Join our Tokyo team at Shapefarm, where art, technology, and storytelling collide. We’re building games that connect players around the world — and we’re looking for talented creators who want to shape unforgettable experiences.

This role is based in Tokyo. This role will be a 12 month fixed term employment role.

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced and hands-on Lead QA Tester to own and evolve quality practices across our indie game portfolio. As a key leader within the development team, you will be responsible for building and scaling QA processes that match the ambition of our games, ensuring polished, stable, and high-performing releases across PC and console platforms.

This is a leadership role for someone who thrives in a collaborative indie environment—balancing structured quality standards with creative agility. You will manage internal QA efforts, coordinate with external testing partners when needed, and serve as the primary advocate for player experience and product excellence.

What you’ll do:

QA leadership and strategy

Responsible for managing day to day workload of the QA team. Keeping track of incoming new requests from other departments and ensuring both the internal and external QA team members have clear tasks assigned each day.
Define and implement the studio-wide QA vision, standards, and workflows
Develop scalable testing strategies aligned with production milestones
Partner with Production to ensure QA timelines are realistic and integrated into sprint planning
Coordinate external QA vendors when additional testing bandwidth is required

Test planning, execution and defect management

Create comprehensive test plans, test cases, and regression suites
Oversee functional, regression, compatibility, performance, and compliance testing

Cross-functional collaboration and player experience

Support live updates and post-launch patch testing

QA best practice

Promote shift-left testing: early QA involvement during feature ideation
Implement risk-based testing to focus effort where it matters most

Skills and behavioural competencies

Initiative and autonomy: You take responsibility for your work and are able to work autonomously. You show initiative and determine when issues should be escalated.
Clear, consistent and proactive communicator: You think about what information people need and convey that information in a transparent, clear and timely manner. You check to see if people have understood or need additional information. You identify when you need more information to do your job and ask for it.
Problem solving: Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to exercise sound judgement and make decisions based on accurate and timely information.
Openness to change: You want to learn what works, share ideas, and are willing to try new things out. You are adaptable and prepared to shift direction after discussion about benefits and risks.
Teamwork: You are willing to assist and support others as required and get on with team members.
Planning, organisation, and attention to detail: You develop and use systems to organise and keep track of information or work progress. You review and check the accuracy of information. You show an ability to work on and prioritise multiple initiatives at the same time

What we’re looking for:

Required:

5+ years of QA experience in the video game industry

2+ years in a senior or lead QA role

Shipped at least one commercial PC or console title

Experience working with console development hardware (including setting up test or development kits)

Experience generating and preparing builds for daily testing or deliverables

Strong understanding of game development pipelines and agile workflows

Experience with bug tracking systems, using Jira

Deep knowledge of functional, regression, and certification testing

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Strong leadership and mentoring capabilities
Comfort working in an English and Japanese bilingual environment (we value clear communication over perfect fluency).

Preferred:

Experience working in an indie or mid-sized studio environment

Familiarity with engines such as Unity or Unreal

Experience coordinating with external QA vendors

Exposure to live-service or post-launch content pipelines

Knowledge of console certification requirements (e.g., Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo)

Basic understanding of test automation tools or scripting

Japanese Visa Qualifications

A bachelor's degree or 10 years of experience.

At Shapefarm we…

Are humble
Make sure the job gets done
Take responsibility for our work and our actions
Have the willingness to walk the extra mile to help others
Have a positive attitude towards problem-solving

Lead QA Tester

Lead QA Tester to scale quality across indie PC/console games, managing testing and partners to deliver polished, stable, player-focused releases.