Lead Software Development Engineer in Test

Overview
We are seeking a Lead SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test ) to provide end-to-end technical governance across all QA layers — frontend, middleware, and backend — for a complex, multi-layered onboarding platform. This role owns the architecture of API contract testing and the data modeling of complex entity relationships (e.g., hierarchical/parent-child style structures), while ensuring that quality assumptions made at one layer (such as client-side validation) are independently verified at every downstream layer rather than trusted at face value. The ideal candidate combines strong technical leadership with the ability to set and enforce delivery governance across cross-functional teams.
MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:
Provide technical governance across frontend, middleware, and backend testing layers.
Establish and enforce QA delivery standards, evidence requirements, review processes, and quality gates.
Review frontend constraint dictionaries and FSM/state-model outputs for completeness and consistency.
Review API schema reconstructions, network evidence, and tracer replay outputs for technical quality and traceability.
Coordinate with QA Analysts, SDETs, and Test Operations Associates to align technical execution with delivery timelines.
Review test architecture decisions, validation approaches, and coverage strategies.
Coordinate dependency resolution, evidence rework, and cross-layer reconciliation throughout the engagement.
Act as the escalation point for cross-layer technical discrepancies and evidence-quality issues.
Compile and quality-check the raw technical evidence dossiers produced by the workstreams.
Identify evidence gaps, inconsistencies, or areas requiring rework before handoff to client stakeholders.
Report on delivery health, technical risks, evidence quality, dependencies, and unresolved gaps.
Prepare the technical evidence package for handoff to the client team responsible for final modelling and logic-gap assessment.
Support technical readout preparation by ensuring that findings are traceable to empirical evidence.
Project Details
Title: Lead SDET Rate: $17/hr
Start Date: 19th October
Duration: 4 Months
Commitment: 22 Hours per Week
Location: India (Remote)
Job Type: Contractual (with the possibility of a Full-time employment extension based on performance and project needs)
QUALIFICATIONS:
Proven experience of 8+ years in a QA leadership role spanning multiple testing layers (frontend, middleware, backend)
Demonstrated expertise in API contract testing architecture and governance
Practical experience with knowledge graph or entity-relationship data modeling and its application to test/data traceability
Strong understanding of layered system architectures and the importance of independently verifying quality at each layer rather than relying on upstream assumptions
Strong track record of technical delivery governance, including setting standards and quality gates
Excellent cross-functional leadership and stakeholder communication skills
Deep technical grounding across QA disciplines (manual, automation, systems-level testing) to credibly guide teams at every layer
Experience mentoring or managing SDETs and QA Analysts
Experience leading complex multi-week technical QA, API validation, or security-assessment engagements is strongly preferred.
Experience establishing evidence/traceability models across complex technical workflows is preferred.
Familiarity with knowledge graphs, entity-relationship models, or structured technical dependency/evidence modeling is preferred; deep knowledge-graph engineering expertise is not required.
Ability to synthesize technical evidence into concise stakeholder-ready findings and handoff materials.

Work arrangement
Yes