QE Proactive Hiring: Senior Automation SDET Leader (NYC)

Ness Digital Engineering•New York, NY

9d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Automation SDET Leader is responsible for leading a high-throughput, customer-centric automation delivery team that directly supports delivery stabilization, regression closure, and trust-critical coverage gaps. This leader will manage a team of 10-15 engineers operating as an “Automation Factory.” Additionally, this role serves as the single point of contact for both Automation and Performance Engineering needs within the assigned ARTs, ensuring a holistic approach to quality and system performance. This role exists to industrialize automation execution—efficiently, repeatably, and at scale—under clear architectural and governance direction. What This Role Delivers: * Rapid build-out of automated regression and trust-critical test coverage. * Automation aligned to real analyst workflows, not test case volume. * Consistent, repeatable automation patterns across delivery teams. * Reduced manual regression load during stabilization phases. * Inputs into future-state QE 2.0 intelligence and learning loops. * Coordination of Performance Engineering efforts, including test planning, execution, and reporting. Core Responsibilities: * Team Leadership: Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 10-15 Automation SDETs, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment. * Delivery Management: Oversee the execution of the automation backlog, prioritized by QE 1.0 and delivery leadership, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery. * Automation Strategy (Execution): Ensure automation efforts focus on: regression risk, customer- and analyst-visible workflows, and trust-breaking/high-impact failure scenarios. * Collaboration: Collaborate closely with ART-aligned QE leads and development teams to integrate automation seamlessly into the SDLC. * Quality & Reliability: Ensure automation is reliable, maintainable, and production-relevant, adhering to defined patterns and standards. * Telemetry & Reporting: Contribute execution telemetry (coverage, failure patterns, flakiness) into QE reporting mechanisms, providing insights for continuous improvement. * Capacity Management: Rapidly scale team effort up or down based on release and delivery demand. * Process Improvement: Identify and implement improvements to automation processes, tools, and techniques. * Governance & Standards: Enforce adherence to established automation standards and governance policies. Operating Model: * Operate within a Factory execution model, managing a centralized team delivering automation services. * Work is centrally governed but locally executed, coordinating with ART-level QE leads. * Priorities and standards are owned by QE 1.0 and, in the future, QE 2.0 leadership.

Requirements

Proven experience leading and managing a team of automation and performance testing engineers.
Strong hands-on experience with test automation and performance frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Appium, Cypress, Jmeter, Loadrunner, Tosca) and CI/CD integration (e.g., Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI).
Ability to automate at API, service, and workflow (UI) layers as needed.
Experience working in high-pressure delivery environments.
Strong collaboration skills with developers, QE leads, and other stakeholders.
Discipline in following standards, patterns, and governance.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

Lead, mentor, and develop a team of 10-15 Automation SDETs, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment.
Oversee the execution of the automation backlog, prioritized by QE 1.0 and delivery leadership, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery.
Ensure automation efforts focus on: regression risk, customer- and analyst-visible workflows, and trust-breaking/high-impact failure scenarios.
Collaborate closely with ART-aligned QE leads and development teams to integrate automation seamlessly into the SDLC.
Ensure automation is reliable, maintainable, and production-relevant, adhering to defined patterns and standards.
Contribute execution telemetry (coverage, failure patterns, flakiness) into QE reporting mechanisms, providing insights for continuous improvement.
Rapidly scale team effort up or down based on release and delivery demand.
Identify and implement improvements to automation processes, tools, and techniques.
Enforce adherence to established automation standards and governance policies.
Coordinate Performance Engineering efforts, including test planning, execution, and reporting.