QA Team Lead / QA Architect

Our client is a Banking & Financial Services organization building a new digital platform. The Automation QA environment is a greenfield — nothing exists yet. You will be the person who defines how quality is engineered on this program: the strategy, the architecture, the frameworks, the metrics.

You will lead a team of 4–6 Automation QA Engineers (Senior and Mid-level) and act as the main QA counterpart for Product and Engineering leadership.

Engagement: 5–6 months with a strong possibility of extension. 

Start: ASAP. 

Format: mostly remote, with occasional on-site presence in Germany for kickoff and workshops.

What you will do

• Define the QA strategy and test automation architecture from scratch.
• Design the automation framework, repository structure, and QA processes (branching, review, gating, release criteria).
• Establish quality metrics, reporting and test coverage models, and make them visible to stakeholders.
• Build out the automation layers: API, Integration, Contract and End-to-End testing.
• Own the CI/CD quality gates together with the platform team.
• Coach and mentor Senior and Mid-level automation engineers; run code reviews and set engineering standards.

• Work closely with Product, Engineering and other QA teams; represent QA in architecture discussions.

   

Requirements

• 6+ years in QA, with strong hands-on automation background and experience in an architect / lead role.
• Proven experience building greenfield Automation QA environments from scratch — not just maintaining existing ones.
• Strong Banking / Financial Services background and experience in regulated environments (audit trails, compliance, controlled release processes).
• Hands-on with Cypress and REST Assured.
• Solid experience with Contract Testing, API Testing, and end-to-end automation.
• BrowserStack or equivalent cross-browser/device cloud.
• Comfortable in the client's technology environment:
  • Backend: Java (Spring Boot), Node.js
  • Frontend: Angular
  • Mobile: Flutter
  • Cloud: AWS (Lambda, ECS, API Gateway, Aurora, DynamoDB, SQS, SNS)
  • CI/CD: GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CDK
  • Data Platform: Databricks
  • Tools: Jira, Confluence, SonarQube
• Experience defining quality metrics and reporting for non-technical stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience with synthetic test data generation and management (strong plus in a banking context).
• Performance and security testing exposure.
• Experience in a consulting / client-facing setup.

Mandatory (please read before applying)

• You must be based in Germany (residence + right to work / valid B2B contracting status).
• Fluent German (C1+) is mandatory — it is the primary working language with the client.
• Professional English (B2+) for technical documentation and the extended team.
• Applications that do not meet these three criteria cannot be considered.