QA Automation Lead

Purpose of the role

To design, develop and improve software, utilising various engineering methodologies, that provides business, platform, and technology capabilities for our customers and colleagues. 

Accountabilities

• Development and delivery of high-quality software solutions by using industry aligned programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Ensuring that code is scalable, maintainable, and optimized for performance.
• Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, designers, and other engineers to define software requirements, devise solution strategies, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives.
• Collaboration with peers, participate in code reviews, and promote a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing.
• Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations and actively contribute to the organization’s technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth.
• Adherence to secure coding practices to mitigate vulnerabilities, protect sensitive data, and ensure secure software solutions.
• Implementation of effective unit testing practices to ensure proper code design, readability, and reliability.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/ business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/ or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc).to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Digital Colleague Workplace (DCW) is a strategic platform that provides colleagues with a unified digital workplace experience through applications such as Connections, Phonebook, Enterprise Search, Colleague Assist, Annual Leave, Achievers, Alerts, and other integrated services. The DCW Quality Assurance team is responsible for ensuring that all features, integrations, and end-to-end user journeys function correctly and meet the required quality, reliability, compliance, and performance standards before production release.

Dynamic working gives everyone at Barclays the opportunity to integrate professional and personal lives, if you have a need for flexibility then please discuss this with the hiring manager.

We are seeking an experience QA Automation Lead to join our Quality Assurance team. The successful candidate will work closely with Business Analysts, business stakeholders, developers, and QA teams to gather testing requirements, design and execute test strategies, automate business-critical scenarios, and ensure the delivery of high-quality solutions to our global user base.

The candidate will be responsible for manual as well as automation activities in the project space. The role will require interacting with Business Analyst, business stakeholders and developers to understand various test cases. The candidate will contribute to the strategy to automate the test cases via suitable test framework.

The candidate will also train and mentor junior testers within the team and manage their performance.

The candidate will also drive best practices for end-to-end automation via playwright, cucumber, rest assured and related technologies. Own QA delivery across all DCW releases and BAU enhancements. Automate Workflows for DCW API/UI automation. Maintain effective regression, integration, performance and accessibility coverage. Deliver production ready releases with controlled risk and documented sign-off. Develop QA capability, drive best practices and ensure sustainable resourcing.

To be successful as a QA Automation Lead, you should have experience with:

• Hands on experience with Playwright /Selenium web driver with Web/ Angular based applications.
• Thorough knowledge of BDD with cucumber/feature files.
• Experience and Extensive Knowledge on API automation tools using REST Assured tool /Postman, Karate etc.
• Experience in CI/CD tools like GITLAB.
• Extensive knowledge of Testing lifecycle and core testing process/techniques using different test approaches and manual testing.
• Relevant experience with implementation of test strategy and frameworks needed to test all the dimensions of a complex, high-throughput distributed system including functional correctness, performance, scale, and security.
• Good understanding of NFT - Performance testing tools (Jmeter and Load Runner).
• Good understanding of Database design with ability to write complex Sql queries.

Some of Highly Valued Skills may include:

• Candidates with experience in Compliance and Colleague domain preferred.
•  Experience of working with UI testing tools like Selenium, Playwright
•  Experience of working with API Automation like Rest Asurred, Karate , Postman.
• Ability to identify issues and risks with projects which may impact delivery timelines; and cognizance to escalate issues with vendors/management as required.
• Good to know performance testing tool like loadrunner , jmeter
• Extremely organized, excellent oral and written communication skills, particularly in documenting system architectures and workflowsYou may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills. 
•  Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience working within Agile delivery methodologies.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of quality outcomes.
• Strong focus on continuous improvement and automation-first testing approaches.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with globally distributed teams.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills. 

The location of the role is Pune, IN.