Description
Lead QA Engineer
Team: Engineering
Location: Montreal
Commitment: Full time
Workplace Type: hybrid
ABOUT YOU
We are looking for an experienced Lead QA Automation Engineer with strong technical depth in building, maintaining, and scaling backend automation systems. You enjoy leading through influence. Acting as a senior IC who shapes testing strategy, mentors engineers, and ensures automation excellence across multiple teams.
You’re comfortable working with distributed systems, including monolith and microservices, and know how to design testing approaches that cover APIs, data flows, integrations, and edge cases. You think like an engineer, communicate like a leader, and act with the ownership of someone who wants to build world-class quality infrastructure.
You’re also pragmatic and continuously evaluate new tools such as using AI-powered solutions and finding ways to drive efficiency while still relying on strong engineering fundamentals.
As a QA Lead, you will be responsible for overseeing and guiding a team of QA engineers to ensure the delivery of high-quality software across projects. This role involves defining and enforcing testing standards, managing defect governance, and driving automation strategies while fostering collaboration between cross-functional teams. You will mentor and develop QA engineers, allocate resources effectively, and ensure that testing processes are aligned with organizational goals and timelines. The QA Lead will also act as the primary point of contact for stakeholders, providing clear communication on quality metrics, risks, and progress, while continuously improving workflows to enhance efficiency, reliability, and team performance
ABOUT US
Xsolla is a global commerce company with robust tools and services to help developers solve the inherent challenges of the video game industry. From indie to AAA, companies partner with Xsolla to help them fund, distribute, market, and monetize their games. Grounded in the belief in the future of video games, Xsolla is resolute in the mission to bring opportunities together, and continually make new resources available to creators. Headquartered and incorporated in Los Angeles, California, Xsolla operates as the merchant of record and has helped over 1,500+ game developers to reach more players and grow their businesses around the world. With more paths to profits and ways to win, developers have all the things needed to enjoy the game.
Responsibilities:
- Define and manage test plans, test cases, and execution schedules for projects.
- Ensure coverage across functional, regression, integration, performance, and security testing.
- Validate deliverables against requirements and acceptance criteria.
- Enforce QA standards, methodologies, and best practices within the team.
- Ensure defects are logged, tracked, and resolved efficiently.
- Monitor metrics such as defect density, test coverage, and release readiness.
- Act as the primary liaison between QA, development, product, and operations teams.
- Provide clear reporting on test progress, risks, and quality status to stakeholders.
- Support cross-functional alignment to ensure quality is embedded throughout the lifecycle.
- Drive adoption of automation frameworks and tools where appropriate.
- Balance manual and automated testing strategies to optimize efficiency.
- Ensure test environments are properly configured and maintained
- Identify gaps in QA processes and propose improvements.
- Stay updated on emerging QA practices and tools, integrating them into workflows.
- Promote a culture of quality ownership across the team.
- Lead the design, development, and maintenance of backend-focused automated test frameworks (Jest, Playwright, custom frameworks, etc.)
- Work as a hands-on IC leader, setting automation standards, driving adoption, and mentoring engineers when needed
- Develop robust automated tests for REST APIs, services, and integrations across monolithic and microservices architectures
- Create and maintain test suites across integration, contract, and end-to-end layers using modern automation practices
- Utilize mocking and service virtualization to isolate systems and increase test reliability
- Collaborate closely with backend developers, DevOps, and product teams to understand system design and ensure complete test coverage
- Review engineering code (PHP/Golang) to better understand logic, identify risk areas, and design stronger tests
- Build CI/CD test pipelines, write and optimize YAML configurations, and ensure automation stability in the delivery flow
- Improve observability and reporting across automated tests (dashboards, logs, alerts, coverage insights)
- Introduce and evaluate tools such as AI-assisted or non AI-assisted testing solutions to improve test development speed and depth of validation
- Act as a quality advocate in architecture discussions, sprint planning, and release readiness reviews
- Lead initiatives that improve engineering workflows, automation reliability, and long-term maintainability
- Support teams in debugging complex production issues and guiding root-cause analysis
Qualifications & Skills:
- 10+ years of experience in QA, Agile methodologies.
- 2+ years of experience as a QA Lead
- Expertise in backend/API automation using Jest, Postman, and modern REST testing practices
- Solid experience with Playwright, JEST, Karate, Cucumber or equivalent frameworks
- Strong understanding of monolith architecture and microservices-based systems
- Hands-on experience designing CI/CD pipelines and working with YAML-based configuration
- Strong understanding of mocking, stubbing, service virtualization, and contract testing (e.g., Pact or similar)
- Experience building test frameworks from the ground up or significantly enhancing existing ones
- Comfortable using AI tools as accelerators while applying critical thinking to validate output
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate across engineering, product, and QA teams
- Proactive, self-driven, and able to take ownership of automation direction with minimal supervision
Nice to Have:
- 5+ years of experience in QA Automation, including strong hands-on technical leadership
- Experience with cloud environments (AWS/GCP)
- Familiarity with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Knowledge of performance testing tools (Locust, JMeter, k6)
- Experience working with GitLab/GitHub Actions CI pipelines
- Exposure to security testing fundamentals
- Experience driving automation architecture during system decomposition (mono → microservices). Ability to read and understand backend code, especially PHP and/or Golang
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
Xsolla is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by law.
We consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in accordance with the Fair Chance Act.
Criminal History Consideration:
For the Lead QA Engineer, we will conduct a background check that may include the following:
Criminal history check
Employment verification
Education verification
Relevance to Job Responsibilities:
The background check is relevant to this position because of the following role responsibilities:
Accessing confidential company data
Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements
Rights Under the Fair Chance Act:
Applicants are encouraged to inquire about their rights under the Fair Chance Act. If you have questions regarding our hiring practices, please contact [email protected].
By submitting the following job application form, you consent to Xsolla processing your data for career-related inquiries and potential employment opportunities. We process your data in accordance with this Xsolla Privacy Notice for Job Applicants. Please direct any inquiries regarding your data privacy to [email protected].
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