Quality Engineering - Automation Lead

Responsibilities:
Lead end-to-end QA delivery across projects or releases, ensuring quality objectives are met within timelines.
Drive a shift-left approach by involving QA early in requirements, design, and planning discussions to prevent defects sooner.
Prepare test estimates, test plans, and QA timelines based on scope, complexity, dependencies, and delivery commitments.
Manage the team on a day-to-day basis, including task allocation, progress tracking, blocker resolution, and priority alignment.
Oversee test design and execution, ensuring adequate functional, integration, regression, and end-to-end test coverage.
Lead defect management and triage, working closely with developers and stakeholders to prioritise, track, and resolve issues effectively.
Provide clear QA status reporting, risk visibility, and release readiness updates to stakeholders, while continuously improving testing processes and quality practices.
Define and execute a pragmatic in-sprint automation approach aligned to release priorities and delivery timelines.
Build, enhance, and maintain automated test suites using Python and Robot Framework, with hands-on delivery using Playwright and/or Selenium. Support execution across platforms (including tools such as Perfecto where applicable).
Integrate automation into Azure DevOps pipelines to enable fast feedback, improve release confidence, and reduce cycle time.
Drive adoption of quality gates, reporting, and repeatable test execution.
Design and implement automated API and service tests in Python, including REST and gRPC validation.
Partner with engineering teams to improve service testability and coverage.
Establish consistent standards for test design, traceability, defect triage, and execution reporting.
Provide clear, actionable insights on test results, risk, and release readiness.
Work closely with application teams, platform partners, and QA colleagues to align on automation goals, unblock delivery issues, and coach teams toward sustainable quality practices.
Identify bottlenecks and failure patterns, and drive improvements in automation reliability, maintainability, execution time, and environment-related readiness.
Collaborates with delivery teams, application teams, platform partners, and QA colleagues to define automation goals, unblock delivery issues, and drive quality outcomes.
Works closely with developers and stakeholders for defect management, test coverage, and release readiness.
Partners with engineering teams to improve service testability and coverage, especially for API and gRPC validation.
Engages with business analysts, product owners, and project managers to ensure QA involvement early in the project lifecycle.
Enterprise-wide impact across the DI& A portfolio.
Responsible for QA automation strategy, delivery, and continuous improvement across multiple projects and releases.
Directly manages QA team members and oversees their daily activities, task allocation, and performance.
Influences quality practices and standards across delivery teams and platform partners.
Measures include delivery throughput, manual testing reduction, release stability, and quality outcomes.
Requirements:
7+ years of experience in QA and 4+ years as a QA lead across complex enterprise delivery portfolios.
Hands-on expertise with Python, Robot Framework, Playwright and/or Selenium for automation.
Experience in building and maintaining scalable automated test suites.
Strong knowledge of CI/CD and integrating automated testing into Azure DevOps pipelines.
Ability to implement lightweight governance (standards, controls, reporting) to improve quality consistency.
Excellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical partners; able to influence without authority.
Proactive in identifying risks, inefficiencies, and quality gaps, and taking ownership to resolve them.
Good-to-have skills:
Service/API testing capability: Exposure to Java-based gRPC tooling is a plus.
AI-driven development.
Capital Markets domain experience.

Experience
7-11 yrs