Senior SDET - Cape Town

We use our expertise and products to craft customer experiences. Our range of services helps global brand acquire, engage and retain choice-rich customers.

© 2023 Collinson International Limited. Registered in England & Wales under registration No. 2577557

Registered address : 3 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2AQ, United Kingdom.

Collinson is a global loyalty and benefits company, partnering with many of the world’s best known brands to create customer experiences that help them acquire, engage and retain choice rich customers. With more than 30 years of experience in over 170 countries and 2 500 colleagues in 20 locations worldwide, Collinson delivers smarter, more personal experiences that deepen loyalty for leading airlines, hotels, financial institutions and retailers.

About Collinson

Collinson specialises in Financial Services, Travel and Retail and also supports clients across multiple sectors, working with over 90 airlines, 20 hotel groups and more than 600 financial institutions and banks. Clients include Accor Hotels, Air France KLM, American Express, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Diners Club, Mandarin Oriental, Mastercard, Radisson Hotel Group, Sephora, Visa and Vhi, and solutions include Lounge Key and Priority Pass, the world’s best known airport experiences programmes, as well as many leading reward and loyalty initiatives.

Purpose of the job

As a QA Automation Lead, you will champion quality as a core part of how software is designed, built and released. You will help define what “great” looks like across engineering teams by setting test standards, supporting engineers and making quality a shared responsibility.

You will work in a collaborative environment where software is shipped frequently and iteratively, focusing on how systems work together as well as how they work in isolation. Your role spans multiple squads : leading automated testing efforts, shaping QA strategy and using your experience to help teams build products that are reliable, performant and resilient.

If you are curious, enjoy asking thoughtful questions and want to help engineers build and iterate quickly with confidence, this role offers the scope to have a visible impact while working in a supportive, people centred culture that welcomes diverse perspectives.

Key responsibilities

• Define and uphold clear standards for test quality across engineering squads, creating consistency and confidence in releases.
• Provide day-to-day guidance for Automation QAs / SDETs and manual testers, fostering a collaborative, learning focused environment rather than a gatekeeping culture.
• Write high quality integration and end-to-end tests across the software portfolio.
• Partner with engineers, product managers and delivery leads to embed quality from the earliest stages, not as an afterthought.
• Design and oversee test strategies that blend automation, exploratory testing and regression coverage.
• Lead the implementation and evolution of automated testing frameworks, ensuring they are integrated into CI / CD pipelines.
• Own the structure and health of test suites and regression packs, helping teams keep them lean, relevant and valuable.
• Support squads in frontend, API and end-to-end testing using tools such as Playwright, Cypress, Postman, RestAssured and other modern frameworks.
• Facilitate and promote BDD and Three Amigos sessions to clarify requirements and reduce misunderstandings.
• Help engineers understand and own quality by coaching, pairing and advising without blocking progress.
• Plan and carry out performance testing with tools such as K6 and JMeter.
• Collaborate closely with cross functional teams to ensure cross squad functionality and integration are thoroughly tested.
• Take part in the full testing cycle, including investigating issues, writing tests, supporting manual QA where needed and participating in release signoff.

Preferred

Non-negotiable

Personal attributes

We know that people from underrepresented groups, including many women, may hesitate to apply unless they meet every requirement, so if this role sounds interesting and you meet most of the criteria, you are encouraged to apply.

Interview process

This clear and structured process is designed to be respectful of your time, reduce uncertainty and provide several opportunities to meet future teammates, supporting an inclusive and welcoming candidate experience