QA Manager (Contractor)

Xref is a global, best in class, HR and recruitment technology company that empowers organisations to hire with confidence and make data driven HR decisions. Recruit, retain and remember your people with Xref’s automated reference, pulse and exit and Employee Engagement surveys.

We are a global, ASX-listed company with users in 195 countries. When you work with Xref, you work with a vast array of clients of all sizes and industry backgrounds. Our users love and trust us - we have a 4.7 star rating out of 5 on Google, G2 and Capterra.

Xref's vision is to make it easier for the world to hire and track talent throughout their journey by changing the way organisations collect and action feedback from their people.

Job Description

We are looking for a hands-on QA Manager who is passionate about automation and building high performing teams. This role combines technical leadership with people leadership. You will guide and mentor a team of automation and manual testers while also shaping and strengthening our automated testing framework using Playwright and JavaScript.

You will play a key role in ensuring consistent, high quality releases across our web applications and APIs. While automation is central to the role, you will also oversee structured manual validation processes to ensure complete coverage and strong release confidence.

This is an on site contract role, working five days per week from our Lahore office.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of automation and manual QA engineers

• Define and drive the overall QA and automation strategy

• Design, review and oversee automated test scripts using Playwright and JavaScript

• Ensure effective execution and debugging of tests using Node.js and CLI environments

• Oversee environment specific test configurations and release validation

• Ensure high quality test plans and executions in Jira Xray

• Review requirements and solution documents to ensure complete test coverage

• Monitor test results, defect trends and quality metrics

• Collaborate with Engineering and Product to support release readiness decisions

• Continuously improve the automation framework, tooling and QA processes

• Oversee Git and GitHub workflows including branch management and Pull Requests

• Drive quality standards within Agile Scrum delivery cycles

Ability to evaluate and implement AI-driven capabilities (e.g. intelligent test generation/prioritisation, self-healing selectors, anomaly detection)

• 
  Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related field

• 7 plus years experience in QA with strong automation focus

• Proven experience leading and mentoring QA teams

• Hands on experience with Playwright

• Strong JavaScript skills including async and await

• Working knowledge of Node.js

• Experience building and maintaining automation frameworks

• Proficiency in Git and GitHub workflows

• Experience with Jira and Xray for test management

• Experience in web application and API testing

• Experience using Postman or similar API tools

• Basic understanding of SQL

• Familiarity with CI CD pipelines and environment based testing

• Strong analytical, problem solving and decision making skills

• Ability to balance hands on technical work with team leadership

• Experience working with distributed onshore and offshore teams across multiple time zones

• Experience working within an international company environment

• Certifications such as ISTQB are a plus but not required

Please provide evidence of of previous required experience within a cover letter.

• Do you have 7+ years of professional QA experience, with a strong emphasis on automation testing (at least 4–5 years hands-on automation leadership)? Approximately how many years leading/mentoring QA teams?
• Have you directly led, mentored, and developed a team of QA engineers (both automation and manual testers)? Provide a brief example of team size, outcomes (e.g., improved coverage, reduced defects), and your leadership approach.
• Do you have hands-on experience using Playwright with JavaScript for building/maintaining automated tests? (If yes roughly how long / on how many projects, and in what capacity — e.g., individual contributor, reviewer, or architect?)
• How do you monitor defect trends, quality metrics, and test coverage to influence release readiness decisions?
• How do you balance hands-on technical contributions (e.g., framework improvements, code reviews) with people leadership (mentoring, performance management, career development)?

How to Apply
If this sounds like your next career move, we’d love to hear from you. Apply today and join us in driving financial excellence at Xref.