QA Automation Lead
- Texas
- $80,000-120,000 per year
- Permanent
- Full-time
We are seeking a hands-on, experienced QA Lead to build and manage a high-performing QA team focused on automation coverage, performance benchmarking, and test governance. This role is critical in ensuring quality from the start of each engagement and requires a strong technical background in UI and API automation, performance testing, and agile QA practices.ResponsibilitiesTeam Leadership & Sprint ExecutionLead and mentor a team of automation and performance engineers.Represent QA in Sprint Grooming, Planning, Bug Triage, Retrospectives, and Release/Smoke Testing meetings.Run sprint ceremonies for the QA team and ensure execution aligns with sprint goals.Maintain QA documentation, including test strategies, test plans, and automation architecture.Automation Strategy & ExecutionDefine, drive, and own the UI and API automation strategy with modular, reusable, and scalable scripts.Achieve 90–99% test coverage over 5 sprints with continuous improvements.Integrate automation suites into CI/CD pipelines for pre-QA validations.Collaborate with developers to implement shift-left testing and maximize early bug detection.Performance & Load TestingLead efforts to design and execute performance/load testing scripts.Profile APIs, run baseline comparisons, and raise alerts on performance regressions.Ensure visibility into frontend performance metrics.Manual & Exploratory TestingOversee manual testing for early features and edge-case identification.Drive documentation of manual test scenarios and ensure they transition into automation stories.Review and approve test cases for both regression and new features.Governance & Best PracticesEnforce QA standards for bug logging, traceability, versioning, and reporting.Ensure all defects are tracked in JIRA and QA artifacts remain audit-ready.Foster a collaborative environment that encourages constructive conflict with developers to uphold product quality.Skills & Qualifications5+ years of experience in QA with at least 2 years in a lead role.Proficiency with UI automation tools such as Selenium, Appium, or Cypress.Strong knowledge of RESTful APIs and testing tools such as Postman and Karate.Hands-on experience with load and performance testing tools (JMeter preferred).Experience integrating automation into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins preferred).Familiarity with monitoring/logging tools such as Datadog or Dynatrace.Skilled in test design patterns, test data management, and script modularization.Solid understanding of Agile/Scrum methodologies, test metrics, coverage analysis, and defect lifecycle management.Proven track record in mentoring and managing QA engineers while remaining hands-on.Strong communication and documentation skills.Preferred QualificationsPrevious customer-facing experience.Background in QSR or e-commerce projects.Familiarity with tools such as JIRA, Confluence, TestRail, and observability platforms.Experience building QA strategy from the ground up in fast-paced startup or consulting environments.