Quality Assurance Lead

Role : Quality Assurance Lead

Location: Bangalore/ Hyderabad / Mumbai

Role Summary

Every release to a government client must be demonstrably correct, secure and fit for purpose. The Quality Assurance Lead has the end-to-end test strategy for the data and AI platform. They make sure that pipelines, data, reports, AI components and integrations are verified against requirements before they reach business users.

The role works alongside business analysts, data engineers, the data quality engineer, AI engineers and SUTHERLAND UAT teams. Its job is to provide evidence-based quality sign-off at every phase gate, from System Integration Testing through UAT to production go-live.

Key Responsibilities

• Test strategy and planning: Define and own the master test strategy, test plans, entry/exit criteria and quality gates across all delivery phases.
• Data testing: Lead data validation testing, including source-to-target reconciliation, transformation logic, business rules, SCD behavior, referential integrity and data completeness across the Bronze, Silver and Gold layers.
• Test automation: Design and implement automated data and regression test frameworks using SQL, Python/PySpark and tools such as Great Expectations or pytest, integrated into CI/CD.
• Report and analytics testing: Verify Power BI reports, KPIs, calculations, filters, row-level security and performance against agreed business definitions.
• AI and GenAI testing: Coordinate evaluation of AI components for accuracy, relevance, bias, safety and hallucination, working with the AI engineers.
• Non-functional testing: Coordinate performance, security, vulnerability and access-control testing in line with DESC ISR requirements.
• UAT support: Partner with the Business Analyst to prepare UAT scenarios, support business testers, and manage defect triage through to sign-off.
• Defect management: Run defect lifecycle management, severity classification, root-cause analysis and quality reporting to program governance.
• Traceability and evidence: Maintain traceability from requirements to test cases, test results and defects, and produce test summary reports as audit evidence.
• Team leadership and knowledge transfer: Lead and mentor the QA team, and transfer test assets and practices to SUTHERLAND teams for ongoing regression assurance.

Qualifications and Experience

• 7+ years in software and data quality assurance, with at least 3 years leading QA on data platform, data warehouse or analytics programs.
• Strong hands-on data testing skills, with advanced SQL and working Python/PySpark.
• Experience with test automation frameworks, CI/CD integration and test management tools such as Azure DevOps Test Plans, Jira/Xray or equivalent.
• Understanding Lakehouse/Medallion architecture, ETL/ELT, dimensional modelling and data reconciliation.
• Experience testing Power BI reports and, ideally, AI/ML or GenAI components.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Fabric, Azure data services and Microsoft Purview.
• Certifications such as ISTQB Advanced / Test Manager are an advantage.
• Excellent English communication, reporting and stakeholder-management skills; Arabic proficiency is an advantage.