Job Description:
Job Description: Senior Lead Engineer – ESQA (Quality Engineering)
Education & Experience
- B.Tech / BE / MCA in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- 8–10 years of experience in software engineering with a strong focus on quality engineering, test automation, and enterprise application testing.
- Solid hands-on experience in Java, with the ability to contribute beyond test automation when required.
Key Responsibilities & Essential Skills
- Lead quality engineering activities for one or more product areas, ensuring high standards of quality across the delivery lifecycle.
- Collaborate with product owners, business analysts, architects, and development leaders to understand business requirements, system design, and quality expectations.
- Provide technical leadership in Java-based test automation and supporting frameworks.
- Extensive hands-on experience with REST Assured for API automation and Playwright using TypeScript and/or Java.
- Own and evolve the test automation strategy, frameworks, standards, and best practices in alignment with application architecture and roadmap.
- Review requirements, user stories, and technical designs to identify test scenarios, edge cases, and quality risks early in the lifecycle.
- Design, review, and ensure effective execution of automated and manual test cases covering functional, regression, integration, and end-to-end scenarios.
- Lead sprint-level quality activities including story readiness, test coverage, regression analysis, and release validations.
- Guide and mentor team members in identifying regression scenarios and converting them into reliable and maintainable automation.
- Perform and oversee SDLC activities such as requirement analysis, impact analysis, test planning, and effort estimation.
- Ensure effective defect management, including clear defect reporting, prioritization, root cause analysis, and validation of fixes.
- Partner closely with development teams to improve testability, code quality, and overall engineering outcomes.
- Support User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and provide technical guidance in analyzing complex issues reported by business or production support teams.
- Participate in production support activities on a rotation basis when required, including incident analysis, root cause identification, and coordination with relevant teams.
- Demonstrate flexibility to occasionally align with US business hours to support releases, stakeholder interactions, and critical production needs.
- Ensure compliance with organizational quality standards, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices.
- Prepare and present test metrics, quality KPIs, and release readiness reports to stakeholders.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across quality processes, tools, and methodologies.
- Mentor and coach engineers across levels, promoting strong quality and engineering practices.
- Take ownership of delivery outcomes and proactively identify risks, dependencies, and improvement opportunities.
- Provide regular and effective status updates on progress, risks, and overall quality posture at the program or release level.
Nice to Have
- Strong analytical, debugging, and problem-solving skills with a system-level thinking approach.
- Effective communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience leading quality efforts in large, complex Agile delivery environments.
- Prior exposure to insurance or other highly regulated enterprise domains.
- Relevant certifications such as ISTQB (Foundation or Advanced) or SAFe Agile certifications.
Location:
This position can be based in any of the following locations:
Chennai
Current Guardian Colleagues: Please apply through the internal Jobs Hub in Workday 
