Lead Quality Assurance Engineer

DDSC; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 300,000 - 460,000; Full time

Job summary

DDSC is seeking an experienced QA Lead Engineer to establish and lead the QA function end-to-end for a regulated digital asset platform in the UAE. The role focuses on owning quality strategy, governance, automation, testing, and production readiness, not just test execution.

You will build the QA function from the ground up, shaping processes, standards, and governance, while collaborating with Product, Engineering, Security, Compliance, and external banking partners to ensure releases meet

Qualifications

• 10-12 years of QA/testing experience in complex distributed environments.
• Hands-on experience with automation frameworks for API, web, and mobile testing.
• Strong mix of manual and automated testing expertise.
• Experience building or leading a QA function as the sole QA Lead/owner is preferred.
• Fintech, payments, banking, digital assets, or regulated finance experience is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale the QA function from the ground up with processes, standards, and governance.
• Develop and own QA strategy, test framework, automation roadmap, and governance model.
• Establish quality standards across internal teams and external vendors.
• Lead functional, integration, API, performance, security, regression, and release testing.
• Own release readiness and QA sign-off, including go/no-go decisions for production releases.
• Integrate QA automation and quality gates into CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, Security, Compliance, Banking Partners, and external delivery teams.

Skills

QA leadership

Automation testing

CI/CD

DevOps practices

Quality governance

Stakeholder management

Job description

DDSC (Digital Dirham Stable Coin) is building a regulated digital asset platform in the UAE, focused on developing AED-denominated digital currency infrastructure and stablecoin solutions for a secure, compliant, and scalable financial ecosystem.

As we build and scale our technology platform, we are looking for experienced professionals who can help establish robust technology, security, compliance, and operational standards from the ground up.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced QA Lead Engineer to establish and lead the QA function end-to-end. This is a leadership role for someone who takes ownership of quality strategy, governance, automation, testing, and production readiness - not simply test execution.

• Build and scale the QA function from the ground up, including processes, standards, and governance.
• Develop and own the overall QA strategy, test framework, automation roadmap, and quality governance model.
• Establish quality standards across internal engineering teams and external technology vendors.
• Lead functional, integration, API, performance, security, regression, and release testing.
• Own release readiness and QA sign-off, including go/no-go recommendations for production releases.
• Ensure quality requirements align with security, regulatory, compliance, and performance standards.
• Design and implement automated testing frameworks across API, web, and mobile applications.
• Integrate QA automation and quality gates into CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Security, Compliance, Banking Partners, and external delivery teams.
• 10-12 years of QA/testing experience across complex and distributed technology environments.
• Strong experience in both manual and automation testing, with a proven track record of leading QA as a function.
• Experience building or managing a QA function, ideally as the sole QA Lead/QA owner.
• Experience in fintech, payments, banking, digital assets, blockchain, or other regulated financial technology environments is highly preferred.
• Hands-on expertise with automation frameworks and tools covering API, web, and mobile testing.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD, DevOps practices, and automated quality gates.
• Comprehensive understanding of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and software quality governance.
• Experience managing quality across multiple internal teams, technology partners, and external vendors.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

Why Join DDSC?

This is an opportunity to play a key role in building the quality engineering function for a regulated digital asset platform in the UAE.

You will have the opportunity to establish QA strategy, frameworks, automation, governance, and release standards from the ground up while working closely with product, engineering, security, compliance, banking, and external technology partners.