Senior Test Leader

About the Role

Vinova is looking for an experienced, technically strong, and hands-on Senior Test Leader to lead and develop our QA function across the company.

This role is responsible for establishing company-wide testing standards, strengthening quality governance across multiple projects, and building scalable automation and AI-assisted testing capabilities. You will work closely with Delivery Managers, Project Managers, technical teams, and clients to ensure consistent quality throughout the software development lifecycle.

The ideal candidate has a strong foundation in software development before transitioning into QA, along with proven experience leading QA teams in an IT outsourcing environment and delivering large-scale global projects.

Key Responsibilities

QA Leadership & Team Building

• Directly lead, coach, and develop the QA/Tester team across all company projects.
• Build a clear career development path for QA/Testers, from Junior to Senior/Automation Engineer.
• Act as the subject matter expert (SME) on testing, providing guidance whenever projects need technical support.

Test Strategy & Process Standardization

• Define a standard Test Strategy for each project type, including bespoke software, web applications, mobile applications, and government-sector projects, integrated into the SDLC across Agile/Scrum, Waterfall, and Hybrid models.
• Establish Quality Gates, including clear entry and exit criteria, for each phase: SIT, UAT, go-live, and post-go-live.
• Define a standard set of quality metrics—including defect density, defect leakage, and test coverage—to be applied consistently across Delivery.

Manual Testing & Automation

• Oversee and ensure the quality of test cases, test plans, and test data across active projects.
• Build and scale a reusable automation testing framework covering UI, API, and regression testing across multiple projects.
• Evaluate and select automation tools suited to each project type, including web, mobile, and API-based solutions.

Applying AI in Testing

• Research and apply AI in testing, including automated test case generation, regression suite optimization, and defect-prone-area prediction.
• Build a workflow that combines AI-assisted testing with existing automation practices to increase delivery speed and reduce testing costs.

Quality & Client Management

• Act as the primary point of contact for quality-related client complaints, working with Delivery Managers and Project Managers to define corrective actions.
• Provide regular portfolio-level quality status reporting to the Chief Delivery Officer, rather than reporting only on individual projects.
• Conduct root-cause analysis for critical defects and propose process improvements to prevent recurrence.

Requirements

Background & Experience

• Minimum 7–8 years in the software industry, including hands-on Software Development experience before moving into QA — able to read code and review test coverage/logic at a deep technical level.
• Experience working at ITO (IT Outsourcing) companies — understands the multi-project, multi-client nature of the outsourcing delivery model.
• Minimum 3 years in a QA team lead/management role.
• Proven experience leading a QA team on large-scale global projects, successfully delivering under global-standard quality expectations.

Testing Expertise

• Manual Testing: strong skills in test case design, test planning, and UAT management.
• Automation Testing: hands-on experience building/operating an automation framework (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, or equivalent), integrated into CI/CD.
• AI Software Testing: real hands-on experience applying AI to testing (test case generation, test suite optimization, automated defect detection) — not just conceptual knowledge.
• Strong command of software development methodologies: Agile/Scrum, Waterfall, Hybrid — able to tailor the test strategy to each model.
• Hands-on testing experience within ASDLC (AI Software Development Life Cycle) project models — testing embedded across AI-driven development workflows, from AI-assisted coding to AI-integrated QA processes.

Certifications (Preferred)

• ISTQB Foundation/Advanced Level (Test Manager, Test Analyst, or Automation Engineer track).
• Relevant automation testing certification (Selenium, Playwright, etc.) or AI/ML-applied-to-QA certification, if any.

Other Skills

• Leadership skills — coaching and developing a team.
• Strong communication skills, comfortable engaging directly with clients on quality-related matters.
• Continuous-improvement mindset — proactively proposes fixes rather than only reporting defects.

Nice to Have

• Experience testing AI-native applications (LLM-based apps, AI agents, chatbots) — including prompt/response quality evaluation, hallucination detection, and non-deterministic output testing strategies.

Why Join Vinova

• Lead and shape the company-wide QA strategy across a diverse international project portfolio.
• Build and develop a scalable QA organization with clear standards and career pathways.
• Drive the adoption of automation and AI-assisted testing across multiple delivery teams.
• Work closely with senior leadership, Delivery, Engineering, and client stakeholders.
• Gain exposure to complex projects across different industries, technologies, and markets.
• Join a fast-growing international technology company where you can take ownership and make a measurable impact.
• Work in a high-performance and continuous-improvement environment.
• Receive a competitive salary and benefits package.

Originally posted on Himalayas