QE Automation Lead
About the Position
We are looking for a QE Automation Lead to own the quality engineering strategy end to end for the program. You will build the Testing Chapter from the ground up, including framework selection, tooling, CI/CD integration, team leadership, and direct engagement with program governance on release quality. The role requires working from the office three days per week. The candidate should be based in either Cluj Napoca or Bucharest.
About the Project
DataArt's Testing Chapter is embedded across client product squads within a multi year, multi workstream program. The QE Automation Lead is a foundational, highly visible role responsible for establishing the automation framework, defining standards, and providing quality evidence for program governance.
About the Team
Teams work fully remotely across the EU using Scrum and scaled Agile frameworks.
Responsibilities
- Design and own the QA automation strategy, including framework selection, tooling, CI/CD integration, and coverage targets.
- Build automation frameworks from scratch or extend existing frameworks.
- Lead and mentor a distributed team of QE engineers, and conduct code reviews for test automation code.
- Define risk based test plans aligned with quality gates and release criteria.
- Drive API, integration, and regression automation for real time, event driven services, including Kafka, WebSocket, and REST based systems.
- Provide quality dashboards and defect analytics for program governance and operational readiness reviews.
- Embed automated quality gates into CI/CD pipelines in collaboration with DevOps teams.
Requirements
- 10+ years of experience in software quality engineering, including 3+ years leading QA teams or programs.
- Strong hands on automation experience with Python (Pytest, Requests) and/or Java (REST Assured, JUnit, TestNG).
- Experience with REST API testing, including JSON schema validation, contract testing, and HTTP semantics.
- Experience with SQL and data validation for backend result verification.
- Experience implementing CI/CD quality gates using GitHub Actions or Jenkins.
- Knowledge of risk based testing methodologies.
- Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to represent quality concerns to non technical stakeholders.
- Proficient English for technical communication (B2+).
Nice to Have
- Experience with Kafka consumer validation or WebSocket feed testing.
- Experience with TestRail or similar test management tools.
- Experience with performance and load testing tools such as k6, Gatling, or JMeter.
- Background in financial services or capital markets.
