AQA Tech Lead

About the role

This AQA Tech Lead position at Talentgrator focuses on establishing and refining the company's automated quality assurance capabilities. The core responsibility is to design and build a scalable AQA framework, defining its architecture, best practices, and tooling. This includes setting the test strategy across API, UI, integration, and end-to-end levels, ensuring comprehensive coverage and efficient execution.

The role involves significant leadership and mentorship, guiding a team of AQA engineers, conducting code reviews, and fostering technical excellence within the team. A key aspect is integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines, optimizing their performance, and maintaining stability. Collaboration with development, product, and DevOps teams is crucial for successful implementation and continuous improvement.

Success in this role means delivering a robust and efficient AQA framework that minimizes flaky tests and optimizes execution time. It requires establishing and maintaining clear QA standards and processes, while also working with asynchronous systems and event-driven architectures like Kafka. The ideal candidate will drive the quality agenda, ensuring high-quality software delivery in a remote work environment.

Skills that matter here

• C#: The role requires strong proficiency in C# and .NET for developing and maintaining the automated quality assurance framework.
• Playwright: Experience with Playwright is necessary for UI automation, including understanding browser behavior and anti-flaky approaches.
• API testing: The candidate will define and implement API test strategies using tools like HttpClient or RestSharp, focusing on REST, HTTP, and contract validation.
• Docker: Hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes is required for managing and deploying testing environments and infrastructure.
• GitLab CI: The role involves integrating automated tests into GitLab CI pipelines, ensuring stable and fast execution.
• Kafka: Experience working with asynchronous systems and event-driven architecture like Kafka is part of the technical requirements for the role.

Who this role suits

• A person who thrives on building systems from the ground up and enjoys defining technical direction.
• Someone with a strong background in automated testing who is ready to lead and mentor a team of engineers.
• An individual who values collaboration and can effectively work with cross-functional teams to achieve quality goals.
• A candidate who is detail-oriented, analytical, and committed to optimizing test performance and stability.

From the employer

• Design and build a scalable AQA framework from scratch (architecture, best practices, tooling)
• Define and implement test strategy across API, UI, integration, and E2E levels
• Lead and mentor a team of AQA engineers, conduct code reviews, and drive technical excellence
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and ensure stable, fast execution
• Collaborate closely with development, product, and DevOps teams
• Analyze, identify, and eliminate flaky tests
• Optimize test performance and execution time
• Establish and maintain QA standards, guidelines, and processes
• Work with asynchronous systems and event-driven architecture (e.g., Kafka)

• 7+ years of experience in automated testing
• 3–5 years of experience in a Lead / Tech Lead role
• Proven experience building AQA frameworks from scratch
• Strong knowledge of C# and .NET (6/7/8)
• Solid understanding of OOP, SOLID, Clean Architecture
• Experience designing test architecture (API, UI, integration, E2E)
• Hands-on experience with Docker / Kubernetes
• API: Experience with API testing using HttpClient, RestSharp, or similar tools
• Strong understanding of REST, HTTP, contracts, and response validation
• UI: Experience with UI automation using Playwright (.NET)
• Understanding of browser behavior, waits, and anti-flaky approaches
• Test Frameworks: Experience with NUnit or xUnit
• Experience with FluentAssertions or similar libraries
• Ability to build reusable components (clients, builders, fixtures)
• CI/CD: Experience integrating tests into GitLab CI
• Understanding of parallel test execution
• Experience organizing test suites and tags (smoke, regression, integration)
• Data: Experience with databases (SQL, PostgreSQL or similar)
• Ability to write queries for data validation
• Quality & Processes: Experience conducting code reviews
• Ability to define and enforce automation standards
• Experience analyzing and fixing flaky tests
• Experience optimizing test execution speed
• Experience working with asynchronous requests
• Experience with Kafka
• Soft / Leadership: Experience leading AQA teams
• Strong mentoring and coaching skills
• Nice to Have: Experience building QA metrics (coverage, stability, efficiency)
• Experience with performance or contract testing

• 25 vacation days and 5 family days yearly
• Flexible start to the workday
• Support from a professional corporate coach and psychologist
• Regular internal and external activities, workshops, trips, and corporate events
• Access to our internal knowledge base, meetups, and team-building activities
• Ongoing training in new technologies and continuous professional development support