Role Overview

We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Head of Quality Assurance (QA) to play a crucial "player-coach" role within our Global Delivery function. You will architect the end-to-end quality governance and test strategy across all client engagements while actively setting up cutting-edge AI evaluation frameworks and driving hands-on quality gates. This role transitions our quality ownership from an informal project-level setup into a dedicated, full-time leadership function.

In this role, you will eliminate defect leakage into UAT or production, safeguard project margins, champion our AI/LLM testing narrative during high-stakes client pitches, and mentor a high-performing team of QA professionals.

Key Responsibilities

Defining Strategy & Governance

● Define, institutionalize, and own the end-to-end QA strategy, testing standards, defect management workflows, and quality gates across all active delivery engagements to ensure enterprise-grade consistency.

● Establish standardized metrics for defect density, test coverage, automation ROI, and release stability across parallel delivery streams.

Architecting AI Evaluation Frameworks

● Act as the primary authority and hands-on implementor for setting up our AI evaluation framework—including curated test datasets, accuracy benchmarks, guardrail/safety testing, and automated regression suites for AI agents.

● Implement protocols for prompt evaluation, vector database validation, model drift monitoring, and safety benchmarking for LLM-driven applications.

Test Automation & Release Sign-Off





● Drive test automation strategies integrated directly into up-to-date CI/CD release pipelines

(Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab).

● Serve as the final authority on release readiness, conducting formal quality sign-offs prior to UAT handover and production go-live.

Risk Mitigation & Margin Protection

● Actively dive into quality data to identify risk factors, preventing defect leakage into production, eliminating costly rework, and protecting project margins.

● Manage defect triage processes, root-cause analyses (RCA), and preventative action tracking across delivery teams.

Client Engagement & Pre-Sales Support

● Partner with Pre-Sales and Architecture teams to articulate our QA and AI safety strategies in client RFPs, pitches, and technical workshops.

● Serve as the primary quality Subject Matter Expert (SME) during client steering committees and executive governance reviews.

Audit & Compliance Governance

● Collaborate closely with Corporate Quality to maintain alignment with enterprise governance bodies, ISO/CMMI compliance standards, and regulatory audits.

● Drive continuous quality improvement initiatives across all project teams.

Leadership & Mentoring

● Mentor and guide QA engineers and test leads by leading by example,



fostering a culture of continuous process improvement, automation excellence, and AI-first quality practices.

● Manage QA effort estimation, capacity allocation, and resource planning for new project onboarding and pre-sales proposals.

Qualifications & Candidate Profile

Must-Have

● 8–10+ years of experience in Quality Assurance and Software Testing, with at least 4–5

years of dedicated team leadership or engineering management experience.

● Mandatory hands-on expertise in AI/MLOps and AI testing, including experience with prompt evaluation, vector database validation, guardrail/safety testing, and LLM application benchmarking.

● Deep, practical knowledge of modern test automation frameworks (e.g., Selenium,

Playwright, Cypress, REST Assured) and integration with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub

Actions, GitLab).

● Proven track record in establishing quality gate governance, risk-based test planning,

defect metrics tracking, and executing formal release sign-offs.

● Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to translate complex quality data into actionable business strategies for leadership and client stakeholders.

Strongly Preferred

● BFSI Domain Expertise: Deep domain exposure in Banking, Financial Services,

Insurance, or Lending enterprise platforms.

● Pre-Sales & RFP Leadership: Direct experience collaborating with pre-sales teams,

contributing to complex RFP responses, and pitching quality strategies to prospective clients.

📌 Head of Quality Assurance (Chennai)
🏢 Intellect Design Arena
📍 Chennai