AI QA Engineer
Newcastle upon Tyne - UK
Job Summary
Job title: AI QA Engineer
Type: Full-time Contract (until September)
Location: UK-based applicants only. You must live within 30 miles of one of our five UK offices: Edinburgh Newcastle Leeds Manchester or London
Working pattern: Flexible (remote hybrid or in-office)
The role
Were looking for an AI QA Engineer to work across product quality AI behaviour evaluation and defect investigation.
This is not a traditional QA role focused purely on scripted testing or automation. A key part of the role involves reviewing AI agent conversations and assessing whether responses were accurate appropriate and aligned to the expected customer experience. Because AI behaviour is not always deterministic strong judgement attention to detail and communication skills are essential.
Youll support release testing and regression prevention across the platform carrying out structured manual QA across key journeys during release cycles to improve release confidence and reduce production issues. Outside release periods youll help improve automated coverage refine QA processes and investigate product or AI-related issues raised internally.
Youll also investigate production and customer-reported issues identifying whether problems are expected behaviour configuration issues or genuine defects before escalating clear issues to engineering teams.
Required experience
Strong manual QA experience
Experience building or maintaining automated test coverage
Solid hands-on experience working within an agentic software delivery lifecycle. You should be comfortable with the tooling workflows and quality considerations specific to agentic systems not just AI products in general
Strong written English and communication skills
The ability to assess nuanced conversations and provide clear feedback
Confidence investigating issues independently and making sound judgement calls
The ability to think on your feet and reason about unfamiliar problem domains. Well ask you to do this in the interview so come ready to engage with specifics rather than general examples
Desirable experience
Experience working with AI tooling agent frameworks or conversational AI platforms is a plus
What youll get
A varied role combining QA AI evaluation automation improvement and product investigation rather than repetitive manual testing.
The opportunity to work on AI-driven products where quality depends on judgement and context not just predefined test cases.
Real ownership over how quality processes evolve as AI capabilities continue to grow.
Exposure to modern AI and agentic systems in a production environment.
The chance to work closely with Product Engineering and AI teams on complex problems where there often isnt a single correct answer.
About hedgehog lab
Were a digital product consultancy with 20 years of experience helping organisations solve complex problems through technology design and delivery.
Ready to apply
Submit your application below.
Please note: were unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.