Lead Software Development Engineer in Test

Welocalize India Llp; United States; Remote; USD 26,174,000 - 31,685,000; Part time

Job summary

Welocalize India Llp seeks a Lead SDET to provide end-to-end technical governance across frontend, middleware, and backend testing for a complex onboarding platform. You will own API contract testing architecture and data modeling of entity relationships, ensuring quality assumptions are independently verified at every layer.

The role demands strong technical leadership, cross-functional collaboration, and the ability to enforce delivery standards and quality gates across teams, with a focus on

Qualifications

• 8+ years in a QA leadership role spanning frontend, middleware, backend
• Expertise in API contract testing architecture and governance
• Experience with knowledge-graph or ER data modeling for test/data traceability
• Ability to enforce delivery governance and quality gates across teams

Responsibilities

• Provide technical governance across frontend, middleware, and backend testing layers.
• Establish and enforce QA delivery standards, evidence requirements, review processes, and quality gates.
• Review frontend constraint dictionaries and FSM/state-model outputs for completeness and consistency.
• Review API schema reconstructions, network evidence, and tracer replay outputs for quality and traceability.
• Coordinate with QA Analysts, SDETs, and Test Operations Associates to align technical execution with timelines.
• Review test architecture decisions, validation approaches, and coverage strategies.
• Coordinate dependency resolution, evidence rework, and cross-layer reconciliation.
• Escalate cross-layer technical discrepancies and evidence-quality issues.
• Compile and quality-check the raw technical evidence dossiers produced by workstreams.
• Identify evidence gaps, inconsistencies, or areas requiring rework before handoff to clients.
• Report on delivery health, technical risks, evidence quality, dependencies, and unresolved gaps.
• Prepare the technical evidence package for handoff to client-team responsible for modelling and gap assessment.
• Support technical readout preparation by ensuring findings are traceable to empirical evidence

Skills

QA leadership

API contract testing

Knowledge graph modeling

Evidence & traceability

Cross-functional leadership

Test orchestration

SDET mentoring

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a Lead SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) to provide end-to-end technical governance across all QA layers frontend, middleware, and backend for a complex, multi-layered onboarding platform. This role owns the architecture of API contract testing and the data modeling of complex entity relationships (e.g., hierarchical/parent-child style structures), while ensuring that quality assumptions made at one layer (such as client-side validation) are independently verified at every downstream layer rather than trusted at face value. The ideal candidate combines strong technical leadership with the ability to set and enforce delivery governance across cross-functional teams.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Provide technical governance across frontend, middleware, and backend testing layers.


• Establish and enforce QA delivery standards, evidence requirements, review processes, and quality gates.


• Review frontend constraint dictionaries and FSM/state-model outputs for completeness and consistency.


• Review API schema reconstructions, network evidence, and tracer replay outputs for technical quality and traceability.


• Coordinate with QA Analysts, SDETs, and Test Operations Associates to align technical execution with delivery timelines.


• Review test architecture decisions, validation approaches, and coverage strategies.


• Coordinate dependency resolution, evidence rework, and cross-layer reconciliation throughout the engagement.


• Act as the escalation point for cross-layer technical discrepancies and evidence-quality issues.


• Compile and quality-check the raw technical evidence dossiers produced by the workstreams.


• Identify evidence gaps, inconsistencies, or areas requiring rework before handoff to client stakeholders.


• Report on delivery health, technical risks, evidence quality, dependencies, and unresolved gaps.


• Prepare the technical evidence package for handoff to theclientteam responsible for final modelling and logic-gap assessment.


• Support technical readout preparation by ensuring that findings are traceable to empirical evidence.

Project Details

Title: Lead SDET

Rate:$17/hr
Start Date:19th October
Duration:4 Months
Commitment:22Hours per Week
Location:India (Remote)
Job Type:Contractual (with the possibility of a Full-time employment extension based on performance and project needs)

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Proven experience of 8+ years in a QA leadership role spanning multiple testing layers (frontend, middleware, backend)


• Demonstrated expertise in API contract testing architecture and governance


• Practical experience with knowledge graph or entity-relationship data modeling and its application to test/data traceability


• Strong understanding of layered system architectures and the importance of independently verifying quality at each layer rather than relying on upstream assumptions


• Strong track record of technical delivery governance, including setting standards and quality gates


• Excellent cross-functional leadership and stakeholder communication skills


• Deep technical grounding across QA disciplines (manual, automation, systems-level testing) to credibly guide teams at every layer


• Experience mentoring or managing SDETs and QA Analysts


• Experience leading complex multi-week technical QA, API validation, or security-assessment engagements is strongly preferred.


• Experience establishing evidence/traceability models across complex technical workflows is preferred.


• Familiarity with knowledge graphs, entity-relationship models, or structured technical dependency/evidence modeling is preferred; deep knowledge-graph engineering expertise is not required.


• Ability to synthesize technical evidence into concise stakeholder-ready findings and handoff materials.