The Lead SDET will drive the quality strategy for a cloud-native SaaS platform, focusing on automation, testing frameworks, and team mentorship in a collaborative environment.
Job Overview
We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Lead SDET – Quality Engineering to drive the quality strategy for our AI-driven cloud operations platform. This role will focus on building scalable, reliable, and intelligent test automation systems, enabling high-quality releases in a fast-paced SaaS environment.
The ideal candidate will champion modern quality engineering practices, including automation, cloud-native testing, and observability-driven validation. This role goes beyond traditional QA to ensure end-to-end product quality across distributed systems.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and drive the quality engineering strategy for our cloud-native SaaS platform
- Design, develop, and maintain scalable automation frameworks and test suites across UI, API, and integration layers
- Collaborate closely with engineering teams to embed quality practices within the development lifecycle (shift-left)
- Ensure seamless integration of automated tests into CI/CD pipelines with appropriate quality gates
- Define and implement test strategies for microservices-based and distributed systems
- Establish best practices for test design, execution, and reporting, continuously improving frameworks and processes
- Drive API-first testing strategy, including contract and schema validation
- Utilize observability tools (logs, metrics, traces) to validate system behavior and improve production quality (shift-right)
- Work with product and engineering teams to ensure high test coverage and release confidence
- Experience with performance and load testing for cloud-native, distributed systems, including defining strategies, evaluating tools (e.g., k6, Locust, Gatling), and ensuring system scalability and reliability at scale
- Mentor and manage a team of quality engineers, fostering a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement
- Participate in architecture and design discussions to influence testability and quality
Must Have
- Strong programming experience in Python (preferred) or Java/JavaScript
- Hands-on experience with modern automation frameworks:
- Playwright / Cypress (UI Automation)
- Pytest / Robot / similar frameworks
- Strong experience in API testing:
- REST APIs using tools like Postman/Newman, REST Assured, or Python (requests)
- Experience with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or GitLab CI
- Solid understanding of cloud-native architectures (microservices, containers, distributed systems)
- Experience working with Docker and Kubernetes-based environments
- Strong understanding of software development lifecycle (SDLC) and Agile methodologies
- Experience leading or contributing to modernization/migration initiatives (e.g., legacy to modern automation frameworks, tooling consolidation, platform upgrades)
- Experience testing cloud-based applications, preferably on AWS
- Familiarity with contract testing / schema validation (OpenAPI, Pact, etc.)
- Exposure to observability tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch
- Familiarity with AI-driven or intelligent test automation tools
Good to Have
- Experience with AI/ML-driven systems testing, including:
- Validating model outputs for accuracy and consistency
- Testing non-deterministic systems (e.g., LLM-based features)
- Understanding of data quality, drift, and bias considerations
- Knowledge of event-driven architectures (Kafka, messaging systems) and testing strategies
- Exposure to security testing fundamentals (OWASP)
- Experience implementing shift-right practices such as synthetic monitoring or canary validation
Soft Skills
- Ability to drive quality culture across teams
- Proactive mindset with a focus on continuous improvement
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment
Experience
- 8-12 years of experience in test automation / quality engineering
- Strong leadership and mentoring capabilities
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and debugging skills
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related field
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