34,500 and GBP 38,000 per year. For visa purposes, German degree comparability via ZAB costs EUR 208 and takes 2 to 3 months, while UK ENIC recognition costs GBP 49.50.

Where can you actually work?

The role exists locally in Uzbekistan within commercial banks and fintech platforms such as TBC Bank Uzbekistan, Kapitalbank, Payme, Click, and Uzum, as well as global IT delivery hubs like EPAM Systems and Exadel. Domestic junior-to-mid monthly salaries range from UZS 4,200,000 to UZS 11,500,000.

Working remotely from Uzbekistan for international employers is realistic via B2B contractor agreements or Employer of Record platforms like Deel and Remote.com. Foreign employers require strong programming skills (Python, TypeScript, Java), mastery of frameworks like Playwright, Cypress, and Selenium, CI/CD experience, and fluent English (CEFR B2), with remote monthly pay between USD 1,000 and USD 2,000. Relocation is achievable through individual skilled worker sponsorship, including the German EU Blue Card, Poland national work visas, or the UK Skilled Worker visa.

Where are the jobs posted?

To find remote contractor jobs directly from Uzbekistan, check global boards such as Wellfound, We Work Remotely, RemoteOK, and LinkedIn Jobs. For domestic positions and local outstaffing hubs, use HeadHunter Uzbekistan (hh.uz) and the IT Park career portal.

For tech roles in Poland and Central Europe with transparent salary bands, use No Fluff Jobs and Just Join IT (whereas Pracuj.pl typically requires local work authorization). For Germany and Western Europe, look at Honeypot.io (which connects with visa-sponsoring employers), the Make it in Germany portal, and StepStone Germany. In the UK, tech listings are concentrated on CWJobs and Reed Technology.

How much English, honestly?

For university admission, English-taught programmes in Poland and Czechia require an IELTS Academic score of 6.0 to 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 80 to 90. UK universities require IELTS Academic (UKVI) 6.5 with at least 6.0 in each section, while US programmes expect TOEFL iBT 80 to 100 or IELTS 6.5 to 7.5. For German-taught degrees in Germany, TestDaF Level 4 or DSH-2 (C1) is required, while English-track courses ask for IELTS 6.5 or TOEFL iBT 88 to 92.

On the job, an IELTS certificate is never checked, but functional CEFR B2 to C1 English is mandatory. You must read technical specifications, write precise bug reports in English, communicate in daily agile stand-ups, and conduct code reviews with international teams.

Who hires for this?

Where does this lead?