A global travel management and retail travel company (one of the world's largest), operating across corporate and leisure travel with a significant technology and digital delivery footprint.

Engagement : Contract - 6+ months

Shift : 6 : 00 PM IST (8 hours) - working with Europe, US counterparts

Role Overview :

We are seeking a hands-on QA Lead to own the quality assurance and test automation strategy across the client's delivery squads. This is not a standalone QA function - you will be fully embedded as a dedicated, full-time member of the squads you support, working shoulder-to-shoulder with developers, product, and business stakeholders. You will set the quality bar, mentor test engineers, and drive BDD-led automation using Cucumber and Playwright.

Key Responsibilities :

- Define, own, and continuously improve the test automation strategy, frameworks, and quality standards across assigned squads.

- Lead and mentor a team of Senior Test Engineers and Test Engineers; review test design, provide technical direction, and maintain coding standards.

- Design, build, and maintain scalable BDD automation frameworks using Cucumber and Playwright.

- Translate business requirements into Gherkin scenarios in collaboration with product owners and developers (the three amigos model).

- Embed automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and drive shift-left testing practices within Agile sprints.

- Own defect lifecycle management, release readiness sign-off, and quality reporting to stakeholders.

- Champion quality as a shared squad responsibility rather than a downstream gate.

Required Experience :

- 6+ years in software testing, with substantial hands-on automation experience (not purely managerial).

- Proven hands-on expertise with Cucumber, Playwright, and BDD/Gherkin.

- Strong programming skills (JavaScript/TypeScript preferred; Java acceptable) and solid understanding of Page Object Model, modular framework design, and test design patterns.

- Experience integrating automated suites into CI/CD (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins).

- Comfortable working in Agile/Scrum squads; proficient with Jira, Git, and defect/bug lifecycle management.

- Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring QA engineers.

- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills to operate across distributed, multi-timezone teams.