API Test Automation Lead

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the API Quality Engineering strategy, including automation coverage targets, testing pyramid, and release quality gates.

• Build and maintain API automation frameworks covering REST, GraphQL, and gRPC.

• Drive functional, regression, integration, and contract testing across APIs.

• Establish consumer-driven contract testing standards using Pact or equivalent tools.

• Drive performance and load-testing programs, including baseline definition, degradation detection, and capacity validation.

• Define and implement API security testing practices, including:

• Authentication and authorization bypass testing

• Injection testing

• Rate-limit validation

• OWASP API Top 10 coverage

• Implement and govern quality gates across CI/CD pipelines, including blocking gates, automation thresholds, and reporting dashboards.

• Extend automation coverage to web, mobile, and end-to-end flows to ensure complete release validation.

• Own the complete defect management lifecycle, including triage, root-cause analysis, severity classification, and remediation tracking.

• Lead the QA team and establish an automation-first testing culture.

• Upskill QA and engineering teams on automation, testing standards, tools, and best practices.

• Collaborate closely with engineering, product, DevOps, security, and business teams to improve overall product quality.

Must-Have Skills

• Strong experience in automated web, mobile, API, and end-to-end testing.

• Automation-first mindset with strong hands-on implementation experience.

• Hands-on expertise with test automation frameworks and API testing tools.

• Strong understanding of:

• Test strategy

• API testing

• Regression testing

• Contract testing

• Performance testing

• Security testing

• Release validation

• Excellent debugging and root-cause analysis skills.

• Strong understanding of defect management and quality assurance processes.

• Experience leading QA teams and driving automation-first testing practices.

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, ambiguous, and high-ownership environment.

Relevant Designations for Sourcing

QA Automation Lead, API Automation Lead, Test Automation Lead, Quality Engineering Lead, Lead SDET, QA Lead, Senior SDET, API QA Lead