Lead Automation Engineer

Job summary

Foods Connected is seeking a Lead Automation Engineer to own test automation across their product engineering organization. This role involves defining frameworks, setting CI/CD quality gates, and modernizing the test estate from a legacy Selenium suite to a modern, AI-augmented automation stack. The successful candidate will also be responsible for training and mentoring QA and engineering teams to improve their automation capabilities.

Qualifications

• Proven track record building and running automation frameworks at scale
• Demonstrable experience driving Selenium-to-Cypress or Selenium-to-Playwright migrations
• Strong CI/CD engineering skills
• Proficiency in C# / .NET and TypeScript, or strong proficiency in one with working knowledge of the other
• Experience leading and mentoring QAs and engineers on test writing
• Fluency in using AI tooling (e.g., Claude Code, MCP servers) for test design, authoring, triage, and review
• Excellent communication skills
• Experience defining coverage policy and ensuring adoption across engineering teams
• Familiarity with Kubernetes-based environments and their impact on test infrastructure decisions
• Performance and security testing experience
• Track record running QA in a parallel-stack modernization environment
• Agile delivery experience at team and program level

Responsibilities

• Own the automation strategy
• Define and build test automation frameworks for front-end and back-end estates
• Set coverage targets (unit, integration, end-to-end) and enforcement policies
• Establish CI/CD quality gates in GitHub Actions
• Own reporting, dashboards, and test infrastructure health
• Drive migration from legacy Selenium
• Lead parallel-stack testing problem
• Design and execute migration path from Selenium to Cypress and Playwright at scale
• Multiply the team's capability
• Train pillar QAs to write automated tests in C# / .NET or TypeScript
• Train engineers on unit test expectations, integration test design, and code review quality standards
• Mentor and pair with QAs and engineers on real test code
• Use AI tooling as a force multiplier
• Embed AI assistants and MCP-connected tooling into daily authoring, triage, and review workflows
• Set standards for wider team's use of AI in QA
• Lead technically across pillars
• Partner with Senior QA Engineers on test architecture for high-risk, cross-service releases
• Participate in code reviews with focus on testability, coverage, and quality
• Continuously improve tooling, methodology, and standards

Skills

Industry

Relocation