QA/Test Automation Lead
Role Overview
| Attribute | Details |
| Job Title | QA/Test Automation Lead |
| Reports To | Chief Information Officer (CIO) |
| Location | Johannesburg, South Africa (hybrid) |
| Employment Type | Permanent, full-time |
Core Purpose & Environment
The primary purpose of this role is to design, build, and govern the enterprise test automation capability across a heterogeneous technology estate. The role balances hands-on technical execution with high-level strategy to drive measurable improvements in release velocity, defect leakage, and regression coverage.
Technology Landscape:
Pega 23 for case orchestration
Azure (South Africa North) for AI and microservices workloads
PHP web applications
AS400/5250 terminal systems supporting core credit and loan processes
Entra ID / Omada for identity management
Key Responsibilities
Strategy & Governance: Define the automation strategy across Pega, PHP, AS400/5250, and microservices. Evaluate tooling (e.g., Katalon, ACCELQ, Playwright), establish quality gates, and manage licensing/TCO.
Delivery & Execution: Lead automation engineers/analysts to build and maintain functional, regression, API, and end-to-end test suites. Direct legacy AS400 terminal automation and Pega case-type workflows.
CI/CD & Environment Integration: Integrate automated testing into CI/CD release gates (Azure DevOps/Jenkins). Manage test environments and ensure POPIA-compliant test data masking/anonymisation.
Stakeholder & Team Leadership: Mentor staff, manage vendor relationships, and report quality metrics directly to the CIO and steering committees.
Critical Requirements & Qualifications
Experience: 8+ years in software quality assurance, with 3+ years in a test automation lead or architect capacity.
Critical Differentiator: Proven, hands-on experience automating legacy terminal-based systems (AS400/5250).
Platform Expertise: Experience with enterprise tools such as Katalon, ACCELQ, Tricentis Tosca, or UFT One.
Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
Certifications: ISTQB (Foundation required; Advanced/Test Automation Engineer preferred). Vendor certifications in ACCELQ, Tosca, or UFT are advantageous.