Lead Engineer - IT

Guardian Life; Chennai District; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Guardian Life seeks a Senior Automation Lead Test Engineer specialized in UI and API automation. You will design, implement, and maintain robust automation frameworks using Playwright, JavaScript/TypeScript, and Java, while ensuring end-to-end coverage across UI and API layers.

Collaborate with Product Owners, developers, and QA partners to drive quality and prevent defects. Location-based in Chennai, the role requires strong CI/CD and cloud tooling experience (e.g., Jenkins, BrowserStack, AWS),

Qualifications

• 6–8 years in QA or quality engineering with 4+ years in automation.
• Hands-on UI and API automation using Playwright and RestAssured/Postman.
• Experience building scalable automation frameworks and reusable components.
• Proficient in JavaScript/TypeScript; Java preferred for API automation.

Responsibilities

• Partner with product and tech teams to align tests with business needs.
• Design, develop, and maintain UI and API automation frameworks.
• Build reusable test components, data strategies, and API contracts.
• Integrate tests into CI/CD pipelines and drive test reporting.
• Mentor junior QA engineers and promote quality practices.

Skills

Playwright

Web automation

API testing

Framework design

Programming (JS/TS)

Programming (Java)

CI/CD

QA leadership

Cloud/AWS

AI-assisted testing

Tools

Playwright

Selenium

RestAssured

Postman

Newman

Java

JavaScript/TypeScript

Jenkins

Git

BrowserStack

AWS

Job description

Job Description: Senior Automation Lead Test Engineer – UI & API Automation

Job Profile Summary

We are seeking a Senior Automation Lead Test Engineer – UI & API Automation with strong hands‑on experience in designing, developing, and maintaining automation solutions for enterprise applications. This role combines deep UI automation expertise with strong API testing and API automation capability. The Senior Automation Lead Test Engineer will define and execute automation test strategies, build robust frameworks using Playwright and JavaScript/TypeScript or Java, integrate automation into CI/CD pipelines, and collaborate closely with Product Owners, developers, Lead Engineers, and QA partners to ensure requirement clarity, end-to-end test coverage, and defect prevention.

Key Skills

• UI automation: Strong hands‑on experience with Playwright as the preferred tool, with Selenium as a plus.
• API testing and automation: Strong experience with REST API testing using RestAssured, Postman, Newman, and Java or JavaScript/TypeScript based API automation.
• Framework design: Ability to design and enhance scalable automation frameworks using hybrid, keyword‑driven, data‑driven, BDD, and Page Object Model approaches.
• Programming: Strong coding proficiency in JavaScript/TypeScript and/or Java with an automation‑first engineering mindset.
• End‑to‑end testing: Ability to connect UI, API, integration, regression, smoke, and functional test coverage across application flows.
• CI/CD and DevOps: Experience with Jenkins, Git, pipelines, test reporting, debugging tools, and continuous testing practices.
• Quality engineering fundamentals: Strong understanding of SDLC, STLC, Agile/Scrum, quality gates, defect prevention, and test coverage strategy.
• Cloud and infrastructure: Working knowledge of AWS or cloud‑based device/browser farms such as BrowserStack.
• AI‑assisted testing: Ability to use tools such as GitHub Copilot, Playwright AI‑assisted locators, and test generators to accelerate script creation, refactoring, and documentation.
• Additional exposure: Performance testing tools such as JMeter or Gatling, accessibility testing, security testing, and regulated domain experience are preferred.

Required Qualifications

• 6-8 years of experience in QA, software testing, or quality engineering.
• At least 4 years of hands‑on automation testing experience across UI and API automation.
• Strong experience building automation frameworks and reusable test components.
• Hands‑on experience with Playwright and JavaScript/TypeScript; Java experience is strongly preferred for API automation.
• Experience with REST API testing and automation using RestAssured, Postman, Newman, or equivalent tools.
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum teams with distributed stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, debugging, communication, and problem‑solving skills.
• Ability to mentor junior QA engineers, conduct automation code reviews, and influence quality practices across teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in insurance, financial services, healthcare, or other regulated domains.
• Exposure to performance, security, and accessibility testing for web applications.
• Working knowledge of AWS or other cloud platforms.
• Experience improving automation maturity, test stability, release confidence, and sprint quality metrics.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Requirement clarification: Partner with Product Owners, developers, Lead Engineers, and technical teams to ensure test scenarios align with business intent and acceptance criteria.
• Backlog and test planning: Participate in grooming and sprint planning, refine acceptance criteria, define test coverage, and ensure automation opportunities are embedded into sprint scope.
• Automation framework ownership: Design, develop, maintain, and enhance scalable UI and API automation frameworks using Playwright, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, RestAssured, Postman, and Newman.
• UI and API test development: Build reusable test components, utilities, test data strategies, service validations, API contracts, and end‑to‑end automated test flows.
• Execution and reporting: Execute automated regression, smoke, functional, integration, and API test suites; analyze results, identify failure trends, and communicate actionable insights.
• CI/CD integration: Integrate automated tests into Jenkins/Git‑based pipelines to support continuous testing, quality gates, and faster release feedback.
• Defect identification and RCA: Identify defects early, perform root cause analysis, collaborate with developers on permanent fixes, and improve defect prevention practices.
• Testability and engineering partnership: Collaborate with UI and backend engineers to improve testability through stable selectors, test IDs, API readiness, mocks, data setup, and service‑level validation.
• UAT and business support: Support business users during UAT cycles with test clarification, quick triage, and validation support.
• Documentation and best practices: Maintain test documentation, automation guidelines, reusable templates, framework standards, and coding best practices.
• AI‑assisted quality engineering: Use AI tools such as GitHub Copilot, Playwright AI‑assisted locators, and test generators to accelerate automation creation, refactoring, documentation, and productivity.
• Continuous improvement: Drive improvements in automation coverage, test reliability, execution efficiency, sprint quality metrics, and release confidence.
• Team leadership: Mentor junior QA engineers, support automation code reviews, promote knowledge sharing, and influence quality‑first engineering behaviors.

Work shift: Work in overlapping time zones with US teams as required to support collaboration and delivery continuity.

Location: This position can be based in any of the following locations: Chennai

Every day, Guardian helps our 29 million customers realize their dreams through a range of insurance and financial products and services. Our Purpose, to inspire well‑being, guides our dedication to the colleagues, consumers, and communities we serve. We know that people count, and we go above and beyond to prepare them for the life they want to live, focusing on their overall well‑being - mind, body, and wallet. As one of the largest mutual insurance companies, we put our customers first. Behind every bright future is a GuardianTM. Learn more about Guardian at guardianlife.com.

Visa Sponsorship: Guardian Life is not currently or in the foreseeable future sponsoring employment‑based visas (e.g., such as an H-1B). In order to be a successful applicant, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States, without the need for employer sponsorship/support now or at any time in the future.