QA Lead / Senior QA Lead – Manual Testing & Automation

Job Type: Full-time

Experience: 6+ Years

Leadership Experience: 2+ Years

Function: Quality Assurance / Software Testing

Work Mode: Navi Mumbai

Industry: IT / SaaS / Product

Job Summary

We are looking for a Senior QA Lead / QA Lead to lead our manual testing team and own the testing strategy and quality standards across our highest-stakes products.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will lead and mentor the QA team while remaining actively involved in testing complex and high-risk product areas.

The ideal candidate has strong experience in manual testing, test strategy, QA process setup, release-readiness, defect RCA, WebSockets, and automation using Python + Selenium.

You will work closely with Product, Engineering and Leadership to ensure that quality is measurable, risks are clearly communicated, and releases meet defined QA standards.

Key ResponsibilitiesQA Strategy & Process

- Define and own QA processes and test strategies for complex products and client projects.
- Build and maintain test plans, test scenarios, coverage matrices and traceability.
- Establish testing standards for complex business logic and integration-heavy products.
- Improve QA processes, documentation and overall testing maturity.

Team Leadership
- Lead, mentor and develop the manual testing team.
- Review test cases and test scenarios and improve test-design quality.
- Coach testers on edge-case thinking, coverage and defect identification.
- Improve the quality and effectiveness of defect reporting.
- Establish clear QA standards and hold the team accountable to them.

Release Readiness
- Own QA release-readiness and sign-off across products.
- Ensure releases have documented and executed test coverage.
- Make objective go/no-go quality recommendations based on actual testing results.
- Maintain QA independence from delivery and schedule pressure.

Defect RCA & Quality Improvement
- Lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for escaped defects.
- Identify why defects escaped — coverage gaps,



regression gaps, handoff issues, rushed sign-off, etc.
- Drive corrective and preventive actions to reduce recurring defects.
- Track quality trends and identify areas requiring improvement.

Hands-on Testing
- Remain hands-on with testing of the most complex and highest-risk areas.
- Perform functional, regression, integration, exploratory and scenario-based testing.
- Test complex areas involving:
- Payments and multi-currency workflows
- Role-based access and permissions
- Multi-tenant data isolation
- Sensitive / regulated data
- Integration-heavy business logic
- WebSockets and real-time functionality

Automation
- Contribute to and support automation initiatives.
- Identify suitable areas for automation and help build the automation roadmap.
- Work with Python + Selenium for automated testing.
- Help establish a long-term automation strategy alongside the manual QA function.

Reporting & Stakeholder Management
- Report quality status, risks, defects and trends to senior leadership.
- Provide transparent visibility into release readiness and product quality.
- Coordinate testing across multiple products and complex client projects.
- Maintain accurate QA records in Zoho Projects, Zoho Desk, Jira or similar tools.

Required Qualifications
- 6+ years of overall QA / Software Testing experience
- 2+ years of experience leading or mentoring a QA/testing team
- Proven experience owning test strategy and QA processes
- Strong hands-on manual testing experience
- Experience creating test plans, coverage frameworks and traceability
- Experience owning release-readiness / go-no-go QA decisions




- Strong experience conducting RCA for escaped defects
- Experience testing complex products involving:
- Payments
- Multi-tenant applications / data isolation
- Sensitive or regulated data
- Strong leadership, mentoring and team-management skills
- Strong defect tracking and test management experience
- Experience with Zoho, Jira or similar tools
- WebSockets experience – Mandatory
- Automation experience – Mandatory
- Minimum 2 years of automation experience using Python + Selenium – Mandatory

Preferred Qualifications
- Experience developing or implementing a QA automation strategy
- API testing experience
- Performance testing experience
- Experience in Payments, Healthcare, EdTech, or products handling children's data
- ISTQB Advanced certification or equivalent
- Experience working in SaaS / product-based environments

What We Are Looking For We are looking for someone who can lead from the front — a QA professional who can manage a team while still testing the hardest problems themselves.

You should be comfortable challenging assumptions, identifying quality risks, giving direct feedback, and making evidence-based release recommendations.

The role requires someone who can establish strong QA standards, improve testing maturity, mentor the team and take ownership of product quality.

If you have strong manual QA leadership experience combined with hands-on Python + Selenium automation and WebSockets testing pls share cv [email protected] with np, ctc, expected ctc and if ok for mumbai.

Key Skills

QA Lead | QA Manager | Manual Testing | Software Testing | Test Strategy | Test Planning | Test Cases | Test Management | Regression Testing | Functional Testing | Integration Testing | Exploratory Testing | Defect Management | RCA | Release Management | Release Readiness | Python | Selenium | Test Automation | WebSockets | API Testing | Jira | Zoho | SaaS | Product Testing

Pay: ₹1,000,000.00 - ₹1,800,000.00 per year

Work Location: In person

📌 QA Manager (Navi Mumbai)
🏢 Talent Consultant
📍 Navi Mumbai