Automation Lead Engineer

webook.com; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 112,000 - 169,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading ticketing platform in Saudi Arabia is seeking an Automation Lead Engineer to lead the automation strategy for their platform team. The role involves building and maintaining automation frameworks for backend services and mobile applications, ensuring high-quality releases, and collaborating with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate has proven experience in automation for backend services, solid mobile automation skills, and a strong understanding of CI/CD processes. Competitive compensation and opportunities for technical growth are offered.

Benefits

Competitive compensation package

Opportunities for technical growth

Modern engineering culture focused on quality

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Senior Automation Engineer or similar role.
• Strong experience in automation for backend services and APIs.
• Solid experience with mobile automation for iOS and Android.
• Familiarity with AI-enhanced testing tools.
• Deep understanding of debugging using logs and metrics.

Responsibilities

• Lead the automation strategy for the Platform Team.
• Build, maintain, and scale automation frameworks for backend services.
• Implement contract testing and cross-service validation.
• Collaborate with different teams to validate platform readiness.
• Provide guidance on writing scalable automation code.

Skills

Automation for backend services

Mobile automation for iOS and Android

CI/CD integration

Debugging distributed systems

Technical communication

Tools

Playwright

Cypress

Appium

Postman/Newman

Job description

• Promote automation-first, quality-by-design principles across engineering

Do you want to love what you do at work? Do you want to make a difference, an impact, transform peoples lives? Do you want to work with a team that believes in disrupting the normal, boring, and average?

If yes, then this is the job you're looking for, webook.com is Saudi's #1 event ticketing and experience booking platform in terms of technology, features, agility, revenue serving some of the largest mega events in the Kingdom surpassing over 2 billion sales.

Role Overview

We are looking for a hands‑on Automation Lead Engineer to join the Platform Team at webook. This is a technical role responsible for building, maintaining, and scaling automation frameworks that ensure high‑quality, stable releases across our core backend, mobile, and platform services.

The Automation Lead Engineer will work closely with Platform Engineering, Backend, Mobile, DevOps, and QA teams to drive an automation‑first and AI‑first testing approach, strengthen system reliability, and ensure we deliver consistent, well‑validated releases. This includes automation for backend microservices and APIs, mobile applications, and all core platform user journeys.

Key Responsibilities & Technical Focus Areas

Automation Strategy & Framework Ownership

• Lead the automation strategy for the Platform Team in alignment with engineering and product goals
• Build, maintain, and scale automation frameworks for backend services, APIs, and distributed platform components
• Develop reusable automation libraries, shared components, and developer‑friendly tooling
• Ensure the automation stack supports high‑scale workloads, peak traffic events, and rapid deployments

Backend & API Automation

• Own automation for backend microservices, APIs, and integration touchpoints
• Implement contract testing, integration testing, and cross‑service E2E validation
• Ensure coverage for mission‑critical platform flows such as checkout, payments, booking, reservations, and third‑party integrations
• Use observability tools (logs, metrics, traces) to debug failures, find gaps, and continuously improve test accuracy

Mobile Automation

• Build and maintain automation suites for iOS and Android using modern mobile automation frameworks
• Cover core user journeys, performance‑sensitive flows, and version/device compatibility scenarios
• Integrate mobile automation into CI/CD for continuous regression testing and fast feedback loops

CI/CD Integration & Reliability

• Integrate all automation layers (backend, mobile, API, platform) into the CI/CD pipeline for stable, parallelized execution
• Monitor and maintain high reliability across test pipelines by eliminating flaky tests and improving runtime performance
• Ensure automation feedback is fast, actionable, and aligned with release readiness goals

AI‑First Automation & Quality Enhancements

• Drive an AI‑first approach to automation
• Promote automation‑first, quality‑by‑design principles across engineering
• Maintain up‑to‑date documentation for automation frameworks, patterns, and best practices

Cross‑Team Collaboration

• Collaborate with Backend, Platform, Mobile, QA, DevOps, and Product teams to validate platform readiness
• Participate in architecture and integration discussions to ensure automated coverage is included early
• Validate platform integrations with queues, microservices, data pipelines, and third‑party APIs

Technical Guidance

• Provide guidance to engineers on writing scalable and maintainable automation code
• Support performance testing initiatives when needed
• Act as the technical authority for automation practices within the Platform Team

Team Leadership

• Lead and mentor a team of 4‑5 QA Automation Engineers, providing day‑to‑day guidance and support
• Define and communicate technical direction for the team, ensuring clarity on best practices, automation frameworks, coding standards, and testing strategies
• Review team members' work, offer constructive feedback, and help unblock technical challenges
• Coordinate task assignment, set priorities, and ensure high‑quality, timely delivery of automation deliverables
• Foster a collaborative, high‑performance environment focused on continuous improvement and technical excellence

Requirements

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience as a Senior Automation Engineer or similar hands‑on automation‑focused role
• Strong experience in automation for backend services, APIs, and distributed systems
• Solid experience with mobile automation for iOS and Android
• Proficiency in modern automation frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Cypress, PHPUnit/Dusk, Jest, Appium, Postman/Newman)
• Familiarity with AI‑enhanced testing tools or a clear desire to adopt AI‑based QA practices
• Strong CI/CD knowledge and experience integrating automation in pipelines
• Deep understanding of debugging distributed systems using logs, metrics, and traces
• Strong technical communication and problem‑solving skills

Nice‑to‑Have

• Experience with performance tooling (k6, JMeter)
• Experience with observability platforms (Datadog, Sentry, Grafana, New Relic)
• Knowledge of microservices, queues, cloud‑native environments (Docker, Kubernetes, GCP/AWS)
• Experience in a high‑scale or fast‑paced product engineering environment

What We Offer

• A highly technical role with direct impact on platform reliability, automation maturity, and release stability
• The opportunity to own and shape automation within the Platform Team
• A modern engineering culture where automation and quality are core priorities
• Competitive compensation package
• Clear technical growth and ownership opportunities