SDET QA Automation Lead

Experience: 7-10 yrs
Location: Chennai
Working Mode: 5 days from office
Technical Expertise:
Test automation using Playwright
Framework development
Test case design and execution
API automation
CI/CD pipeline
Test Strategy, Planning, Reporting & Metrics
Job Description:
We are seeking a highly skilled, customer-facing Senior / Lead QA Automation Engineer with deep expertise in Quality Engineering, Test Automation Framework Development, Playwright, CI/CD Integration.
This role requires a strong Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) mindset, combining robust testing fundamentals with hands-on automation architecture, programming expertise, and strategic quality leadership. The ideal candidate will champion Shift-Left testing practices, lead automation framework modernization initiatives, and drive quality engineering excellence across web, API, and backend systems.
As a senior technical leader, you will work directly with customers, architects, developers, and business stakeholders to design scalable quality solutions, remove delivery bottlenecks, and establish enterprise-grade automation practices. This role demands excellent technical depth, strong problem-solving ability, and the capability to articulate complex technical concepts with confidence.
Key Responsibilities
Testing Strategy, Quality Engineering & Test Design
Define and own comprehensive Test Plans, Test Strategies, and quality assurance approaches for complex healthcare applications.
Establish testing scope, entry and exit criteria, risk assessment models, and quality gates across the SDLC.
Design effective test cases and end-to-end business scenarios using industry-standard test design techniques.
Ensure complete traceability between business requirements, test coverage, defects, and quality outcomes.
Drive adoption of Agile, Shift-Left, Risk-Based, and Exploratory Testing methodologies.
Partner with business and product teams to ensure critical healthcare workflows receive adequate coverage.
Framework Architecture & Automation Engineering
Playwright & Selenium Framework Leadership
Architect, develop, and maintain scalable test automation frameworks using Playwright.
Lead automation modernization efforts, including migration from legacy Selenium-based frameworks to modern Playwright-based solutions.
Design reusable framework components, utilities, reporting modules, test execution engines, and configuration management layers.
Implement robust automation solutions supporting:
Cross-browser testing
Parallel execution
Data-driven testing
API automation
Environment management
CI/CD integration
Automated reporting
Framework Engineering Excellence
Define and maintain framework architecture, package structures, folder hierarchies, and coding standards.
Apply Object-Oriented Programming principles, design patterns, and software engineering best practices.
Conduct framework reviews and recommend scalability, maintainability, and performance improvements.
Mentor engineering teams on framework design and automation development best practices.
API Testing & Backend Validation
Design and execute automated API testing strategies for microservices and RESTful applications.
Implement contract testing, integration testing, and service-level validation frameworks.
Validate end-to-end business transactions across application, service, and database layers.
Develop automated solutions for test data creation, API mocking, and service virtualization.
Flaky Test Elimination & Troubleshooting
Investigate, troubleshoot, and resolve unstable automation executions.
Perform deep-root-cause analysis using:
Playwright Trace Viewer
Browser Developer Tools
Execution Logs
CI/CD Diagnostics
Monitoring Platforms
Optimize synchronization strategies, locator design, waits, retries, and test stability mechanisms.
Improve automation reliability, execution performance, and maintenance efficiency.
CI/CD, Observability & Quality Orchestration
Continuous Integration & Delivery
Integrate automation frameworks with enterprise CI/CD pipelines using:
Azure DevOps
Jenkins
GitHub Actions
GitLab CI/CD

Work arrangement
No