LEAD QA CONSULTANT (AUTOMATION)

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Own test automation strategy end-to-end: Take accountability for strategy and outcomes, shaping how automation testing and CI work across the organization rather than just executing within it.
• Cross-platform test automation: Write and maintain automated tests for flows spanning multiple services or systems across web (desktop), API, and mobile (native) platforms.
• Test data & environment management: Define isolated, resettable test data strategies seeded per test using masked or synthetic data rather than production records.
• Distributed systems validation: Test critical failure modes (idempotency, out-of-order events, eventual consistency, concurrency) and partner with Engineering/DevOps on fault-injection scenarios.
• Deep verification & quality assurance: Verify state through logs, traces, metrics, and direct database queries; validate functionality, performance, reliability, and legacy compatibility.
• CI integration & release gates: Integrate test suites into CI as reliable, fast release gates that produce clear go/no-go signals.
• Triage & root-cause analysis: Lead defect triage on production issues, converting findings into regression tests and preventative measures across teams.
• SDLC & governance standards: Enforce QA and change management standards, including documentation, test/implementation plans, and recovery procedures.
• Documentation & reporting: Maintain comprehensive test plans, scripts, integration plans, and user acceptance reports.
• Mentorship & continuous improvement: Mentor QA engineers, advocate for best practices, and refine testing methodologies continuously.
• Stakeholder communication: Communicate quality status and technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

• Experience: 5+ years in test automation, including 2+ years leading a team or owning an organization-wide test framework.
• Programming: Production-quality coding ability in Java, Python, or Golang.
• UI Automation: Hands-on expertise with Selenium, Playwright, or Katalon Studio, plus cross-browser testing.
• API Testing: Hands-on experience using Postman and/or REST Assured.
• Architecture & Tools: Comfort with asynchronous/event-driven systems (e.g., RabbitMQ).
• Test Management: Familiarity with tooling such as Jira and Zephyr.
• Performance Testing: Experience with load testing tools such as JMeter or K6.
• CI/CD Pipeline: Experience running automated suites in CI (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.).
• Test Design Principles: Deep understanding of fixtures/builders, isolation, deterministic setup/teardown, test doubles, and E2E trade-offs.
• Testing Methodology: Expert knowledge of integration, system, acceptance, smoke, functional, regression, black-box, white-box, and grey-box testing.
• Database Skills: Strong SQL capability for data verification.
• Defect Management: Proven experience with quality management processes and issue tracking systems.
• Technical Mindset: In-depth analytical mindset with strong understanding of modern web and mobile application stacks.

Skills: Cypress, Jira, Software Testing, QA Automation, Selenium WebDriver, Appium, Katalon