Lead SDET-Internal at Gradera in Hyderabad, Telangana, IN

About Gradera

Gradera defines a new category of enterprise transformation called Software-Orchestrated Services™ - where software orchestrates human expertise, digital workers, and enterprise systems to deliver governed outcomes at scale. As an AI Native Services firm, we help enterprises redesign how work gets done across operations, product, engineering, customer experience, data, and enterprise workflows to move beyond fragmented AI pilots and disconnected automation toward measurable business outcomes.

Role Overview

We are seeking a hands-on, collaborative Lead SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) to drive the UI automation strategy, framework architecture, and continuous improvement of our frontend quality practices. As Lead UI SDET, you will provide technical leadership and guidance to the UI test automation team, ensuring robust, maintainable, and effective Playwright-based test suites for our modern web applications. This is a cross-functional leadership role focused on UI quality, maintainability, and efficiency.

Our core UI test automation stack includes:

• Playwright (primary UI automation framework)
• TypeScript (primary language for test development)
• Jest (for unit testing and test utilities)
• Docker and Kubernetes (for containerized test environments)
• GitHub Actions (for CI/CD)
• Karate (for E2E API Testing)

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to the UI SDET/QA engineering team
• Lead the design, implementation, and maintenance of Playwright-based UI automation frameworks
• Architect and enforce the use of the Page Object Model (POM) and data-driven testing paradigms for UI automation
• Design and own comprehensive test plans in partnership with Product Owners to align testing strategies and automation scripts with BDD delivery practices
• Ensure UI test suites are maintainable, reliable, efficient, and scalable
• Drive adoption of best practices for reducing flakiness, increasing speed, and ensuring meaningful assertions in UI tests
• Establish and maintain robust regression testing processes to ensure ongoing UI quality
• Implement feedback loops from test results and production issues to continuously improve test coverage and effectiveness
• Drive the evolution and refactoring of UI test suites to adapt to product changes, reduce technical debt, and maximize long-term value
• Champion a culture of quality, rapid feedback, and continuous improvement throughout the SDLC
• Drive a TDD (Test-Driven Development) culture across the UI engineering team, including promoting learning and adoption of test automation by all engineers
• Collaborate closely with product, development, UX, and DevOps teams to deliver integrated, high-quality solutions
• Lead the adoption of modern UI testing tools, frameworks, and best practices
• Drive root cause analysis and continuous improvement for UI defects and quality issues
• Ensure engineering rigor, code quality, and effective documentation in all UI test assets
• Facilitate clear communication, knowledge sharing, and effective documentation within the team
• Support team growth through coaching, feedback, and skills development

Core Qualities & Skills

• Proven experience leading UI SDET or QA engineering teams and delivering complex UI automation projects
• Deep expertise in Playwright and the Page Object Model for UI automation
• Experience with data-driven testing approaches for UI, including test data creation and test data management, with knowledge of BDD frameworks and practices
• Demonstrated ability to deliver maintainable, reliable, and efficient UI test suites
• Strong understanding of explicit waits, robust locator strategies, and atomic test design
• Experience with test reporting and analytics for UI automation
• Experience with risk-based testing and exploratory testing for UI
• Strong programming and scripting skills in TypeScript
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and integrating UI automated tests into the SDLC
• Strong collaboration and alignment skills across disciplines
• Willingness to learn, share knowledge, and adapt to evolving technologies
• System design skills and awareness of technical debt and tradeoffs in UI test automation
• Excellent communication, documentation, and stakeholder management abilities
• Comfort with ambiguity, discovery, and rapid change
• Commitment to engineering excellence, security, and responsible practices

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of hands-on UI SDET, QA, or software engineering experience, with 2+ years in a technical leadership role
• Track record of architecting and delivering scalable, reliable UI automation systems
• Experience with modern development and testing practices (CI/CD, automated testing, code reviews)
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineers
• Experience working in cross-functional, agile teams

Highly Desirable

• Experience testing non-deterministic systems, AI/ML outputs, or GenAI-powered UI features
• Experience using AI to accelerate the SDLC, UI test automation, and quality analysis
• Experience with test strategies for non-deterministic, probabilistic, or data-driven UI systems
• Experience with containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes) for UI test environments
• Familiarity with the Test Pyramid and balancing UI, integration, and unit tests
• Experience thriving in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and balancing rapid delivery with technical excellence
• Experience leading or working with distributed, multidisciplinary teams

Success Metrics

• UI test coverage, reliability, and effectiveness
• Defect detection rate and time to resolution for UI issues
• UI automation stability and maintainability
• Team delivery velocity and quality
• Technical debt reduction and architectural alignment in UI test automation
• Team growth, engagement, and retention
• Stakeholder satisfaction and cross-team collaboration