QE & Automation Team Lead

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in South Africa.

📋 Description

• Take ownership of the technical design and daily operations of QE-managed API, web, mobile, integration, end-to-end, and regression automation frameworks.

• Lead the automation delivery utilizing Java, Playwright, Selenium WebDriver, TestNG, Maven, and Appium.

• Stay actively involved in architecture decisions, code reviews, complex test implementations, and root-cause analysis of automation failures.

• Enhance regression reliability through deterministic test data, stable setup and teardown processes, transparent quarantine rules, and the reduction of flaky tests.

• Integrate automation suites and quality evidence into GitLab CI/CD pipelines.

• Advance quality gates towards enforced automated controls where suitable.

• Create risk-based testing strategies that align with customer impact, architecture, regulatory requirements, scheme necessities, integration risk, and production history.

• Generate evidence-based release assessments that cover testing scope, automation results, open defects, coverage limitations, residual risks, and release recommendations.

• Sustain traceable and reproducible certification, compliance, and audit evidence.

• Monitor and report on regression health, risk coverage, defect escape rates, repeat incidents, and automation reliability.

• Transform root-cause findings into quality enhancements and corrective test coverage.

• Lead, mentor, and develop Quality Engineers within the 3DS portfolio.

• Manage performance through continuous, actionable feedback while supporting capability development and capacity planning.

• Coach Development and Product teams on shift-left quality practices.

• Strengthen developer ownership of unit, component, and feature-functional testing.

• Collaborate with Agile Delivery Leads, Scrum Masters, Platform, and DevOps teams regarding readiness, dependencies, environments, test data, and observability.

• Address quality concerns with responsible stakeholders and escalate issues when risks surpass agreed tolerances.

• Establish and uphold a quality baseline.

• Enhance test automation maturity, regression effectiveness, and engineering quality practices.

• Decrease defect escape rates, repeat incidents, and unnecessary escalations.

• Foster early engagement across QE, Development, Product, and Delivery teams.

• Drive quantifiable quality improvements throughout the product lifecycle.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 6 years of experience in software quality engineering and test automation.

• Proven technical leadership in automation frameworks or complex testing solutions.

• Strong expertise in Java and object-oriented design.

• Significant hands-on experience with Playwright, Selenium WebDriver, TestNG, Maven, and Appium, or equivalent technologies, with a quick ability to adapt.

• Experience in designing automation solutions for API, web, mobile, integration, and end-to-end testing in distributed service-oriented systems.

• Strong experience with CI/CD and GitLab pipelines, including parallelization, automated quality gates, reporting and visibility, as well as failure diagnosis and troubleshooting.

• Knowledge of treating flaky tests, test data issues, and environment stability as engineering reliability challenges.

• Strong judgment in risk management, along with experience in developing risk-based test strategies and release assessments.

• Experience in leading, mentoring, and developing engineering teams.

• Skills in performance management, coaching, and capacity planning.

• Familiarity with AI-assisted software engineering for test design, code generation, maintenance, and failure analysis.

• Proven ability to critically assess AI-generated outputs and provide measurable value from AI-enhanced practices.

• Strong problem-solving and analytical thinking capabilities.

• Clear and effective communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Ability to work independently and take initiative.

• Collaborative, pragmatic, and delivery-focused approach.

• Strong attention to quality, security, and maintainability.

🏝️ Benefits

• Flexible working hours.

• Option for remote work.

• Numerous growth opportunities.

• Exposure to cutting-edge technology.

• Collaboration with colleagues who are leaders in their respective fields.

• An excellent working environment.