Automation Engineering Manager

Role & responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Automation Engineering/QA Automation team, providing technical direction, mentoring, and performance management.
• Define and implement automation strategy, framework architecture, coding standards, and best practices.
• Design, develop, and maintain scalable automation frameworks for web, API, mobile, and backend applications.
• Drive automation across the SDLC, including functional, regression, integration, API, performance, and end-to-end testing.
• Integrate automated test suites with CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub Actions, or similar tools.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Product, DevOps, and QA teams to improve product quality and release velocity.
• Review automation code, test architecture, technical designs, and ensure adherence to engineering standards.
• Identify opportunities to improve test coverage, reduce manual testing, and optimize automation execution time.
• Establish KPIs and metrics for automation effectiveness, test coverage, defect leakage, execution time, and release quality.
• Manage automation projects, timelines, priorities, risks, and resource allocation.
• Drive adoption of modern automation technologies, tools, cloud platforms, and AI-assisted testing practices.
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues and provide solutions for automation and test infrastructure challenges.
• Participate in hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and career development of automation engineers.
• Communicate project status, quality metrics, risks, and technical issues to senior management and stakeholders.

Preferred candidate profile

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5 to 10 years of experience in software testing, test automation, quality engineering, or automation engineering, with relevant leadership experience.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java, Python, or JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Strong expertise in Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Appium, API automation, REST APIs, Postman, and automation framework development.
• Experience designing and implementing scalable automation frameworks and automation strategies.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD, Jenkins, Git, GitHub/GitLab, Docker, Kubernetes, and DevOps practices.
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP and cloud-based test automation environments.
• Good understanding of SQL, databases, microservices, distributed systems, and system integration.
• Experience with Agile/Scrum, SDLC, STLC, BDD/TDD, defect management, and release processes.
• Experience leading, mentoring, and managing automation/QA engineers.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, communication, stakeholder-management, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical contribution with people and engineering management.
• Experience in test strategy, quality engineering, automation ROI, and continuous improvement.
• Master's degree/MCA and relevant industry certifications are an added advantage.