Practice Lead QA Automation

The Practice Lead for Quality Engineering (QE) is responsible for defining and scaling the Quality Engineering practice across the organization. This role drives the transition from traditional QA to modern, engineering-led quality practices, embedding quality across the SDLC through automation, DevOps, Agile, and AI-enabled testing. The Practice Lead ensures consistent delivery excellence, capability maturity, and commercial success of QE offerings.

Practice Strategy & Leadership

Define and execute the Quality Engineering practice strategy, roadmap, and operating model aligned with business and technology goals.

Establish QE as a value-driven engineering discipline, moving beyond defect detection to quality enablement and risk mitigation.

Act as the thought leader for QE, keeping the organization ahead of industry trends (AI in testing, shift-left/right, continuous testing).

Capability & Offering Development

Design and standardize QE frameworks, methodologies, tools, and accelerators across automation, performance, security, and reliability testing.

Build and evolve QE service offerings, including test automation, CI/CD quality gates, API testing, data and AI testing, and observability-driven testing.

Define maturity models, reusable assets, reference architectures, and best practices.

Delivery Excellence & Governance

Ensure consistent, high-quality QE delivery across accounts and programs.

Establish governance, KPIs, and metrics (defect leakage, automation coverage, cycle time, quality risk).

Support complex or at-risk engagements as an escalation and assurance leader.

Talent & Capability Building

Build, mentor, and scale high-performing QE teams and communities of practice.

Define role definitions, skill matrices, learning paths, and certification strategies.

Coach delivery leads, architects, and engineers in modern QE practices.

Client & Stakeholder Engagement

Partner with clients, and leaders to position QE as a strategic enabler of speed, resilience, and customer experience.

Lead client conversations on QE transformation, assessments, and roadmap development.

Support pre-sales activities including solution design, estimations, proposals, and executive presentations.

Commercial & Growth Support

Contribute to revenue growth through new offerings, account expansion, and deal shaping.

Improve delivery margins through automation, standardization, and productivity improvements.

Track practice-level financials, utilization, and investment priorities.

Required

Minimum Qualifications:

12+ years of experience in Quality Engineering, Testing, or Software Engineering, with at least 5 years in a leadership or practice-building role.

Strong expertise in test automation frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, Agile/DevOps environments, and cloud-native architectures.

Experience leading QE transformations across large-scale digital platforms or enterprise systems.

Proven ability to build and scale practices, including people, offerings, and delivery models.

Strong stakeholder management and executive communication skills.

Preferred

Experience with AI-driven testing, test data management, performance engineering, and security testing.

Background in consulting or technology services organizations.

Certifications in ISTQB, SAFe, Agile, DevOps, or cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).