Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership

- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of 4-5 QA engineers, providing technical direction and career guidance
- Plan and distribute work across the team; balance workload against sprint and release commitments
- Review team members' test plans, test cases, and automation code; hold the line on quality standards
- Run 1:1s, contribute to performance reviews, and support hiring/interviewing for QA roles
- Act as the QA point of contact for developers, product managers, and delivery stakeholders
- Escalate and unblock issues for the team without slipping into micromanagement

Individual Contribution

- Own end-to-end quality for at least one critical module or product as a hands-on tester
- Design, develop, and execute comprehensive test strategies (Functional, API, UI, Regression,E2E)
- Perform hands-on API testing using tools like Postman / Playwright / similar
- Build and maintain automation frameworks (UI/API) that the rest of the team builds on
- Identify edge cases, hidden risks, and potential production issues proactively

Process & Quality Ownership

- Own the defect triage process and root cause analysis across the team's scope
- Contribute to and oversee CI/CD pipeline integration of automated test suites
- Drive continuous improvement in QA processes, test coverage, and release quality org-wide
- Report on team quality metrics, release readiness, and risk to leadership

AI-First Quality Engineering

- Leverage AI tools to accelerate test case creation, test data generation, and defect analysis for yourself and the team




- Use AI-assisted automation for smarter test coverage and faster feedback cycles
- Explore and implement AI-driven testing approaches (self-healing locators, visual validation, anomaly detection)
- Utilize AI for root cause analysis, log analysis, and predictive risk identification
- Continuously evaluate and roll out recent AI tools across the team to improve QA efficiency
- Own the team's adoption of AI-driven QA workflows and agentic testing strategies

Required Skills & Qualifications

- 6+ years of experience in Software Testing / Quality Assurance
- 2+ years leading, mentoring, or informally guiding a QA team (formal title not required)
- Proven ability to balance hands-on IC delivery with people leadership
- Strong understanding of SDLC, STLC, and Agile methodologies
- Hands-on experience with automation tools (e.g., Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, etc.)
- Solid experience in API testing and backend validation
- Good understanding of databases and ability to write SQL queries
- Experience with bug tracking and test management tools
- Familiarity with CI/CD tools and version control (Git)
- Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and stakeholder communication skills

What We Value (Beyond Skills)

- High ownership mindset accountable for the team's quality output, not just your own
- Servant leadership ability to unblock and grow the team without micromanaging
- Strong logical thinking and ability to break down complex problems
- Curiosity to understand systems deeply, not just at surface level

📌 Lead Quality Analyst (QA) (Pune)
🏢 Heaptrace
📍 Pune