Lead QA Automation Engineer

Lead QA Automation Engineer Location: Hybrid (UK based, 2 days per week in the office)Salary: £70,000 Reporting to: Head of Technology Direct reports: 1 Senior Automation Engineer The Opportunity A high-traffic digital platform is modernising its technology and delivery approach, with a strong focus on automation, faster releases, and engineering excellence.Quality is central to this journey. The business is investing in an automation-first QA function to ensure releases are stable, scalable, and user-focused.They are now looking for a Lead QA Automation Engineer to own quality strategy, tooling, and delivery across multiple product streams.The Role This is a senior, hands-on role combining QA leadership with technical delivery. The Lead QA Automation Engineer will work closely with Engineering, Product, and Delivery to embed quality throughout the product lifecycle, while remaining actively involved in automation and exploratory testing.Key Responsibilities QA Strategy and Leadership

• Define and deliver an automation-first QA strategy
• Champion quality across planning, sprints, and releases
• Establish and track QA metrics and release confidence
• Partner with Engineering, Product, and Delivery leadership

Automation and Testing

• Build and maintain Playwright automation using TypeScript
• Carry out exploratory and manual testing on complex features
• Support issue triage and root cause analysis
• Balance leadership with hands-on contribution

Framework Ownership

• Own and improve QA tooling, frameworks, and CI pipelines
• Drive best practices for test structure and maintainability
• Lead integrations for performance, security, and visual testing

Leadership and Mentorship

• Line manage and mentor a Senior Automation Engineer
• Promote strong collaboration across QA, engineering, and product

Experience and Skills

• Experience as a Lead QA Engineer, Senior QA Engineer, or QA Manager
• Strong hands-on automation experience, ideally Playwright (TypeScript)
• Solid knowledge of CI/CD, test reporting, and analytics
• Confident communicator with a strong problem-solving mindset

Nice to Have

• Experience with high-traffic consumer or marketplace platforms
• Exposure to performance, security, or visual regression testing

Why Apply

• High impact, senior QA role
• Strong balance of strategy and hands-on work
• Modern engineering environment
• Hybrid working and long-term growth opportunity

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