Quality Engineering Lead

About the role

This position offers a unique opportunity to establish and advance a comprehensive quality engineering framework from its foundation. You will be instrumental in shaping the strategy, building the necessary infrastructure, and leading a team to embed quality throughout the entire product development cycle. If you envision reinventing quality engineering with the integration of AI, this role is for you. This is a chance to define what quality means for a growing SaaS company operating at scale. You will partner with engineering leadership to ensure quality is not an afterthought but a core component of the product strategy. The role requires a proactive leader who can build trust and influence across distributed teams. Success will be measured by the robustness of the quality systems you create and the autonomy of the engineering teams you enable. You will have the authority to drive process improvements and adopt modern practices that align with the company's innovative goals.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Architect the end-to-end quality engineering strategy, defining the vision and execution roadmap for the product lifecycle.
• Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing team of quality engineers, focusing on mentorship, career growth, and performance optimization.
• Design and implement a cohesive quality system that integrates persona and journey modeling with robust end-to-end test automation.
• Build and maintain the shared developer tooling and infrastructure necessary to support efficient and scalable testing practices.
• Establish definitive quality metrics and reporting structures to provide clear visibility and foster accountability across the organization.
• Drive the adoption and exploration of AI-driven quality practices, specifically in the areas of automated test generation and feature evaluation.
• Maintain deep technical involvement by designing and implementing test solutions for the most critical and complex product areas.
• Partner directly with Product and Engineering leadership to embed quality requirements into every stage of planning, execution, and delivery.
• Champion the shift-left methodology by collaborating with developers to build quality into the initial design and implementation phases.
• Own the evaluation and implementation of tools and frameworks that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the quality engineering organization.
• Lead the strategy for testing AI-powered features, including prompt validation, dataset management, and regression testing protocols.
• Apply and evaluate generative AI tools within the quality workflow to accelerate testing cycles and improve coverage accuracy.
• Act as the primary advocate for a quality-as-enablement mindset, challenging traditional gatekeeping approaches and promoting agility.
• Produce high-quality strategic documents, playbooks, and standards that communicate the quality vision and ensure organizational alignment.

Requirements

• Bring a minimum of 7 years of hands-on experience in quality engineering, with a proven track record of leading quality initiatives in complex SaaS environments.
• Demonstrate a history of successfully managing and developing engineering talent, including hiring, coaching, mentoring, and setting clear performance standards.
• Possess strong, current hands-on engineering skills, allowing you to write, review, and refactor production-grade test code and supporting tools.
• Show a documented history of owning and implementing quality systems that span the entire software development lifecycle.
• Apply practical experience with modern test automation frameworks, specifically browser automation tools such as Playwright or equivalent technologies.
• Exhibit the capability to lead quality assurance for AI-powered features, including prompt evaluation, dataset management, and comprehensive regression testing.
• Have a deep understanding and practical application of generative AI within quality engineering workflows, utilizing tools like Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex.
• Maintain a mindset that views quality as a function that enables speed and innovation rather than a barrier to release.
• Show excellence in written communication, capable of crafting clear strategy documents, detailed playbooks, and established standards.

Nice to have

• Demonstrate experience with contract testing methodologies and tools, such as Pact, to ensure service reliability.
• Possess direct experience in evaluating AI features, including rigorous prompt assessment and hallucination testing practices.

Skills & tools

• Expertise in Playwright or comparable browser automation frameworks for building reliable UI tests.
• Practical experience with contract testing tools and frameworks, specifically Pact-style implementations.
• Familiarity with AI tooling designed for quality engineering, including but not limited to Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex.

Practical notes

• The interview process is interactive and includes technical and leadership assessments to evaluate core competencies.
• The company moves quickly to integrate and onboard suitable candidates to meet urgent business needs.