SOFTGAMES is hiring a Senior QA Manager for Mobile Games, and this fully remote role comes with serious responsibilities. Based out of Berlin, the position puts you in charge of quality ownership for one of the company's largest live mobile puzzle games. Understanding exactly what skills this role demands is the first step toward becoming a competitive applicant.
What SOFTGAMES Actually Does
SOFTGAMES is a Berlin-based mobile games company specializing in casual and puzzle games. The studio operates live, free-to-play titles across iOS and Android with a global player base. Quality assurance at this scale is not a checklist exercise. It is a strategic function that directly impacts player retention and revenue.
Technical Skills You Need for This Role
Mobile Platform Expertise
The job requires deep hands-on knowledge of both iOS and Android testing environments. That includes understanding Google Play release tracks, App Store submission flows, and tools like TestFlight. Staged rollouts are a core part of the workflow here. You need to know how to monitor and react to quality signals during a phased release, not just after a full launch.
F2P Monetization Testing
Free-to-play games live and die by their monetization mechanics. SOFTGAMES expects you to test in-app purchases (IAPs), ad networks, consent and ATT frameworks, attribution pipelines, and analytics events. These systems interact in complex ways. Missing a bug in an IAP flow or consent screen can have legal and financial consequences at scale.
- Testing IAP flows across multiple payment methods and regions
- Verifying ad formats including rewarded, interstitial, and banner ads
- Validating ATT prompts and consent management platforms
- Checking attribution SDK behavior and analytics event firing
- Testing remote config changes without breaking live player sessions
QA Automation Skills
Manual testing alone does not scale for a live game with frequent releases. SOFTGAMES explicitly wants someone who can drive QA automation forward. Familiarity with automation frameworks used in Unity-based mobile games is essential. You do not necessarily need to write all the code yourself, but you must understand how automation fits into a release pipeline and where it adds the most value.
Unity and Game Engine Familiarity
The game is built in Unity, so QA experience with Unity projects gives you a clear advantage. Knowing how Unity handles builds, scenes, and player settings helps you write better bug reports. It also improves communication with developers who are debugging issues you have flagged.
Crash and Performance Monitoring
Live quality monitoring is a major part of this job. You need experience with crash reporting tools and the ability to investigate ANRs (Application Not Responding errors) and performance regressions. Tools like Firebase Crashlytics or similar platforms form the backbone of post-launch quality monitoring. Acting fast on crash spikes protects both the player experience and store ratings.
Jira and Confluence Proficiency
Documentation is not optional in this role. SOFTGAMES requires you to maintain test documentation, release reports, and changelogs in Jira and Confluence. Writing clear, actionable bug reports is a skill in itself. Developers need enough detail to reproduce and fix issues without going back and forth for clarification.
Soft Skills That Matter at SOFTGAMES
Cross-Functional Communication
This role sits at the center of multiple teams. You work with developers, product managers, and external QA partners simultaneously. Clear, direct communication is not a nice-to-have. It is the mechanism by which quality actually improves. Delays in flagging issues or vague bug reports slow down everyone on the release cycle.
Prioritization Under Pressure
Not every bug can be fixed before launch. Knowing which issues block a release and which ones can wait is a judgment call that requires experience and context. SOFTGAMES needs someone who can make confident go/no-go recommendations backed by data, not just instinct. That skill comes from time spent watching how different types of issues affect real players.
Ownership Mentality
The job description uses the word "own" right at the top of the responsibilities list. SOFTGAMES wants a QA leader who takes full accountability for release quality. That means proactively identifying risk areas before anyone asks. It also means building processes that outlast any single release cycle.
Quality Advocacy
Championing a quality-first mindset across a team requires influence without authority. You need to convince developers and product managers to invest time in fixing edge cases or improving test coverage. That takes credibility built through consistent, accurate quality assessments over time.
Experience Requirements for the Role
SOFTGAMES sets the bar at 4 or more years of QA experience specifically in mobile games. General software QA backgrounds may not translate well here. Live-operated F2P titles come with their own set of challenges around hotfixes, feature flags, SDK integrations, and player segmentation that differ from traditional app development.
- Minimum 4 years in mobile game QA
- Proven experience on live-operated free-to-play titles
- Hands-on experience with iOS and Android release flows
- Background in testing monetization systems including ads and IAPs
- Experience driving or contributing to QA automation initiatives
- Familiarity with Unity game projects
- Experience with crash reporting and performance monitoring tools
The role also notes that candidates should be based in Europe. While it is fully remote, time zone alignment with the Berlin-based team is a practical requirement for collaboration.
How to Build These Skills If You Are Not There Yet
Start With Mobile Testing Fundamentals
If your QA background is in web or desktop, start shifting toward mobile. Set up developer accounts on both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Practice submitting test builds, using TestFlight, and navigating internal testing tracks. Hands-on experience with both ecosystems is non-negotiable for this type of role.
Learn Unity Basics
You do not need to become a Unity developer. However, completing Unity's free beginner courses gives you enough vocabulary to communicate effectively with game developers. Understanding how scenes, prefabs, and build pipelines work improves every conversation you have about quality.
Get Hands-On With F2P Games
Play live mobile games critically. Analyze how IAPs are structured, when ads appear, and how onboarding flows work. Then start testing these flows on your own device by creating test accounts and running through monetization paths systematically. Real product exposure builds instincts that courses cannot replicate.
Practice With Automation Tools
Explore mobile automation frameworks like Appium or Unity's own test tools. Even writing simple automated regression tests for a practice project demonstrates initiative. Automation knowledge is increasingly expected at the senior level, not just in engineering roles.
Document Everything
Start writing bug reports and test plans even for personal projects. Use Jira's free tier to practice logging issues with reproduction steps, expected behavior, actual behavior, and severity ratings. Good documentation habits take time to develop. Building them early makes you a stronger candidate at any level.
If this role matches your background and ambitions, you can apply directly through the official listing. The position requires a candidate assignment as part of the process, so prepare to demonstrate your QA thinking in a practical format. Apply for the SOFTGAMES Senior QA Manager role here.
