Senior QA Strategy & Automation Lea...

We are seeking a highly experienced Senior QA Strategy and Automation Lead to spearhead quality engineering for our distributed, cloud-native, high-scale systems. This is a pivotal leadership role for a hands-on QA strategist adept at architecting robust automation frameworks, establishing comprehensive testing standards, integrating quality gates into CI/CD pipelines, and ensuring the performance, reliability, and security of enterprise-grade applications, particularly within the cybersecurity domain. You will collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, DevOps, and security teams in a remote, distributed setting.

Key Responsibilities:

QA Strategy and Quality Leadership:

• Develop and champion the organization-wide QA strategy.
• Define quality benchmarks, key performance indicators (KPIs), and release readiness frameworks.
• Cultivate a risk-based and automation-first testing culture.
• Mentor and scale QA teams effectively in a remote environment.
• Integrate quality assurance practices early in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

Automation Framework Architecture:

• Design and implement scalable test frameworks utilizing technologies such as TestNG/JUnit, Cypress/Playwright, Karate, and JMeter.
• Build comprehensive automation for UI, API, integration, regression, and performance testing.
• Ensure the stability, maintainability, and parallel execution of automation suites.
• Focus on reducing test flakiness and enhancing automation reliability.

Python and Engineering Excellence:

• Demonstrate strong programming proficiency in Python; Java experience is a plus.
• Develop reusable testing libraries and utilities.
• Conduct code reviews to assess testability and automation readiness.

Cloud, DevOps, and CI/CD Integration:

• Integrate automation suites seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab).
• Implement automated quality gates within deployment workflows.
• Work extensively with AWS cloud environments.
• Utilize Docker and Kubernetes for containerized test execution.

Monitoring and Observability:

• Leverage monitoring tools such as New Relic, Datadog, and Prometheus.
• Validate Service Level Agreements (SLAs), system reliability, and production health.
• Apply observability insights to proactively enhance product quality.

Performance and Security Testing:

• Lead performance testing initiatives using JMeter.
• Validate the scalability, high availability (HA), and resilience of distributed systems.
• Promote security-focused testing practices, including OWASP guidelines and vulnerability assessments.
• Experience in cybersecurity or security automation platforms is highly desirable.

Requirements:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in QA automation and strategy.
• Proven track record of leading QA efforts in distributed or remote teams.
• Hands-on expertise with TestNG/JUnit, Cypress/Playwright, Karate, and JMeter.
• Strong Python coding skills are essential.
• In-depth experience with CI/CD and DevOps integration.
• Significant exposure to AWS-based cloud systems.
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools.
• A solid understanding of microservices and distributed architectures.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with a readiness for remote collaboration.

Nice to Have:

• Experience in cybersecurity, SOAR, or enterprise SaaS environments.
• Familiarity with compliance-heavy environments (e.g., SOC2, ISO).
• Experience in building QA organizational structures from the ground up.
• A background in large-scale performance engineering.