[Hiring] Lead QA Engineer @Xsolla

Role Description

We are looking for an experienced Lead QA Automation Engineer with strong technical depth in building, maintaining, and scaling backend automation systems. You enjoy leading through influence, acting as a senior IC who shapes testing strategy, mentors engineers, and ensures automation excellence across multiple teams.

You’re comfortable working with distributed systems, including monolith and microservices, and know how to design testing approaches that cover APIs, data flows, integrations, and edge cases. You think like an engineer, communicate like a leader, and act with the ownership of someone who wants to build world-class quality infrastructure.

You’re also pragmatic and continuously evaluate new tools such as using AI-powered solutions and finding ways to drive efficiency while still relying on strong engineering fundamentals.

As a QA Lead, you will be responsible for overseeing and guiding a team of QA engineers to ensure the delivery of high-quality software across projects. This role involves:

• Defining and managing test plans, test cases, and execution schedules for projects.
• Ensuring coverage across functional, regression, integration, performance, and security testing.
• Validating deliverables against requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Enforcing QA standards, methodologies, and best practices within the team.
• Ensuring defects are logged, tracked, and resolved efficiently.
• Monitoring metrics such as defect density, test coverage, and release readiness.
• Acting as the primary liaison between QA, development, product, and operations teams.
• Providing clear reporting on test progress, risks, and quality status to stakeholders.
• Supporting cross-functional alignment to ensure quality is embedded throughout the lifecycle.
• Driving adoption of automation frameworks and tools where appropriate.
• Balancing manual and automated testing strategies to optimize efficiency.
• Ensuring test environments are properly configured and maintained.
• Identifying gaps in QA processes and proposing improvements.
• Staying updated on emerging QA practices and tools, integrating them into workflows.
• Promoting a culture of quality ownership across the team.
• Leading the design, development, and maintenance of backend-focused automated test frameworks (Jest, Playwright, custom frameworks, etc.).
• Working as a hands-on IC leader, setting automation standards, driving adoption, and mentoring engineers when needed.
• Developing robust automated tests for REST APIs, services, and integrations across monolithic and microservices architectures.
• Creating and maintaining test suites across integration, contract, and end-to-end layers using modern automation practices.
• Utilizing mocking and service virtualization to isolate systems and increase test reliability.
• Collaborating closely with backend developers, DevOps, and product teams to understand system design and ensure complete test coverage.
• Reviewing engineering code (PHP/Golang) to better understand logic, identify risk areas, and design stronger tests.
• Building CI/CD test pipelines, writing and optimizing YAML configurations, and ensuring automation stability in the delivery flow.
• Improving observability and reporting across automated tests (dashboards, logs, alerts, coverage insights).
• Introducing and evaluating tools such as AI-assisted or non AI-assisted testing solutions to improve test development speed and depth of validation.
• Acting as a quality advocate in architecture discussions, sprint planning, and release readiness reviews.
• Leading initiatives that improve engineering workflows, automation reliability, and long-term maintainability.
• Supporting teams in debugging complex production issues and guiding root-cause analysis.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in QA, Agile methodologies.
• 2+ years of experience as a QA Lead.
• Expertise in backend/API automation using Jest, Postman, and modern REST testing practices.
• Solid experience with Playwright, JEST, Karate, Cucumber or equivalent frameworks.
• Strong understanding of monolith architecture and microservices-based systems.
• Hands-on experience designing CI/CD pipelines and working with YAML-based configuration.
• Strong understanding of mocking, stubbing, service virtualization, and contract testing (e.g., Pact or similar).
• Experience building test frameworks from the ground up or significantly enhancing existing ones.
• Comfortable using AI tools as accelerators while applying critical thinking to validate output.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and QA teams.
• Proactive, self-driven, and able to take ownership of automation direction with minimal supervision.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in QA Automation, including strong hands-on technical leadership.
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS/GCP).
• Familiarity with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of performance testing tools (Locust, JMeter, k6).
• Experience working with GitLab/GitHub Actions CI pipelines.
• Exposure to security testing fundamentals.
• Experience driving automation architecture during system decomposition (mono → microservices).
• Ability to read and understand backend code, especially PHP and/or Golang.

Benefits

• Unlimited Flexible Time Off.
• Personalized career roadmap for each employee.
• Investment in professional development through training and educational opportunities.
• Supportive environment prioritizing physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
• Cultivating a community that values creativity, collaboration, and the transformative power of play.