Quality Engineering Lead​/Automation Architect

Position: Quality Engineering Lead / Automation Architect
## Quality Engineering Lead / Automation Architect Apply:
Remote - CAN:
Full time:
Posted Yesterday:
R54653
** About POMS
** POMS develops Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software solutions for the life sciences industry. POMS is investing heavily in automated quality engineering, modern software delivery practices, and AI-assisted testing to further product quality and accelerate delivery.  
** Position Summary
** POMS is seeking a hands-on Quality Engineering Lead / Automation Architect to lead the shift from predominantly manual testing to automation-driven quality engineering. This is a hands-on role: the successful candidate will personally help enhance the automation foundation (Playwright framework, standards, and CI/CD integration) and lead a global QA team to deliver automation at scale, using data to measure outcomes and prioritize investments.

** Key Responsibilities*
* ** Automation Strategy and Architecture
*** Own POMS' test automation strategy and roadmap, serving as technical lead for the Playwright framework, automation standards, coding guidelines, and review practices.
* Design and build scalable Playwright suites in Type Script, making effective use of fixtures, workers, parallelization, test isolation, retries, traces, and reporting.
* Organize workflow-based testing suites with clear smoke, core regression, and release regression layers across functional, API, integration, and end-to-end testing.
* Assess the existing manual test inventory and prioritize which tests should be automated, redesigned, consolidated, kept manual, or retired
* Partner with Development and Dev Ops to enhance our automated regression pipelines (Azure Dev Ops, Git Hub Actions, Jenkins, or similar), with sound environment, test-data, and parallel-execution strategies across TFVC and Git repositories.
* Apply AI-assisted tools to test generation, maintenance, coverage analysis, and defect identification, and evaluate emerging testing tools and practices.  
** Team Leadership
*** Build, mentor, and develop a small, high-performing QA team, with particular responsibility for building automation capability
* Put in place the standards, coaching, delegation, and ownership models that allow the team to scale automation without relying on the lead to author most tests.
* Set goals, performance expectations, and career development plans, and support hiring, onboarding, and succession planning.
* Foster quality ownership, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.  
** Quality and Release Management
*** Champion shift-left and risk-based testing, and participate in requirements, design, and architecture reviews to identify risks early.
* Define data-driven release readiness criteria and quality gates, and own QA for all software releases.
* Build operational and executive dashboards and KPIs covering automation coverage, defect escape rates, release readiness, and team performance, and use them to prioritize investments.
* Lead root cause analysis of escaped defects and implement preventive improvements.
* Support validation and compliance activities within a regulated software environment.  
** Qualifications*
* ** Required Qualifications
*** Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
* 5+ years of software quality assurance and testing experience
* Expert-level experience building enterprise-scale test automation frameworks using Playwright, Selenium, Cypress, or comparable tools, with strong Type Script or JavaScript skills.
* Strong software engineering skills, preferably in Type Script and JavaScript, including Git, API testing, SQL, debugging, and code review.
* Experience integrating automated regression testing into CI/CD pipelines using Azure Dev Ops, Git Hub Actions, Jenkins, or comparable platforms.
* Experience scaling automation capability through coaching, standards, and delegation.
* Proven use of quality metrics, dashboards, and KPIs to drive decisions and outcomes.
* Experience testing complex web-based enterprise applications in Agile environments.
* Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and excellent verbal and written communication.  
** Preferred Qualifications
*** Hands-on experience building substantial Playwright suites in Type Script (fixtures, workers, parallelization, test isolation, retries, traces).
* Experience leading QA teams or large-scale testing initiatives.
* Experience in regulated industries such as life sciences, pharmaceutical…