Quality Engineering Lead

About the role

We are seeking a leader to oversee quality engineering for Pairs, a major dating application with over 25 million registered users. You will build systems that allow both human developers and AI agents to maintain high velocity without compromising product stability. You will own the end-to-end quality strategy that ensures our product meets the highest standards of reliability and performance. This position requires fluency in Japanese to effectively communicate requirements and results with local stakeholders and team members. You will act as the primary architect for quality initiatives within the Eureka organization in Tokyo. The role demands a balance between tactical execution and visionary planning to align testing with business objectives. You will foster a culture where quality is everyone's responsibility, breaking down barriers between development and testing functions. Your work will directly influence the user experience for millions of people seeking connections through our platform.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Define the company-wide quality engineering strategy to support AI-driven development by establishing foundational principles and guardrails.
• Design and implement automated testing frameworks, CI/CD quality gates, and feedback loops to accelerate delivery while maintaining safety.
• Create environments where AI agents can autonomously detect and fix quality issues by providing the right tooling and observability.
• Track and visualize metrics such as test coverage, defect rates, incident frequency, and production escapes to inform decision making.
• Identify bottlenecks through data analysis to improve architecture and development processes, reducing friction in the delivery pipeline.
• Lead the hands-on design, implementation, and review of testing infrastructure to ensure scalability and maintainability.
• Manage the quality engineering team, including hiring, goal setting, and professional development, to build a high-performing unit.
• Collaborate with product managers to define and measure quality signals that reflect user needs and protect the integrity of the product.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and integrate proven innovations into the quality engineering practice to stay ahead of industry standards.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to embed quality practices from the initial concept through production deployment and monitoring.
• Conduct code reviews focused on testability, resilience, and robustness to ensure that new features meet quality benchmarks.
• Serve as the subject matter expert for quality tools, methodologies, and best practices within the Match Group ecosystem.

Requirements

• Experience as a software engineer, SET, SDET, or quality engineer with a deep understanding of the software development lifecycle.
• Background in testing web, mobile, or backend systems across multiple platforms and technologies is essential.
• Practical knowledge of multi-layer automation, including unit, integration, API, and E2E testing, to cover all critical paths.
• Experience integrating automated quality checks into CI/CD pipelines to catch issues early and reduce manual overhead.
• Ability to build testing tools and infrastructure using programming languages such as Go, TypeScript, JavaScript, and Python.
• Proven track record of using data to drive technical and organizational improvements, relying on metrics rather than intuition.
• Experience managing engineering or quality teams, including mentoring, performance reviews, and resource planning.
• Fluent Japanese communication skills, both written and verbal, to collaborate effectively with local and regional teams.
• Strong problem-solving skills and a methodical approach to diagnosing complex issues in distributed systems.
• Commitment to continuous learning and adapting to new tools, frameworks, and testing methodologies.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI coding agents or generative AI in software development to enhance productivity and code quality.
• Background in implementing AI for code generation, automated testing, or quality analysis to leverage emerging capabilities.
• Experience managing quality for high-traffic, large-scale services that demand rigorous reliability standards.
• Expertise in mobile application testing strategies, including device farms, automation, and performance profiling.
• Knowledge of engineering metrics, Shift Left testing, and observability to build proactive quality practices.
• Experience working with global teams using English to collaborate effectively across regions and time zones.

Practical notes

• This role involves direct, hands-on technical work alongside strategic leadership to ensure alignment between vision and execution.
• You will be responsible for shifting quality ownership across the entire development lifecycle rather than maintaining a siloed QA department.
• The position requires relocation to Tokyo, and candidates must be able to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.
• Work hours are full-time, with expectations for collaboration during overlapping business hours with global teams.
• Travel may be required occasionally for team meetings, stakeholder reviews, or industry conferences.
• Visa sponsorship may be considered for qualified candidates based on company policies and local regulations.
• The successful candidate will need to adapt to our technology stack, which includes MySQL, DynamoDB, Amazon ElastiCache, Elasticsearch, Kubernetes, AWS, Google Cloud, Terraform, Git, GitHub, GitHub Actions, Docker, Jira Cloud, and Slack.
• Proficiency in the listed programming languages and infrastructure tools is expected, or the ability to quickly acquire these skills.
• This role reports to the Engineering Management team within the Eureka organization and interacts closely with product, design, and operations functions.