QE Strategist / AI Automation Architect

We are seeking a seasoned Director-level QE Strategist and AI Automation Architect to join our Quality Engineering & Automation practice. This is a highly visible, client-facing leadership role that sits at the intersection of AI innovation, enterprise test strategy, and delivery excellence. The ideal candidate brings deep industry expertise, a strong hands-on technical foundation in AI-driven test automation, performance testing, and a proven track record of leading geographically distributed QE teams.

Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & QE Governance

· Define and own the enterprise-wide testing strategy, including standards, methodologies, governance models, and quality frameworks.

· Conduct current-state assessments of client systems, processes, and tooling; provide actionable, data-driven quality recommendations.

· Lead the design and implementation of Agentic AI testing frameworks and drive the organization's overall AI QE strategy.

· Serve as a thought leader on AI-infused quality engineering, continuously evaluating emerging tools and incorporating them into the automation roadmap.

Client Engagement & Business Development

· Contribute substantively to RFPs, proposal development, and client presentations; effectively articulate complex technical concepts to C-suite executives and non-technical stakeholders.

· Build and sustain trusted advisor relationships with client leadership, proactively identifying opportunities to expand QE value delivery.

· Represent the QE practice in steering committees, executive reviews, and cross-functional planning sessions.

· Contribute to creation of GTM assets & reusable accelerators creation, write thought leadership articles/blogs/webinars, speak in conferences or panels

Delivery & Program Management

· Own end-to-end delivery accountability for client engagements managing multiple mid-to-large teams across geographies and time zones

· Develop project plans, resource models, risk registers, and status reporting for concurrent QE workstreams.

· Partner with development, DevOps, and QA teams to ensure seamless integration of AI test automation into CI/CD pipelines and Agile delivery cycles.

Architecture & Hands-On Engineering

· Design and architect robust, scalable, and maintainable test automation frameworks covering functional, regression, performance, and integration testing.

· Be hands-on in building frameworks and scripts centered on AI, automation & performance, including the creation of AI agents from scratch.

· Create POCs around AI & automation and conduct technical demos for clients

· Establish and enforce coding standards, best practices, and code review processes for automated and performance test scripts.

· Evaluate, select, and integrate best-fit automation tools and technologies aligned to project and organizational needs.

· Develop automated monitoring and reporting mechanisms to track test execution, defect trends, and quality metrics; provide stakeholders with regular health reports.

People Leadership & Capability Development

· Mentor and develop QE engineers and leads, elevating technical skills and deepening understanding of AI-infused automation and performance testing.

· Foster a continuous-improvement culture through knowledge sharing, structured training programs, and adoption of industry best practices.

· Provide technical leadership and subject-matter expertise across test automation teams and cross-functional stakeholders.

Required Skills & Experience

Mandatory Skills

Skill / Technology

Min. Years Exp.

QE Leadership & Delivery

18+

Project & Client Management

15+

Effective Communication & Executive Presentation

18+

SDLC / Agile Tools — JIRA, Zephyr Scale, QMetry, Confluence, Tricentis qTest, TestRail, HP ALM / MF Octane, Azure DevOps, Smartsheet, Trello

15+

Test Automation (UI, API & Mobile) — Playwright, Selenium WebDriver 3.x/4.x, Selenide, Serenity, Katalon, Cucumber, Appium, BrowserStack, SauceLabs, ReadyAPI, Postman, RestAssured, Cypress, Provar, AccelQ

15+

AI Tooling (Generative & Agentic) — Claude / Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, ChatGPT, Perplexity, n8n, Replit; ability to build agents from scratch

8+

Programming Languages — Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, SQL (Oracle PL/SQL, SQL Server T-SQL), PowerShell, Unix Shell Scripting

15+

Source Control / CI/CD — Git, BitBucket, GitHub, Azure DevOps, Bamboo, Jenkins, Maven, Gradle, Ant

15+

Database & Data Tools — DBeaver, TOAD, SQL Developer, SQL Server Management Studio, Cloudera

10+

Platforms — Windows, Linux, AWS, Azure, Salesforce, iOS, Android, AS/400 / Mainframe

8+

Performance & Load Testing — JMeter, Gatling

15+

Test Data Management — Informatica, Talend, Collibra

10+

Preferred Skills (Nice-to-have)

Skill / Technology

Min. Years Exp.

Additional Industry Experience — Travel & Hospitality industry

8+

Qualifications

· Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (advanced degree preferred).

· 15+ years of experience in software testing, with 18+ years leading technical QA/automation teams.

· Demonstrated experience delivering QE programs driving enterprise-wide QE transformation