Automation Lead Playwright

Job Description - Automation Lead
Job Title: Quality Engineering Lead
Location: Mexico
Experience: 7-9 Years
Role Summary
We are seeking a QA Automation Lead with strong hands-on experience in Playwright automation using TypeScript/JavaScript, testing modern web applications such as Angular-based frontends and Java-based backend services. The candidate will be responsible for leading automation strategy and execution, driving framework best practices, guiding QA team members, monitoring quality metrics, and ensuring high-quality application delivery.
Key Responsibilities

• Analyze Business Requirements Documents (BRD), User Stories, acceptance criteria, and Functional Specifications to define the overall testing approach.
• Lead the QA automation strategy, planning, estimation, and execution across releases and sprints.
• Design, develop, and review automated test scripts using Playwright with TypeScript/JavaScript for web applications.
• Own and govern the Playwright automation framework, ensuring scalability, maintainability, reusability, and coding best practices.
• Guide the team in implementing Page Object Model (POM), reusable utilities, fixtures, test data management, and common automation components.
• Drive automation of functional, integration, regression, smoke, and end-to-end testing.
• Lead UI, API, and backend validation to ensure end-to-end application functionality and data integrity.
• Define and maintain cross-browser testing across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit using Playwright.
• Drive integration of automated test suites with CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar tools.
• Review automation code and ensure adherence to coding standards, framework guidelines, and automation best practices.
• Analyze automation execution results, identify recurring failures, troubleshoot flaky tests, and drive improvements in automation stability.
• Oversee defect identification, tracking, prioritization, retesting, and closure using Azure DevOps, Jira, or similar tools.
• Guide the team in using SQL queries for backend validation and application workflow verification.
• Participate in and represent QA during requirement reviews, sprint planning, release planning, retrospectives, and defect triage meetings.
• Mentor QA engineers and automation analysts, providing technical guidance and reviewing automation deliverables.
• Collaborate closely with Business Analysts, Developers, Product Owners, Architects, DevOps teams, and Project Managers.
• Provide test execution status, automation coverage, defect metrics, quality risks, and release-readiness updates to stakeholders.
• Identify automation gaps, technical risks, and quality issues early and drive appropriate mitigation plans.
• Continuously improve automation coverage, execution time, framework maintainability, test reliability, and overall QA efficiency.

Required Skills

• Strong hands-on experience in Playwright automation testing.
• Strong programming knowledge in TypeScript or JavaScript.
• Experience in leading automation testing initiatives and QA teams.
• Strong experience in designing, implementing, and maintaining scalable UI automation frameworks.
• Strong understanding of Playwright locators, fixtures, assertions, browser contexts, hooks, configuration, tracing, and debugging.
• Experience implementing Page Object Model (POM) and reusable automation architecture.
• Experience with functional, regression, integration, API, and end-to-end testing.
• Experience with API testing and automation, preferably using Playwright API capabilities or Postman.
• Knowledge of HTML, CSS, DOM, XPath, and browser developer tools for automation troubleshooting.
• Experience with Git/GitHub, pull requests, branching strategies, and code reviews.
• Strong experience in integrating automation with CI/CD pipelines, preferably Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins.
• Working knowledge of SQL for backend and data validation.
• Strong understanding of SDLC, STLC, Agile/Scrum, defect management, and release management processes.
• Ability to perform test estimation, resource planning, risk analysis, and quality reporting.
• Strong leadership, mentoring, stakeholder management, debugging, analytical, and communication skills.

Preferred Skills

• Experience testing Angular, React, or other modern web applications.
• Advanced knowledge of parallel execution, cross-browser testing, retry mechanisms, tracing, screenshots, and video capture in Playwright.
• Experience with reporting tools such as Allure, HTML Reporter, or similar automation reporting solutions.
• Experience with Docker or containerized automation execution.
• Exposure to performance, accessibility, security, or visual regression testing.
• Experience with BDD frameworks and reusable automation architecture.
• Knowledge of cloud-based testing platforms such as BrowserStack or Sauce Labs.
• Experience defining and tracking automation coverage, defect leakage, test effectiveness, and quality metrics.
• Experience supporting UAT, production validation, and release-readiness activities.
• Experience working with distributed or geographically diverse QA teams.
• Ability to communicate in Spanish is preferred for Mexico client engagements.

Key Deliverables

• QA Test Strategy and Automation Test Plan
• Playwright Automation Framework and Framework Standards
• Automation Roadmap and Coverage Plan
• Automated UI and API Test Suites
• Functional and Regression Test Suites
• CI/CD Automation Integration
• Automation Code Reviews and Quality Standards
• Test Execution and Automation Reports
• Defect Reports and Traceability Matrix
• Automation Coverage and Quality Metrics
• Release Readiness and Risk Assessment
• UAT/Production Validation Support
• Test Closure Report