QA Engineering Lead

Michael Page International; Lombardia; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Michael Page International in Milano cerca un QA Engineering Lead per supportare day-to-day i QA Engineer, definire la strategia di test e l'approccio di automazione. Il candidato sarà hands-on e dovrà elevare il livello ingegneristico, includendo la disciplina dei test unitari nello sviluppo.

Il ruolo richiede 7+ anni in QA, leadership comprovata e esperienza in ambienti regolamentati, sistemi a bassa latenza e trading, con conoscenze di framework di automazione, CI/CD e containerizzazione.

Qualifications

• Bachelor o laurea equivalente in Informatica o ingegneria.
• 7+ anni in QA o testing software con leadership di team.
• Esperienza con framework di automazione (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress) e consegna ai team.
• Testing di performance, load e resilience (JMeter, Gatling).
• Integrazione CI/CD, quality gates e ambienti di test containerizzati.
• Gestione test in Jira (Xray, Zephyr).
• Esperienza in ambienti regolamentati con tracciabilità ed evidenze.
• Inglese fluente; l'italiano è un plus forte.
• Esperienza in sistemi finanziari a bassa latenza (C++, back-end; Java client).

Responsibilities

• Guidare e mentorare il team QA.
• Definire e applicare una strategia di test basata sul rischio.
• Sviluppare ed evolvere l'automation framework nel rispetto della strategia QA.
• Gestire quality gates in CI/CD con DevOps e Application Management.
• Collaborare con sviluppo e PM per allineare QA al roadmap e cicli di rilascio.
• Promuovere l'uso dell'IA nei test e migliorare strumenti e metodi.
• Garantire tracciabilità ed evidenze per audit e conformità.

Skills

Leadership

Test strategy

Automation framework design

Performance testing

CI/CD

Traceability

English proficiency

Education

BSc in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Selenium

Playwright

Cypress

REST-assured

Postman

JMeter

Gatling

Jira

Xray

Zephyr

Job description

Categoria:

Technology & Telecoms

Luogo di lavoro:

Milano e provincia

System integrator is currently looking for a QA Engineering Lead who will support the QA engineers day to day, contribute to the test strategy and automation approach, and work with Development and Application Management to make quality gates and change processes. The resource will be a hands-on professional who is also expected to raise the engineering bar, including unit testing discipline in development

Test strategy and technical expertise

• * Contribute to the risk-based test strategy set with the Head of QA, and apply it in day-to-day planning: priorities, coverage, regression approach, release exit criteria.
• * Implement and evolve the automation framework (web, API, backend) within the QA strategy, with documented standards
• * Cover trading-specific scenarios: order lifecycle, FIX and venue connectivity, market simulators, and realistic test data and environments.
• * Lead non-functional testing: latency, throughput, market-open load peaks, failover and resilience.

Quality gates, releases and change

• * Operate and refine quality gates in CI/CD with DevOps and Application Management, following the criteria agreed in the QA strategy, stopping defective code before production.
• * Work with DevOps to automate unit, smoke and E2E testing in the pipelines, fine-tune the E2E scope, and include their results in the nightly build success criteria.
• * Own QA input into SCF and HCF releases, including validation, evidence and release sign-off recommendations.
• * Run delta testing for critical EBF situations, following the approach agreed in the QA strategy: identify impacted areas quickly, test what matters, and document the residual risk.
• * Lead release validation, including version upgrades and database migrations.

Unit testing and shift-left

• * Work with engineering leads to make unit testing a mandatory part of PR acceptance, with agreed coverage thresholds and review checks.
• * Contribute to Definition of Ready and Done so acceptance criteria are testable before development starts.

Governance, metrics and compliance

• * Maintain traceability and test evidence for Secure SDLC, audits and regulated customers.
• * Report quality KPIs to the Head of QA: defects escaped to production, coverage, test stability, regression and release stability.
• * Support defect management and root cause analysis, turning every production incident into new regression tests.

People and collaboration

• * Lead, coach and develop the QA team (including senior QAs), setting clear ownership and accountability.
• * Collaborate with Product, Development, Business Analysts and Application Management to align QA with the roadmap and release cycles.
• * Promote practical use of AI in testing and continuous improvement of tools and methods.

Requisiti:

• * BSc in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.
• * 7+ years in QA or software testing, including at least 2 years leading or mentoring a team.
• * Experience building test automation frameworks (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress or equivalent; REST-assured, Postman or equivalent) and handing them over to teams.
• * Performance, load and resilience testing (JMeter, Gatling or equivalent).
• * CI/CD integration, quality gates, and containerised test environments.
• * Test management in Jira (Xray, Zephyr or equivalent).
• * Experience in regulated environments, with attention to traceability and evidence.
• * Fluent English; Italian is a strong plus.
• * Influences without relying on authority and challenges existing practices constructively.
• * Balances quality against delivery timelines under pressure.
• * Takes ownership, communicates clearly and mentors by example.
• * Strongly preferred* Experience with low-latency financial or trading systems, including C++ backends and Java clients.
• * Financial functional knowledge: order lifecycle, trading venues, FIX, market data, post-trade.
• * Familiarity with hotfix, emergency fix and change-control processes in production financial environments.
• * Experience driving unit testing adoption and PR quality standards with developers.