Role & Responsibilities :

- Lead and manage the QA/Test Engineering team, including mentoring, performance management, hiring, and career development.

- Define and execute the overall test strategy, quality roadmap, and automation strategy across products and releases.

- Own the end-to-end testing lifecycle including test planning, estimation, execution, defect management, regression, and release validation.

- Drive test automation across UI, API, integration, regression, and end-to-end testing.

- Establish and improve QA processes, standards, metrics, and best practices to improve product quality and release confidence.

- Collaborate closely with Engineering, Product Management, DevOps, and Business teams to ensure quality is built into the development lifecycle.

- Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and promote shift-left testing practices.

- Review test coverage, identify quality risks, and ensure appropriate risk-based testing for critical features.

- Monitor and report quality KPIs, defect trends, test coverage, automation effectiveness, and release readiness to leadership.

- Drive root-cause analysis for production defects and implement preventive actions.

- Evaluate and introduce appropriate testing tools, frameworks, and technologies to improve efficiency and reliability.

- Manage testing timelines and dependencies across multiple projects/releases.

Preferred Candidate Profile :

- 8-10 years of experience in Software Testing / Quality Engineering, with relevant experience leading or managing QA/Test Engineering teams.

- Strong experience in test automation and hands-on understanding of automation frameworks and tools.

- Good knowledge of API testing, UI testing, integration testing, regression testing, and end-to-end testing.

- Experience with CI/CD, DevOps practices, Git, and cloud-based environments.

- Strong understanding of SDLC, STLC, Agile/Scrum methodologies, and software quality practices.

- Experience designing and implementing test strategies and automation frameworks from the ground up.

- Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and develop high-performing engineering/QA teams.

- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and manage quality and release risks.

- Experience working cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, DevOps, and Business stakeholders.

- Strong understanding of defect management, test planning, estimation, test metrics, and quality reporting.

- Ability to balance technical leadership and people management.

- Excellent communication, stakeholder-management, and leadership skills.

- Experience with performance testing, security testing, mobile testing, or distributed/cloud applications would be an added advantage.

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field is preferred.