Automation Test Lead

TechNET; India; Remote; INR 4,000,000 - 8,000,000; Full time

Job summary

TechNET seeks a hands-on Automation Test Lead to architect enterprise-grade test frameworks across data platforms, APIs, and cloud-native systems. You will own quality engineering as a discipline and build frameworks that teams adopt, enforcing standards to prevent bad releases.

You will design Python-based frameworks, data validation strategies, and challenge engineers on weak implementations, while embracing AI-assisted automation to accelerate testing.

Qualifications

• 9+ years in automation or quality engineering.
• 5+ years building frameworks for data platforms at scale.
• Proven track record of improving system reliability and reducing production incidents.

Responsibilities

• Own the design and evolution of a scalable, modular test automation framework.
• Architect data validation strategies for ETL/ELT and streaming pipelines.
• Drive adoption across multiple teams with minimal friction.
• Challenge architecture decisions and reduce flaky tests and false positives.
• Integrate quality gates into CI/CD and monitoring dashboards.

Skills

Python

SQL

ETL/ELT concepts

Data modelling

CI/CD pipelines

API contract testing

Data validation

Big data frameworks

Observability tooling

Tools

DBT

Snowflake

Great Expectations

Soda

Prometheus

Grafana

Pact

Job description

Duration

6 - 12 months with possible extension

Location

Remote (India)

Overview

We are seeking a highly hands on Automation Test Lead who can architect and scale enterprise grade test automation frameworks across data platforms, APIs, and cloud native systems.

This role is not about managing testing. It is about owning quality engineering as a discipline. You will design frameworks that teams adopt, enforce standards that prevent bad releases, and build systems that proactively catch failures before they hit production.

You should be equally comfortable writing Python frameworks, designing data validation strategies, and challenging engineers on weak implementations. Also embrace AI ways of working wherever possible to accelerate automation.

Core Expectations

• You do not wait for bugs, you design systems that make bugs difficult to exist
• You build frameworks that multiple teams adopt without friction
• You challenge architecture, not just test outcomes
• You reduce false positives, flaky tests, and wasted compute
• You think in terms of data reliability, contracts, and system behaviour under stress

Key Responsibilities

Test Automation Architecture & Strategy

Own the design and evolution of a scalable, modular, metadata driven test automation framework supporting:

• Data pipelines (batch and streaming)
• APIs and backend services
• End to end data product validation

Enable plug and play components, parallel execution, environment isolation, and deterministic runs.

Build reusable frameworks supporting:

• SQL based assertions and reconciliation
• Schema validation and evolution checks
• Data contracts and producer consumer validation
• Lineage and freshness validation
• Config driven test definitions (YAML or JSON)

Drive adoption by making frameworks easy to integrate into existing pipelines.

Design tests for:

• Schema drift and backward incompatibility
• Late arriving data and partial failures
• Duplicate, missing, or out of order events
• High volume stress and concurrency issues
• Failure scenarios such as retries, DLQ handling, and backpressure

ETL and Streaming Validation at Scale

Implement:

• Row, aggregate, and hash based reconciliation
• Incremental and backfill validation
• Exactly once or at least once semantics validation
• Window based and time based correctness checks

Data Quality & Observability Integration

Integrate and extend tools like:

Build custom validations for:

Expose quality metrics, SLAs, and test outcomes through dashboards.

Embed testing into pipelines:

• Pre merge gates and release blockers
• Selective and parallel test execution
• Integration with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar

Ensure no pipeline reaches production without passing quality gates.

Define strategies for:

• Masking and anonymization
• Deterministic datasets for repeatable testing
• Edge case and boundary condition simulation

Performance & Reliability Testing

Design and execute:

• Pipeline and query performance benchmarks
• Concurrency and stress testing
• Data skew and partitioning analysis

Continuously optimize for cost and execution time.

Security & Compliance Validation

• PII or PHI exposure
• Encryption and access control
• Data retention and audit requirements

Support compliance frameworks like GxP, SOX, or ISO standards.

Cross Functional Quality Leadership

• Work with data engineers, platform teams, and architects to embed quality early
• Challenge poor design decisions that impact reliability
• Mentor engineers to adopt strong testing practices

Incident Analysis & Prevention

• Analyze production data issues and failure patterns
• Reduce flaky tests and false alarms
• Drive root cause fixes, not surface level patches

Mandatory Skills

• Strong Python with experience building test frameworks, libraries, and CLI tools
• Advanced SQL for validation and reconciliation
• Hands on with DBT, and Snowflake or similar platforms
• Strong understanding of ETL or ELT and data modelling concepts

Data Quality & Observability

• Experience with Great Expectations, Soda, or similar tools
• Understanding of lineage and catalogue systems
• Experience testing Kafka, Kinesis, or similar systems
• Understanding of delivery semantics and event processing challenges
• CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, or equivalent

Desired Skills

• Experience with API contract testing and tools like PACT
• Basic UI automation for end to end validation
• Exposure to data mesh or data product architectures
• Observability stacks such as Prometheus or Grafana
• Experience in regulated domains (healthcare, life sciences, finance)
• AWS experience across data and compute services
• Familiarity with IaC tools like Terraform or CloudFormation

Experience

• 9+ years in automation or quality engineering
• 5+ years building frameworks for data platforms at scale
• Proven track record of improving system reliability and reducing production incidents

What Success Looks Like (First 6–12 Months)

• A widely adopted, low friction test automation framework across teams
• Significant reduction in production data incidents and schema related failures
• Strong enforcement of quality gates in CI/CD pipelines
• Measurable improvement in data SLAs and observability
• Reduced test execution time with higher coverage and lower flakiness