Lead AI QA Automation Engineer

We're looking for a Lead AI QA Automation Engineer to own and evolve our test automation strategy. This is an individual-contributor role at a senior/lead technical level, with opportunities to support presales and consultative work for local client projects across Australia.

You'll drive automation at scale across tools like Playwright and AI-first platforms (e.g., Functionize, Testim, testRigor), and pioneer how we use AI to accelerate test design, maintenance, and coverage across our products.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, architecture, and continuous improvement of our test automation approach across Playwright and AI-first tools (e.g., Functionize, Testim, testRigor), ensuring scalable, maintainable, and reliable test suites across web applications
• Champion the use of AI tools and techniques (e.g., LLM-assisted test generation, self-healing locators, AI-driven test case design and prioritisation) to increase automation coverage and reduce manual test creation effort
• Set technical standards and best practices for automation, code review, CI/CD integration, and quality gates across the SDLC, acting as the go-to technical authority on automation
• Partner with engineering, product, and DevOps teams to strengthen quality engineering practices and embed automation throughout the software development lifecycle
• Support presales and consultative activities for client engagements across Australia, including solutioning, tool recommendations, technical discovery, demonstrations, and input into proposals
• Provide technical guidance and expertise on QA automation strategy, tooling, and AI-enabled testing approaches across internal and client-facing initiatives

Requirements

• Proven experience as a Senior or Lead QA Automation Engineer, with deep, hands-on expertise in Playwright and/or AI-first automation tools (e.g., Functionize, Testim, testRigor) for end-to-end and API test automation
• Demonstrated experience applying AI/LLM tools to QA workflows, such as generating or maintaining test cases, exploratory test ideation, intelligent test selection, or automation optimisation
• Strong background building and scaling automation frameworks within CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Azure DevOps)
• Proven ability to set technical direction and influence cross-functional quality practices as a senior/lead individual contributor, with strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Comfortable supporting client-facing presales or consultative conversations, including technical discovery, solutioning, and tooling recommendations

Nice to have

• Experience with additional automation tools such as Cypress or Selenium, or with performance/load testing
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP) and containerised test environments (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Background in prompt engineering or working directly with LLM APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) for tooling or automation development
• Prior experience in presales, consulting, solutioning, or other client-facing technical roles