Sr Quality Assurance Engineer(Manager)

SMC Squared; Hyderabad; On-site; INR 180,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

SMC Squared in Hyderabad is seeking a senior QA Automation Engineer to lead framework development, data testing, and shift-left quality initiatives across UI, API, and data stores. Architect scalable automation frameworks, implement reusable utilities, and ensure robust data validation for Snowflake data pipelines.

You will mentor QA engineers, shape end-to-end test strategies, and collaborate with developers to improve CI/CD gates, AI-assisted testing, and overall engineering velocity.

Responsibilities

• Framework Architecture: Architect, build, and maintain scalable, reusable test automation frameworks and patterns for UI and API layers using Playwright, Python, and Java.
• Custom Utilities & Tools: Develop custom testing utilities, helper libraries, and test infrastructure as code to streamline automated testing across engineering teams.
• CI/CD Pipeline Integration: Design and implement advanced CI/CD test gates and automation pipelines using Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions.
• AI-Augmented QA: Integrate AI agents and Copilot (GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot) to accelerate test code generation, automate flaky test triage, optimize test coverage, and improve engineering velocity.
• IDE & Dev Tooling: Develop and maintain high-quality test code in VS Code utilizing advanced extensions, debugging tools, and CLI workflows.
• Data Warehouse Testing: Build and execute automated data validation scripts and complex SQL assertions against Snowflake data warehouses to verify data accuracy, transformation logic, and ETL pipeline reliability.
• Backend & API Reconciliation: Audit data flows from front-end applications and REST APIs down to backend data stores and analytics layers.
• Test Data Infrastructure: Design reusable test data management approaches, including automated data masking, seeding, and cleanup for staging and test environments.
• Pre-Development Design Reviews: Lead testing discussions during architectural design and requirements reviews, advocating for system testability, edge-case coverage, and early risk mitigation.
• Comprehensive Test Strategies: Design end-to-end, risk-based test strategies for complex, multi-component features and high-impact releases.
• Full Stack Quality: Apply deep full-stack application awareness-spanning UI, API, microservices, and database layers-to design holistic test coverage.
• Technical Mentorship: Mentor QA Engineers on test automation best practices, clean coding standards in Python/Java, and framework design.
• Process Optimization: Identify testing technical debt, evaluate build-vs-buy testing tools, and drive continuous process improvements across the engineering organization.
• Cross-Functional Representation: Represent Quality Engineering in cross-functional planning and technical alignment meetings, balancing depth of coverage with delivery timelines.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

1. Automation & Framework Engineering (Primary Focus)

• Framework Architecture: Architect, build, and maintain scalable, reusable test automation frameworks and patterns for UI and API layers using Playwright, Python, and Java.
• Custom Utilities & Tools: Develop custom testing utilities, helper libraries, and test infrastructure as code to streamline automated testing across engineering teams.
• CI/CD Pipeline Integration: Design and implement advanced CI/CD test gates and automation pipelines using Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions.
• AI-Augmented QA: Integrate AI agents and Copilot (GitHub Copilot, Microsoft Copilot) to accelerate test code generation, automate flaky test triage, optimize test coverage, and improve engineering velocity.
• IDE & Dev Tooling: Develop and maintain high-quality test code in VS Code utilizing advanced extensions, debugging tools, and CLI workflows.

2. Data Testing & Snowflake Integrity

• Data Warehouse Testing: Build and execute automated data validation scripts and complex SQL assertions against Snowflake data warehouses to verify data accuracy, transformation logic, and ETL pipeline reliability.
• Backend & API Reconciliation: Audit data flows from front-end applications and REST APIs down to backend data stores and analytics layers.
• Test Data Infrastructure: Design reusable test data management approaches, including automated data masking, seeding, and cleanup for staging and test environments.

3. Shift-Left Architecture & Strategic Quality

• Pre-Development Design Reviews: Lead testing discussions during architectural design and requirements reviews, advocating for system testability, edge-case coverage, and early risk mitigation.
• Comprehensive Test Strategies: Design end-to-end, risk-based test strategies for complex, multi-component features and high-impact releases.
• Full Stack Quality: Apply deep full-stack application awareness-spanning UI, API, microservices, and database layers-to design holistic test coverage.

4. Process, Mentorship & Technical Leadership

• Technical Mentorship: Mentor QA Engineers on test automation best practices, clean coding standards in Python/Java, and framework design.
• Process Optimization: Identify testing technical debt, evaluate build-vs-buy testing tools, and drive continuous process improvements across the engineering organization.
• Cross-Functional Representation: Represent Quality Engineering in cross-functional planning and technical alignment meetings, balancing depth of coverage with delivery timelines.