Lead QA Automation Engineer

ABOUT YOU You are an experienced Lead QA Automation Engineer with strong technical depth in building, maintaining, and scaling backend automation systems. You enjoy leading through influence. Acting as a senior IC who shapes testing strategy, mentors engineers, and ensures automation excellence across multiple teams.   You’re comfortable working with distributed systems, including monolith and microservices, and know how to design testing approaches that cover APIs, data flows, integrations, and edge cases. You think like an engineer, communicate like a leader, and act with the ownership of someone who wants to build world-class quality infrastructure.   You’re also pragmatic and continuously evaluate new tools such as using AI-powered solutions and finding ways to drive efficiency while still relying on strong engineering fundamentals.  

Lead the design, development, and maintenance of backend-focused automated test frameworks (Jest, Playwright, custom frameworks, etc.)

Work as a hands-on IC leader, setting automation standards, driving adoption, and mentoring engineers when needed

Develop robust automated tests for REST APIs, services, and integrations across monolithic and microservices architectures

Create and maintain test suites across integration, contract, and end-to-end layers using modern automation practices

Utilize mocking and service virtualization to isolate systems and increase test reliability

Collaborate closely with backend developers, DevOps, and product teams to understand system design and ensure complete test coverage

Review engineering code (PHP/Golang) to better understand logic, identify risk areas, and design stronger tests

Build CI/CD test pipelines, write and optimize YAML configurations, and ensure automation stability in the delivery flow

Improve observability and reporting across automated tests (dashboards, logs, alerts, coverage insights)

Introduce and evaluate tools such as AI-assisted or non AI-assisted testing solutions to improve test development speed and depth of validation

Act as a quality advocate in architecture discussions, sprint planning, and release readiness reviews

Lead initiatives that improve engineering workflows, automation reliability, and long-term maintainability

Support teams in debugging complex production issues and guiding root-cause analysis

5+ years of experience in QA Automation, including strong hands-on technical leadership

Expertise in backend/API automation using Jest, Postman, and modern REST testing practices

Solid experience with Playwright, JEST, Karate, Cucumber or equivalent frameworks

Strong understanding of monolith architecture and microservices-based systems

Hands-on experience designing CI/CD pipelines and working with YAML-based configuration

Strong understanding of mocking, stubbing, service virtualization, and contract testing (e.g., Pact or similar)

Experience building test frameworks from the ground up or significantly enhancing existing ones

Comfortable using AI tools as accelerators while applying critical thinking to validate output

Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and QA teams

Proactive, self-driven, and able to take ownership of automation direction with minimal supervision

  Good to Have

Experience with cloud environments (AWS/GCP)

Familiarity with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes)

Knowledge of performance testing tools (Locust, JMeter, k6)

Experience working with GitLab/GitHub Actions CI pipelines

Exposure to security testing fundamentals

Experience driving automation architecture during system decomposition (mono → microservices)Ability to read and understand backend code, especially PHP and/or Golang