Senior QA Automation Engineer

About the Role
We are looking for a Senior QA Automation Engineer / Quality Engineering Lead who will own the transformation of QA engineering at RunLoyal.
This role is suited for someone who goes beyond executing test cases and is comfortable designing automation frameworks, testing APIs and databases, debugging issues, performing root-cause analysis, and integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
The ideal candidate should be technically strong, curious, and capable of understanding a system end-to-end from requirements and user stories through development, testing, release, and production monitoring.
QA Transformation & Engineering Leadership
Assess the current QA organization, automation maturity, testing processes, tools, and technical capabilities.
Define and execute a roadmap to transform QA into an automation-first Quality Engineering function.
Establish standards for automation architecture, coding practices, test design, test data, environments, and reporting.
Identify high-risk manual testing areas and systematically convert them into reliable automated coverage.
Establish a scalable automation strategy across UI, API, integration, mobile, and end-to-end workflows.
Define quality gates and integrate automated testing into CI/CD.
Establish engineering metrics to measure automation coverage, test reliability, escaped defects, regression execution time, and release quality.
Mentor and upskill existing QA engineers in programming, automation, API testing, SQL, debugging, and system-level testing.
Identify technical capability gaps within the QA team and recommend training, tooling, process improvements, or additional hiring.
Establish a culture of quality ownership rather than test execution.
Key Responsibilities
1. Automation Testing
Design, develop, maintain, and enhance automated test suites for web applications and APIs.
Build scalable and maintainable automation using tools/frameworks such as Selenium, Playwright, Playwright MCP, Cypress, Appium, TestNG, Cucumber, or equivalent.
Develop reusable automation components and frameworks rather than relying only on record-and-playback approaches.
Maintain and optimize automated regression suites across product releases.
Identify manual testing activities that can be automated and continuously improve test coverage.
Analyze automation failures and distinguish between application defects, test defects, environment issues, and data issues.
2. Functional & System Testing
Understand product requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and functional specifications.
Design comprehensive test scenarios, test cases, and test strategies for complex features.
Perform functional, integration, regression, exploratory, and end-to-end testing.
Validate complete business workflows across multiple services and components.
Identify edge cases and potential failure scenarios before they reach production.
Participate actively in sprint planning, refinement, retrospectives, and release activities.
3. API Testing
Design and execute API test scenarios covering:
Positive and negative cases
Authentication and authorization
Request/response validation
Error handling
Data integrity
Integration scenarios
Work with tools such as Postman, REST Assured, Swagger, or equivalent.
Build automated API test suites where appropriate.
Validate API behavior against database records and application behavior.
4. Database Testing
Write and execute SQL queries to validate application data.
Perform backend validation using databases such as MySQL/PostgreSQL or equivalent.
Verify data consistency between UI, APIs, and backend systems.
Identify data-related defects and assist developers in troubleshooting them.
5. Debugging, Logs & Root Cause Analysis
Investigate defects beyond simply reproducing them.
Analyze application logs, network logs, and monitoring information to identify the root cause of issues.
Collaborate with developers to provide meaningful technical information for defect resolution.
Perform RCA for production and pre-production issues.
Work with monitoring/logging tools such as CloudWatch, Grafana, New Relic, Splunk, or equivalent.
6. CI/CD & Release Quality
Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
Work with tools such as Jenkins, GitLab, Maven, Gradle, Docker, or equivalent.
Ensure automated regression suites run reliably as part of the development/release process.
Analyze failed pipelines and automation failures.
Support release validation and production deployment activities.
7. Defect Management
Identify, document, prioritize, and track defects using tools such as JIRA or equivalent.
Provide clear reproduction steps, expected vs. actual results, logs, screenshots, and supporting evidence.
Work closely with developers and product teams to drive defects to resolution.
Perform regression testing after fixes.
Identify recurring defects and contribute to preventive quality improvements.
8. Quality Engineering & Continuous Improvement
Identify gaps in the existing QA process and recommend improvements.
Improve automation coverage, reliability, execution time, and maintainability.
Contribute to QA standards, test strategies, automation frameworks, and documentation.
Continuously evaluate new testing approaches and tools that can improve engineering efficiency.
Use AI-assisted testing and automation tools such as Claude and other AI coding/testing assistants where appropriate to improve productivity.
Explore and leverage Playwright MCP and AI-enabled testing workflows to improve test creation, execution, debugging, and maintenance.
Required Skills
Must-Have
5-8 years of experience in software QA/testing, with a focus on Quality Engineering leadership and automation strategy (exceptional candidates with 4-5 years of experience may be considered).
Strong hands-on experience in automation testing.
Strong programming knowledge in Java, JavaScript, Python, or a similar language.
Strong engineering fundamentals and the ability to design scalable, maintainable automation architectures over expertise in specific tools.
Playwright
Selenium
Cypress
Appium
Strong understanding of API testing.
Hands-on experience with REST APIs and tools such as Postman or REST Assured.
Good knowledge of SQL and database testing.
Strong understanding of functional, regression, integration, and end-to-end testing.
Experience creating and maintaining automation frameworks/test suites.
Experience working with Git and CI/CD pipelines.
Ability to analyze logs and perform debugging and root-cause analysis.
Experience working in an Agile/Scrum environment.
Strong understanding of software testing methodologies and QA processes.
Ability to test a system end-to-end rather than focusing only on individual UI screens.
Good to Have
Experience with TestNG, Cucumber, Page Object Model (POM).
Experience with Playwright MCP or similar MCP-based testing/automation workflows.
Experience with mobile testing using Appium.
Experience with performance/load testing tools such as JMeter or LoadRunner.
Experience with Docker/Kubernetes.
Exposure to AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Experience with monitoring/logging tools such as CloudWatch, Grafana, Datadog, Splunk, or New Relic.
Experience testing complex SaaS, enterprise, fintech, payments, or transactional systems.
Exposure to security testing.
Exposure to AI/LLM-based applications and AI-assisted testing.
Hands-on experience using Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, or similar AI tools for test automation, debugging, code generation, test-case creation, or productivity enhancement.
What We Are Looking For
The ideal candidate is someone who:
Thinks like an engineer, not just a test executor.
Can understand a complex system and identify how different components interact.
Can independently build or extend an automation framework.
Is comfortable going from UI → API → Database → Logs when investigating an issue.
Can write code and debug automation failures independently.
Can determine what should be automated and what should remain manual.
Has strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
Is comfortable challenging requirements and identifying gaps before development is completed.
Takes ownership of quality rather than considering QA to be only the final stage before release.
Can work effectively with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders.
Is comfortable working on unfamiliar and technically complex systems.
Is open to adopting AI-assisted QA and modern automation approaches, including tools such as Claude and Playwright MCP.
Technical Depth We Expect
For this role, automation is a core requirement, not an additional s

Work arrangement
No