What are the responsibilities and job description for the SDET/QA Automation Lead position at Jobgether?
This position is posted by Jobgether on behalf of a partner company. We are currently looking for a SDET/QA Automation Lead in Italy.
This is a high-impact leadership role focused on transforming quality assurance into a strategic, automation-first engineering function within a complex, Linux-based product ecosystem. The position blends hands-on technical leadership with organizational transformation, requiring someone who can elevate both tooling and team maturity. You will define the long-term QA vision, build scalable automation systems, and embed AI-driven approaches into testing workflows. The role involves shaping quality strategy across distributed systems while improving reliability, speed, and observability. You will also mentor and grow a team of SDETs into end-to-end product quality owners. This is a fully remote opportunity within a fast-moving, engineering-driven environment where innovation and ownership are critical.
\n- Define and execute a multi-quarter quality engineering roadmap, including key product quality metrics, test strategy, and scalable automation architecture.
- Expand and optimize test coverage by prioritizing risk, impact, and system criticality across a complex Linux-based product ecosystem.
- Own and evolve test infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, and QA tooling to ensure high reliability and efficient execution at scale.
- Lead the transformation of QA practices toward AI-assisted and automation-first workflows, integrating intelligent testing approaches where applicable.
- Manage and mentor a team of SDETs, elevating them from test execution roles to product quality engineers owning subsystems end-to-end.
- Redesign operational processes, including on-call rotations, reporting systems, and ownership models to improve sustainability and accountability.
- Collaborate closely with engineering and infrastructure teams to ensure quality is embedded throughout the development lifecycle.
Requirements:
- 5 years of experience in test automation engineering, including at least 2 years in a QA leadership role managing 5 engineers.
- Strong expertise in Linux-based product testing environments (including RPM, systemd, and multi-distribution systems).
- Proven ability to significantly improve test reliability, automation coverage, and overall QA efficiency in production systems.
- Advanced Python programming skills, with hands-on experience building or maintaining large-scale test frameworks.
- Deep experience designing and managing CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins strongly preferred, with GitLab CI migration experience a plus).
- Demonstrated experience integrating AI/ML capabilities into QA or automation workflows in real-world production environments.
- Strong strategic thinking, with a data-driven mindset and the ability to define and track meaningful engineering metrics.
- Excellent leadership skills with a focus on delegation, ownership distribution, and team development.
- Nice to have: experience in cloud/VM orchestration testing and security-focused products such as WAF or antivirus systems.
Benefits:
- Fully remote work with flexible working hours, allowing you to work from anywhere.
- 24 days of paid vacation annually, plus 10 public holidays and unlimited sick leave.
- Private medical insurance coverage reimbursement.
- Co-working space and gym/sports activity reimbursements.
- Dedicated budget for learning and professional development.
- Opportunity to contribute innovative ideas that may be patented and rewarded.
- Exposure to complex, large-scale infrastructure and security-focused engineering challenges.
- Strong focus on career growth and continuous skill development.
How Jobgether works:
We use an AI-powered matching process to ensure your application is reviewed quickly, objectively, and fairly against the role's core requirements. Our system identifies the top-fitting candidates, and this shortlist is then shared directly with the hiring company. The final decision and next steps (interviews, assessments) are managed by their internal team.
We appreciate your interest and wish you the best!
Why Apply Through Jobgether?
Data Privacy Notice: By submitting your application, you acknowledge that Jobgether will process your personal data to evaluate your candidacy and share relevant information with the hiring employer. This processing is based on legitimate interest and pre-contractual measures under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). You may exercise your rights (access, rectification, erasure, objection) at any time.
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