Automation and QA Principal Lead

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Senior Automation and QA Principal Lead based in India.

As a Senior Automation and QA Principal Lead, you will provide technical leadership in building and advancing modern quality engineering practices for complex digital products. You will assess existing automation capabilities and drive the adoption of Playwright and other suitable technologies. The role combines automation architecture, hands-on engineering, quality strategy, CI/CD integration, and technical guidance. You will help establish scalable frameworks, improve testing efficiency, and introduce AI-assisted development approaches to accelerate automation delivery. You will work closely with cross-functional engineering and QA teams in an Agile environment to improve product quality and manage testing risks. This is an opportunity to influence automation standards, mentor technical teams, and shape the future of quality engineering across global projects.

Accountabilities:

• Architect, design, and implement scalable test automation frameworks from the ground up, aligned with project and product requirements.
• Assess existing automation suites and lead their modernization and migration to Playwright and other appropriate technologies.
• Develop automated functional UI tests as well as API and service-level tests to provide comprehensive test coverage.
• Design, maintain, and continuously expand automated testing infrastructure to improve reliability, scalability, and execution efficiency.
• Integrate automated testing solutions into CI/CD pipelines and development workflows to support continuous quality validation.
• Define and document automation frameworks, coding standards, design patterns, testing methodologies, and engineering best practices.
• Establish and enforce code-quality standards through peer reviews, ensuring automation solutions remain maintainable, consistent, and scalable.
• Define meaningful quality metrics and implement measurement frameworks to evaluate test effectiveness, testing efficiency, and overall product quality.
• Analyze test results and provide clear conclusions and reporting on product quality, risks, and readiness.
• Collaborate with QA and engineering teams to identify manual testing processes that can be effectively automated.
• Identify, assess, manage, and mitigate testing risks throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Leverage AI development tools, including Claude, to accelerate test-script creation, maintenance, optimization, and automation productivity.
• Provide technical advice and guidance to QA and testing teams on automation strategy, frameworks, tools, and best practices.
• Support the onboarding and technical enablement of new team members, helping them understand project-specific automation practices and standards.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives across quality engineering, automation infrastructure, and delivery processes.
• Promote consistent Agile testing practices while collaborating with distributed stakeholders and maintaining approximately four hours of overlap with Central US working hours.

Requirements:

• 8+ years of professional experience in QA automation, with strong expertise in web and backend/API testing.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building automation frameworks from scratch and establishing scalable automation architectures.
• Hands-on experience with modern automation frameworks such as PlaywrightJS, PuppeteerJS, or WebdriverIO, with strong Playwright knowledge highly valued.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools, particularly Claude, to accelerate automation script creation, maintenance, and optimization.
• Excellent understanding of software testing methods, techniques, test types, methodologies, and quality engineering principles.
• Strong experience creating test documentation, including test strategies, test plans, and other quality-related documentation.
• Experience integrating automated test reporting solutions such as Allure or similar tools.
• Practical experience with BDD, ATDD, and TDD approaches.
• Experience with at least one JavaScript test runner such as JasmineJS, MochaJS, Jest, AVA, or Playwright.
• Strong understanding of JavaScript programming concepts, including the event loop model, asynchronous execution, programming patterns, and principles.
• Good understanding of CSS and XPath selector syntax.
• Extensive experience with CI/CD processes and tools such as Jenkins, Bitbucket CI/CD, GitHub Actions, TeamCity, or similar platforms.
• Strong experience with version control systems, particularly Git; knowledge of SVN or other systems is an advantage.
• Good knowledge of AWS and/or Azure DevOps services.
• Good knowledge of SQL and NoSQL databases, including PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, or similar technologies.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies, particularly Scrum and Kanban, with experience working in Agile development environments.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, risk-management, and technical decision-making skills.
• Strong communication, collaboration, mentoring, and stakeholder-management abilities.
• Upper-Intermediate English proficiency or above, with excellent spoken and written communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with globally distributed teams and maintain approximately four hours of overlap with the Central US region.
• Experience or knowledge of .NET and Java is an advantage.

Benefits:

• 100% remote working opportunity from anywhere in India.
• Opportunity to work on large-scale, globally impactful technology and engineering projects.
• Exposure to modern automation, Playwright, AI-assisted development, cloud technologies, and CI/CD practices.
• Opportunity to influence automation architecture, quality engineering standards, and testing strategy.
• Collaborative environment with experienced engineering and QA professionals.
• Access to internal learning opportunities, meetups, conferences, workshops, and knowledge-sharing events.
• Access to online learning resources such as Udemy and language development programs.
• Company-supported professional certifications and continuous skills development.
• Opportunities for internal mobility and exposure to diverse technology domains.
• Company-paid medical insurance.
• Mental health and wellbeing support.
• Financial and legal consultation services.
• Opportunities to develop technical leadership, mentoring, and automation architecture expertise.