QA Domain Lead

1001 Absa Bank; Randburg; Hybrid; ZAR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Absa Bank Limited seeks a senior Quality Engineering leader to own the strategy and practice for digital services, focusing on automation, early assurance and measurable production quality. You will establish governance, tooling and a mature roadmap to enable fast, secure releases across domains.

You will lead cross-functional teams, define risk-based approaches, and drive reusable automation while embedding tests into CI/CD with fast feedback and measurable outcomes.

Qualifications

• 8 - 12+ years' experience in Quality Engineering, QA or Software Testing.
• Proven experience leading Quality Engineering or QA teams and driving quality practices across multiple digital products, platforms and delivery teams.
• Proven implementation of automated testing at scale within CI/CD and DevSecOps environments.
• Deep experience with functional, API, integration, mobile/web, performance, resilience and production-quality practices.
• Experience establishing risk-based quality governance and using evidence to advise on release readiness.
• Strong track record transforming manual QA into an engineering-led, automation-first practice in a regulated environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the quality engineering strategy and practice with emphasis on automation, early assurance and measurable production quality.
• Enable teams to release secure, reliable and accessible digital services at pace.
• Establishe quality as a shared, continuous responsibility across product and delivery teams.
• Define the quality engineering strategy, target operating model, standards and maturity roadmap.
• Set risk-based approaches covering functional, integration, regression, performance, resilience, security, accessibility, data and journey quality.
• Clarify accountabilities across product, engineering, architecture, security, operations and suppliers.
• Advise the CIO and executive forums on quality risk, investment priorities and release confidence.
• Establish reusable automation frameworks, test-data approaches, service virtualisation, environments and tooling.
• Embed automated tests and quality controls into CI/CD with fast feedback and governance evidence.
• Prioritise automation according to business criticality, repeatability, defect risk and maintenance cost.
• Drive shift-left defect prevention and shift-right validation using telemetry, synthetic monitoring and production learning.
• Define quality gates, release-readiness criteria, exception processes and evidence by change-risk class.
• Provide measures for defect trends, escaped defects, automation effectiveness, reliability, cycle time and customer impact.
• Lead root-cause learning on material defects and ensures systemic improvements are implemented.
• Provide independent challenge on release risk while helping teams remove quality constraints.
• Lead quality engineering managers, automation specialists, communities of practice and strategic partners.
• Measure success through fewer escaped defects, effective automation, earlier detection, release confidence, non-functional outcomes and lower cycle time.
• First-year priorities include setting the baseline and roadmap, establishing governance and measures, delivering high-value quality improvements and building sustainable capability.

Skills

Quality engineering

Automation

CI/CD

Test data

Service virtualisation

Telemetry

Production learning

Governance

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Information Technology degree

Tools

Automation frameworks

API/UI testing

CI/CD tooling

Job description

Job Summary

Own the quality engineering strategy and practice for Digital Business Bank, with a primary focus on automation, early assurance and measurable customer and production quality. The role is accountable for the standards, tooling, capability and governance that enable teams to release secure, reliable and accessible digital services at pace.

Key Accountabilities

• Own the quality engineering strategy and practice with emphasis on automation, early assurance and measurable production quality.
• Enable teams to release secure, reliable and accessible digital services at pace.
• Establishe quality as a shared, continuous responsibility across product and delivery teams.
• Define the quality engineering strategy, target operating model, standards and maturity roadmap.
• Set risk-based approaches covering functional, integration, regression, performance, resilience, security, accessibility, data and journey quality.
• Clarify accountabilities across product, engineering, architecture, security, operations and suppliers.
• Advise the CIO and executive forums on quality risk, investment priorities and release confidence.
• Establish reusable automation frameworks, test-data approaches, service virtualisation, environments and tooling.
• Embed automated tests and quality controls into CI/CD with fast feedback and governance evidence.
• Prioritise automation according to business criticality, repeatability, defect risk and maintenance cost.
• Drive shift-left defect prevention and shift-right validation using telemetry, synthetic monitoring and production learning.
• Define quality gates, release-readiness criteria, exception processes and evidence by change-risk class.
• Provide measures for defect trends, escaped defects, automation effectiveness, reliability, cycle time and customer impact.
• Lead root-cause learning on material defects and ensures systemic improvements are implemented.
• Provide independent challenge on release risk while helping teams remove quality constraints.
• Lead quality engineering managers, automation specialists, communities of practice and strategic partners.
• Measure success through fewer escaped defects, effective automation, earlier detection, release confidence, non-functional outcomes and lower cycle time.
• First-year priorities include setting the baseline and roadmap, establishing governance and measures, delivering high-value quality improvements and building sustainable capability.

Experience required

Experience required: 8 - 12+ years' experience in Quality Engineering, Quality Assurance or Software Testing.

Proven experience leading Quality Engineering or QA teams and driving quality practices across multiple digital products, platforms and delivery teams.

Proven implementation of automated testing at scale within CI/CD and DevSecOps environments.

Deep experience with functional, API, integration, mobile/web, performance, resilience and production-quality practices.

Experience establishing risk-based quality governance and using evidence to advise on release readiness.

Strong track record transforming manual QA into an engineering-led, automation-first practice in a regulated environment.

Technical and business knowledge

• Quality engineering strategy and test architecture
• Automation frameworks, API and UI testing
• CI/CD quality gates and test observability
• Performance, resilience, accessibility and security testing
• Test data, service virtualisation and environment strategy
• Defect prevention, root-cause analysis and production learning

Education and professial credentials

Relevant bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems or a related field. A postgraduate qualification and recognised testing, agile, DevOps, cloud or quality certifications are advantageous.

Education Bachelor's Degree

Information Technology

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank. Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised

At Absa, our story is not a single narrative. It’s thousands of individual journeys unfolding across Africa and beyond. From colleagues serving customers in local communities to teams shaping financial solutions across borders, Absa is built on people who bring their lived experiences, ambitions and perspectives into the workplace every day. Whether you’re starting your career, a seasoned leader or somewhere in between, your contribution is seen, valued and connected to something bigger. Our presence across Africa – which spans personal and business banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth and investment management, and insurance – exists because of the people who show up in their roles with purpose. Across Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, our colleagues are shaping what Absa becomes in each market. Beyond the continent, teams in global offices and a technology hub support and extend the stories that prove that African talent can lead, influence and innovate on the global stage. At Absa, your story matters because progress is driven by human experience, not hierarchy. When people are enabled to bring their whole selves to work, they don’t just build careers. They help shape the future of Africa’s financial services landscape.