Lead Principal QA Engineer - Digital Assist

The Job in Short

Join our RnD Digital Assist team to drive the evolution of our QA practices and set a new standard for quality across the organisation. As a Principal (Lead) QA Engineer, you'll lead a team of skilled engineers locally within the Digital Assist Division (Value Stream) and across RnD, focusing on implementing and scaling automation strategies. Your role will involve collaborating with multiple product teams, and occasionally with our services and presales groups, to contribute to, develop, and refine automated testing frameworks as part of an RnD-wide QA Guild. You will champion best practices in quality assurance and enhance continuous integration (CI) processes.

You'll be pivotal in ensuring our products and environments maintain the highest quality standards, while also defining and driving QA strategy across RnD and into the Value Stream, improving efficiency throughout and fostering a culture of excellence. This is your opportunity to lead the charge in testing the products that showcase Backbase's capabilities to the world.

Meet the Job

As a Lead QA Principal Engineer at Backbase, you will be a pivotal member of our QA Guild, responsible for elevating our QA practices with a strong emphasis on automation and hands-on coding. You'll oversee the quality assurance for a suite of critical tools used by our customers, partners, and colleagues, ensuring our products are flawless when they go live.

What You'll Do:

1. Develop and Implement Automated Testing Frameworks: Architect and maintain robust automated testing frameworks for frontend components ensuring high test coverage and reliability.
2. Hands-On Coding of Automated Tests: Write, review, and optimise automated test scripts using programming languages and tools, bringing a full-stack perspective to QA automation.
3. Collaborate with Development Teams: Work closely with developers to integrate automated tests into the development pipeline, actively encouraging and supporting them in creating and maintaining their own automation test cases. Foster a culture of shared responsibility for quality and continuous improvement, where developers and QA engineers collaborate seamlessly to build robust, automated testing practices across the product lifecycle.
4. Strategize QA Processes: Develop detailed test plans and schedules, aligning them with agile methodologies and CI/CD pipelines to ensure timely and effective testing cycles.
5. Champion Automation Over Manual Testing: Keep CI/CD and automation at the forefront of all testing efforts. While manual testing may occur occasionally, it is not part of the strategic approach and will be minimised in favour of automated solutions.
6. Conduct Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Collaborate with development teams to perform RCAs on defects and issues, identifying underlying causes and implementing strategies to prevent recurrence.
7. Analyse and Report Defect Metrics: Track, analyse, and report on defect metrics to identify areas for improvement and drive QA strategies forward.
8. Mentor and Lead QA Initiatives: Lead internal QA initiatives, provide training on automation tools and best practices, and evaluate new tools and processes to enhance the QA function.

Your Skills and Experience:

1. Leadership Experience: Proven experience as a QA Manager or Lead, demonstrating your ability to manage and mentor QA teams, define QA strategies, and drive quality initiatives across the organisation.
2. Automation Expertise: Proficient in developing automated tests for web and mobile applications using tools like Playwright, RestAssured, Selenium, Appium, or similar.
3. Programming Skills: Strong coding skills in languages such as Java, Python, or JavaScript, enabling you to build and maintain automated test suites effectively.
4. Full-Stack QA Perspective: Understanding of both frontend and backend technologies to ensure end-to-end quality across the application stack.
5. Agile Methodologies: Experience working in agile environments, integrating QA processes seamlessly into agile workflows.
6. Collaborative Mindset: Excellent communication skills to work effectively with cross-functional teams, including developers, product managers, and other stakeholders.
7. Continuous Improvement and Mentorship Focus: Demonstrate a proactive approach to identifying opportunities for enhancing QA practices and driving initiatives that lead to higher product quality. You'll mentor and coach QA engineers and developers on QA best practices, fostering a culture of quality and continuous improvement. Your guidance will empower teams to adopt more effective testing strategies and elevate overall QA standards across the organisation.
8. Educational Background: A degree in Computer Science or a related field is required, with a Master's or PhD being a plus. This foundational knowledge will support your technical expertise and strategic approach in leading advanced QA initiatives and mentoring others.