Product-Aligned Agentic Quality Engineering Lead (Automation & Agentic AI)

We are hiring a senior Quality Engineering leader who owns end-to-end quality, release sign-off, and automation strategy across our platform — including AI agents, web applications, APIs, and databases.\nThis role blends:\nQuality Ownership\nAutomation & Agentic Testing Leadership\nRelease & Go-Live Authority\nProduct-aligned execution (PO-style ownership)\nYou will start by establishing strong manual and exploratory testing foundations, then systematically drive automation-first quality, including AI agent validation, critic agents, eval frameworks, and safety guardrails.\nThis is not a passive QA role.\nYou are accountable for production quality.\n\nKey Responsibilities\n\nEnd-to-End Quality Ownership & Release Sign-Off\nOwn quality outcomes across the full delivery lifecycle\nAct as release authority, driving go/no-go decisions\nDefine and enforce quality gates across features, agents, and releases\nPartner with Product and Engineering to balance speed and quality\nReduce production defects through proactive automation and validation\n\nAutomation-First Quality Strategy\nDefine and own the automation roadmap (UI, API, DB, agentic systems)\nBuild and maintain hybrid automation frameworks using Python\nDrive CI/CD-integrated automated testing pipelines\nEnsure automation coverage continuously replaces repetitive manual testing\nGuide aligned Quality Engineers in automation implementation\n\nAgentic AI & LLM Quality Engineering\nOwn quality for AI agents, tool calls, and multi-step workflows\nValidate:\nAgent behavior & reasoning paths\nTool invocation correctness\nHallucinations & unsafe outputs\nRAG accuracy and grounding\nDefine and execute agent evaluation (evals) frameworks\nCollaborate with Critic Engineers to design:\nCritic agents\nAutomated agent validation\nBenchmark datasets & scoring rubrics\nLead innovation in agent testing methodologies\n\nManual, Exploratory & Scenario-Based Testing\nDrive high-quality manual and exploratory testing where automation is not yet viable\nDesign test scenarios covering edge cases, failure modes, and real-world flows\nEnsure strong test data strategies and defect lifecycle management\nUse manual testing strategically — not as a long-term crutch\n\nProduct-Aligned Ownership\nWork as a quality-focused Product Owner partner\nAlign closely with Product Managers on acceptance criteria and readiness\nParticipate in sprint planning, refinement, and release discussions\nEnsure quality is embedded into feature design, not added later\n\nCross-Team Collaboration\nWork closely with:\nProduct\nEngineering\nAgenticOps\nRAG & AI teams\nAct as the single quality voice across delivery discussions\nMentor and guide aligned Quality Engineers and contributors\n\nRequired Skills & Experience\n\nQuality & Manual Testing\n5+ years of strong hands-on experience in manual and exploratory testing\nDeep understanding of SDLC/STLC, test planning, traceability, and defect management\nStrong API testing experience (Postman, REST clients)\n\nAutomation (UI, API, Database)\nStrong experience in:\nUI automation (Playwright / Selenium / Cypress)\nAPI automation (pytest, requests, REST Assured)\nDatabase validation using SQL\nExperience designing end-to-end automation frameworks\nCI/CD integration (GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins)\n\nAgentic AI & LLM Testing\nHands-on experience testing LLMs and AI agents\nUnderstanding of:\nAgent workflows\nTool calling\nRAG pipelines\nGuardrails & safety validation\nExperience designing or executing eval frameworks\n\nPython, MCP & Cloud\nStrong Python skills for automation, utilities, and validation\nUnderstanding of MCP servers, agent tools, and orchestration\nCloud exposure (GCP / AWS / Azure) in QA or automation contexts\n\nWhat Success Looks Like\n\nReleases go out predictably and confidently\nAutomation coverage grows sprint after sprint\nAgent failures are caught before production\nQuality becomes a shared responsibility, led by you\nManual testing effort reduces as automation and agent critics mature\n\nWhy This Role Is Special\n\nOwns release sign-off\nDrives automation-first quality\nShapes how agentic AI is tested\nWorks closely with Product & CTO\nLeads innovation in AI testing\nNot a test executor role\nNot a checkbox QA position