Lead QA Engineer

Location: India

Region: Maharashtra

City: Pune

Career Area: IT, Software & Digital

Experience Level: Experienced Professionals

Job ID: WD-0047448

Description and Requirements

We are looking for a highly experienced Lead QA Engineer to join our team. The ideal candidate will have 12+ years of experience in web-based and API software testing, including test automation in high-availability, high-volume environments. This role involves designing automation frameworks, system integration testing, and CI/CD integration while working in an Agile (SCRUM) environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain automation frameworks using Java or C#.
• Develop and execute automation test scripts for web, mobile, and API testing.
• Perform system integration testing (end-to-end) in microservices-based applications.
• Integrate automated test cases into CI/CD pipelines (preferably using GitLab).
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define test strategies, create test plans, and estimate efforts.
• Ensure appropriate test coverage across the development lifecycle.
• Drive timely identification and resolution of quality risks.
• Document test plans, test cases, defect reports, and release notes.
• Analyse automation failures, identify root causes and distinguish between product defects, test issues and environment issues.
• Define and track relevant QA KPIs and automation metrics such as automation coverage, execution reliability, defect leakage and regression effectiveness.
• Review automation code and ensure maintainability, reliability and scalability.
• Guide and mentor team members in automation & quality best practices.
• Establish a culture of ownership, collaboration and continuous improvement.
• Work closely with Development Leads and Product Owners to resolve quality-related challenges.
• Perform both manual and automated testing for web and mobile applications.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• 12+ years of experience in software testing, including test automation.
• Proven experience leading an automation QA team while remaining hands-on technically.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java or C#.
• Expertise in Selenium for web automation.
• Experience in mobile automation using Appium.
• Hands-on experience with at least one BDD framework: Cucumber, SpecFlow, or Reqnroll.
• API testing experience with Postman and RestAssured/RestSharp.
• Ability to design custom automation frameworks using Java or C#.
• Experience in CI/CD tools (GitLab preferred) for test automation execution.
• Strong experience in API automation and testing using tools/frameworks such as REST Assured, Postman/Newman or equivalent.
• Experience designing and maintaining automation frameworks from scratch.
• Strong knowledge of Agile methodology using JIRA.
• Strong understanding of software testing concepts, test design techniques, defect management and risk-based testing.
• Strong analytical skills, communication, and critical thinking.
• Experience using AI/GenAI tools for automation script development and test scenario creation.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled QA platforms (e.g., JIRA/Selenium MCP server or equivalent) for intelligent automation and workflow optimization.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Zephyr for test management.
• Performance testing using JMeter.
• Experience with Docker/AWS.
• SQL query knowledge for database validation.