About Exotel:

Exotel is the emerging market’s leading full-stack customer engagement platform and business-focused virtual telecom operator. Incorporated in 2011, Exotel’s cloud-based product suite powers 50 million daily engagements across voice, video and messaging channels. Exotel powers unified customer engagement to over 6000 companies in 60+ countries, including India, SE Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Today, some of the fastest-growing companies in the emerging markets (Ola, Swiggy, Flipkart, GoJek, Urban Company, HDFC Bank, Zomato, Oyo, etc.) manage their customer engagement with Exotel’s suite of communication APIs, Ameyo’s omnichannel contact centre (merger), and Cogno AI‘s conversational AI platform (acquisition) over the cloud. We are a $100 million Series D funded company with $60 million in ARR.

Job Summary: The QA Automation Principal Engineer is a senior technical leader and subject matter expert specializing in the architecture, design, and implementation of advanced test automation solutions. This role is pivotal in driving the company's test automation strategy, championing cutting-edge automation frameworks and tools, and mentoring QA teams in automation best practices. The ideal candidate is a hands-on innovator with deep expertise in various automation technologies and a passion for building highly efficient, scalable, and robust automated testing capabilities to ensure top-tier software quality.

Responsibilities:

• Automation Strategy & Architecture:

• Define, architect, and drive the overarching test automation strategy and roadmap for the organization, ensuring alignment with business objectives and engineering goals.

• Design, develop, and maintain state-of-the-art, scalable, and reusable test automation frameworks across different platforms (web, mobile, API, backend, data).

• Lead the evaluation, selection, and implementation of new automation tools, technologies, and methodologies to continuously enhance automation efficiency and coverage.

• Technical Leadership & Mentorship in Automation:

• Provide expert technical leadership, guidance, and mentorship to QA engineers and development teams on all aspects of test automation, including framework design, script development, execution, and maintenance.

• Establish and enforce best practices, coding standards, and design patterns for test automation.

• Lead by example in developing complex automation solutions and resolving challenging technical automation issues.

• Hands-on Advanced Automation Development:

• Actively design, develop, and implement sophisticated automated test scripts for complex features, critical end-to-end workflows, and non-functional requirements (performance, security, load).

• Develop innovative solutions for complex automation challenges, such as test data management, environment provisioning, service virtualization, and results analysis.

• Integrate automated tests seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines to enable continuous testing and rapid feedback loops.

• Collaboration & Influence for Testability & Automation:

• Collaborate closely with Software Architects, Development Leads, and DevOps Engineers to influence system design for optimal testability and automation feasibility.

• Advocate for and drive the adoption of "design for test automation" principles throughout the software development lifecycle.

• Effectively communicate automation strategies, technical designs, and test results to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Process Optimization & Innovation in Automation:

• Continuously assess & identify opportunities to improve existing test automation processes, tools, & frameworks for greater efficiency, reliability, & speed.

• Champion the adoption of modern automation techniques, such as AI/ML in testing, visual validation, and self-healing automation.

• Drive initiatives to increase automation coverage, reduce manual testing efforts, and shorten release cycles.

• Troubleshooting & Root Cause Analysis for Automated Systems:

• Lead advanced troubleshooting and root cause analysis for complex issues within the test automation infrastructure, frameworks, and automated test suites.

• Analyze automation execution results, identify flakiness, and implement solutions to improve test stability and reliability.

Qualifications:

• Education:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.

• Experience:

• 10+ years of dedicated experience in software quality assurance, with at least 7+ years in a senior or lead role focused heavily on test automation architecture and development.

• Proven track record of successfully architecting, designing, and implementing large-scale, complex test automation frameworks from scratch.

• Extensive experience in automating tests for distributed systems, microservices, APIs, cloud-native applications, and complex UI/UX.

• Technical Skills:

• Expert-level proficiency in multiple programming languages commonly used in test automation (e.g., Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#).

• Deep, hands-on expertise with a wide array of test automation tools and frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium, WebdriverIO, REST Assured, Karate DSL, TestNG, PyTest, JUnit, Robot Framework).

• Strong understanding of software architecture patterns (e.g., microservices, event-driven), data structures, and algorithms.

• In-depth knowledge and practical experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, CircleCI), including pipeline-as-code.

• Significant experience with performance and load testing tools (e.g., JMeter, k6, Gatling, LoadRunner) and designing automation for performance validation.

• Advanced proficiency with version control systems (e.g., Git, Gitflow).

• Expertise in API testing automation, including contract testing and mocking/stubbing techniques.

• Strong SQL and NoSQL database knowledge and experience in automating data validation.

• Soft Skills:

• Exceptional problem-solving, analytical, and critical-thinking skills.

• Excellent leadership, communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

• Proven ability to mentor, coach, and elevate the technical skills of other engineers.

• Strong ability to work independently, take initiative, and drive projects to completion.

• Proactive, self-motivated, and highly detail-oriented with a passion for quality and automation.

• Ability to effectively influence and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Preferred Skills (Nice to Have):

• Experience with AI/ML-powered testing tools and techniques.

• Expertise in security testing automation tools and methodologies (SAST, DAST).

• Deep knowledge of BDD/TDD practices and associated tools (e.g., Cucumber, SpecFlow, Behave).

• Experience with service virtualization and advanced mocking frameworks (e.g., WireMock, Mountebank).

• Contributions to open-source test automation projects or communities.

• Relevant advanced certifications (e.g., ISTQB Test Automation Engineer, AWS/Azure certifications).