ZR_284_Staff SDET

Priority Technology Holdings, Inc.; Chandigarh; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Priority IDC Private Limited in Chandigarh, India seeks a Staff SDET to own and evolve the domain's test infrastructure. You will write ADRs, design quality gates, and guide automation across QE and SE partners. You stay hands-on while setting the standards for reliability and AI-enabled testing.

The role emphasizes architecture ownership, FR improvements, and rapid response to critical pipeline issues, even during off-hours, to protect releases.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of engineering experience in test infrastructure.
• Track record owning test-infrastructure architecture for a domain.
• Hands-on with framework code and automation in pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Stay hands-on designing, building, reviewing, and operating the domain's test infrastructure.
• Own the domain's test-infrastructure architecture and CI/CD integration patterns.
• Lead AI-native test practices and collaborate with QE and SE partners.

Skills

Test infrastructure

CI/CD

Automation

AI-native testing

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

ADR/ADRs

Framework code

Job description

Priority IDC Private Limited | Full time

ZR_284_Staff SDET

Chandigarh, India | Posted on 08/04/2026

Staff SDETsat Priority are domain-level test-infrastructure architects. You own howthe test infrastructure is structured for your domain, decide how it evolves,and are accountable for itslong-term reliability. This is the first level whereinfrastructure ownership is explicit and consequential — you don't just buildwell within the domain's frameworks; you own them, evolve them, and hold thestandards that keep them trustworthy.

You'rehands-on. Still. AtPriority, the Staff title doesn't graduate you out of the framework code— itputs you in the hardest infrastructure work in the domain, and keeps you closeto the pipelines and the flaky gates that eat the team's time, so yourdirection stays grounded in reality. You lead by example — your framework code,your review bar, your AI-native practice, and your engineering judgment setwhat the domain's automation looks like at its best.

You're theinfrastructure authority for your domain: you write the architecture decisionrecords(ADRs) for the significant infrastructure choices, you set theautomation standards teams build within, you own the CI/CD quality-gate designfor the domain, and you drive AI-native test practices where agents generate,execute, and triage on infrastructure you built for exactly that.

Yourprimary partnerships live on the team as a quality-engineering trio. The Staff Quality Engineer foryour domain owns what the platform must prove and why — the strategy. You ownthe engineering that executes that strategy at scale. Staff SoftwareEngineers own the code being tested — you partner with them on designingfor test ability, contract testing, and the practices that keep automationtrustworthy. Together, the three of you — Staff SDET, Staff QE,Staff SE — arethe domain's quality-engineering trio. You solve hard problems together, not bythrowing artifacts over the wall.

You knowthe customer and business outcomes your domain's automation protects — notslide-deep, but real. Regression cycle time is your flagship business metric:every hour you shave off the domain's regression cycle is an hour teams getback to ship to customers. You frame infrastructure investment (build vs. adoptvs. retire) deliberately, in business terms — hours saved, defects caught, gatefalse-positive rate driven down — because that's how the case forinfrastructure work wins roadmap space. The business and customer contextreaches you through your QE and SE partners plus your own direct time with thedata — production defect trends, the incidents your automation should havecaught, the customer flows the domain depends on.

When thedomain hits a high-pressure moment — a broken pipeline blocking a criticalrelease, agate failure at a defining delivery, a flaky infrastructure issuestalling the team's work — you're

theengineer the team looks to for the fix. You show up, take the lead, and stay onit until it's resolved, regardless of time of day, day of week, or weekend. Thehours don't matter; the outcome does.

Your work —the infrastructure health, the ADRs, the standards you set — contributes to thedomain's contribution to the workstream Engineering Maturity Model (EMM) score.Developing SDETs in the domain toward design ownership is part of the job —some grow past you into bigger roles.

What You'llDo
Stay hands-on — design, build, review, and operate the parts of the domain'stest infrastructure that matter most; lead by example, not by exhortation.
Own the domain's test-infrastructure architecture: frameworks, test data, CI/CDintegration patterns, and quality gates; write infrastructure ADRs others cite,and keep an infrastructure-debt register.
Partner with the Staff Quality Engineer on strategy — they own what must bevalidated and why; you own the engineering that executes it — and with StaffSoftware Engineers on designing for test ability, contract testing, andframework adoption; the three of you are the domain's quality-engineering trio

• Absorbcustomer and business context through your QE and SE partners plus your owndirect time with the data — production defect trends, incidents your automationshould have caught, the customer flows the domain protects.
• Frameinfrastructure investment (build vs. adopt vs. retire) deliberately, inbusiness terms —hours saved, defects caught, gate false-positive rate — so thecase for infrastructure work wins roadmap space
• DriveAI-native test practices — agents generate, execute, and triage oninfrastructure you built for it; be the most AI-forward test engineer in thedomain, by visible evidence
• Own thedomain's quality gates so each one earns its place — protecting releaseswithout taxing them; false-positive gate failures trend toward zero.
  Own the domain's automation health; map coverage to the QE's risk strategy andmanage automation debt as a first-class engineering concern
• Setreliability targets for the domain's test infrastructure and meet them;engineer away recurring failures; treat pipeline health like service health —monitored, alerted, postmortemed
• Make yourtest infrastructure itself usable by machines — documented, versioned, andinvokable by agents; own a self-service test-platform experience for thedomain, with friction measured and driven down.
• Engineersecurity and compliance checks into the domain's pipelines — automated, notbolted on — including data-classification and retention checks
• Lead duringthe domain's high-pressure moments — a broken pipeline blocking a criticalrelease, a gate failure at a defining delivery — regardless of time of day, dayof week, or weekend
• Documentthe infrastructure so it survives any individual leaving, including you;develop SDETs in the domain toward design ownership

WhatSuccess Looks Like

• Thedomain's test infrastructure is documented and teams build within it; your ADRsget cited the infrastructure-debt register exists because you maintain it
• Regressioncycle time in the domain trends down measurably on your watch — the teams that dependon your infrastructure ship faster because of what you built .
• Flakinessand pipeline friction trend down, and gate false-positive rate approaches zero
• AI agentsvalidate safely on infrastructure you designed for them
• You, theStaff QE, and the Staff SEs on the team operate as a real quality-engineeringtrio —no throwing artifacts over the wall, no siloing
• SDETs inyour domain grow into design ownership; some grow past you into bigger roles
• Thedomain's contribution to the workstream EMM score trends up on your watch —because the infrastructure is measurably better, not because you gradedgenerously
• If you tooka month off, the infrastructure wouldn't skip a beat

Requirements

What We're Looking For

• Roughly 8–12 years of relevant engineering experience — a guide, not a gate; we hire on demonstrated impact, not years
• A multi-year track record owning test-infrastructure architecture for a domain, including a written decision history (ADRs or equivalent) teams have built against
• Hands-on credibility — you still write the framework code, debug the flaky gate, and stay close to the pipelines; comfort holding the bar by example, not exhortation
• Demonstrated regression-cycle compression through automation, with measurable lead-timeimpact you can point to
• Demonstrated partnership with QEs and SEs as a real quality-engineering trio — jointproblem-solving, not artifact hand offs
• Business fluency — you frame infrastructure investment in the language leaders act on (hours saved, defects caught, cycle time cut), and you know what customer flows the domain protects.
• Comfort and credibility leading through high-pressure moments — pipeline breaks, blocking gate failures, defining deliveries — regardless of hour
• Daily, judgment-driven AI-assisted development; the experience to lead AI-native test practices where agents do the work at scale
• Security and compliance-automation fluency for regulated systems.
• Influence without authority — standards adopted, conflicts resolved because engineers wanted to learn from you
• A strong writer — at this level, infrastructure architecture is a writing job

Nice to Have

Experience owning test infrastructure within fintech, payments, lending, or other regulatedfinancial systems

A track record of measurably compressing regression cycle time or lead time in a comparable role — visible gains that lasted past your tenure

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field — or equivalent practical experience

Advanced degree in a relevant technical discipline (e.g., Master's or PhD)