Practo - Lead Software Development Engineer - Test

Practo - Lead SDET - Mobile & Web Automation About The Role We are looking for a Lead SDET - Mobile & Web Automation to lead the quality engineering strategy across Practo's mobile and web platforms. You will manage and mentor a team of SDETs while driving scalable automation, CI/CD quality gates, release readiness, and engineering excellence.

The role combines technical leadership, hands-on automation, test strategy, and AI-driven quality engineering. You will work closely with Engineering, Product, and Release teams to build reliable, scalable, and high-quality healthcare products.

Key Responsibilities Team Leadership & Mentorship :

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of SDETs across Android, iOS, and Web platforms.
• Set priorities, review deliverables, and establish strong automation engineering practices.
• Coach team members on automation, testing methodologies, debugging, and technical problem-solving.
• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, quality, and continuous improvement.

Test Strategy & Quality Engineering

• Own the overall test strategy for mobile and web UI, covering functional, regression, compatibility, and release sign-off testing.
• Define comprehensive test plans aligned with product requirements and release objectives.
• Drive improvements in test coverage, execution efficiency, stability, and overall product quality.
• Partner with Engineering and Product teams to identify quality risks early in the development lifecycle.

Automation Frameworks

• Architect, build, and maintain scalable automation frameworks for Android and iOS using Appium.
• Contribute to and enhance web UI automation using tools such as Playwright.
• Establish reusable automation components, utilities, and best practices across platforms.
• Continuously improve automation reliability, maintainability, and execution speed.

CI/CD & Release Quality

• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines that execute automated test suites across builds and releases.
• Implement clear test reporting, fast feedback mechanisms, and reliable quality gates.
• Integrate automation into the software delivery lifecycle to enable continuous quality validation.
• Partner with Release and DevOps teams to improve deployment confidence and release readiness.

Quality Metrics & Continuous Improvement

• Drive measurable improvements in test coverage, automation stability, execution speed, and defect prevention.
• Identify and reduce flaky tests and manual regression effort release over release.
• Track and report quality metrics including coverage, defect leakage, pass rates, automation health, and release health.
• Use quality data and trends to identify areas for improvement and communicate risks to stakeholders.

AI & LLM Quality Engineering

• Define and implement testing approaches for AI/LLM-powered features.
• Evaluate AI-powered functionality for response quality, accuracy, safety, consistency, and reliability.
• Develop suitable evaluation strategies and test scenarios for AI-driven product experiences.
• Build and leverage AI agents and AI-assisted tools to accelerate test design, test generation, test execution, and failure analysis.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Engineering, Product, and Release teams to ensure end-to-end product quality.
• Participate in release readiness discussions, defect triage, and production quality reviews.
• Collaborate with developers and product stakeholders to identify root causes and drive timely resolution of quality issues.
• Advocate for quality engineering practices throughout the software development lifecycle.

Technical Skills & Requirements

• Strong experience in Software Development Engineering in Test (SDET) or Quality Engineering.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining mobile automation frameworks using Appium.
• Strong experience with Android and iOS application testing.
• Experience with web UI automation, preferably using Playwright or similar frameworks.
• Strong understanding of functional, regression, compatibility, integration, and end-to-end testing.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines for automated testing.
• Strong programming and scripting skills in languages such as Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, or Python.
• Experience with test reporting, automation metrics, and quality dashboards.
• Strong understanding of software testing methodologies, automation architecture, and defect lifecycle.
• Experience working with AI/LLM-based applications and AI-assisted testing tools is highly desirable.

Leadership & Collaboration Skills

• Proven ability to lead and mentor SDET/QA engineers.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management abilities.
• Ability to balance hands-on technical execution with team leadership.
• Strong ownership mindset with a focus on delivering measurable quality improvements.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, cross-functional engineering environment.

What We're Looking For We're looking for a hands-on quality engineering leader who can combine strong automation expertise with team leadership and modern AI-driven testing practices. You should be passionate about building scalable automation systems, improving engineering quality, and enabling teams to ship reliable products with confidence.

(ref:hirist.tech)