Principal SDET - Automation Architecture

Job Purpose

We are seeking a highly experienced automation engineer to lead the evolution, stabilisation, and scaling of our test automation architecture across web, mobile, and API layers.

This role is central to building a high-performance QA engineering culture. You will take ownership of strengthening our framework, improving CI reliability, reducing flakiness, and enabling efficient, confident releases.

You will be expected to challenge existing practices, bring forward practical ideas, and implement smarter ways of working — including responsible adoption of AI to improve coverage, stability, and insight.

Working within Agile cross-functional teams, you will collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, IT, and QA to safeguard and elevate the quality of our digital banking solutions. This requires developing deep domain understanding to ensure automation targets real business risk and critical workflows in a regulated environment.

Our Hybrid Working Model requires employees to be on-site three days per week in our Dublin/Amman/Bangalore office.

 
Key Responsibilities

Automation Architecture & Framework Evolution

• Own and evolve the automation architecture across web, mobile, and API layers.
• Implement scalable improvements, including reliable parallel execution.
• Refactor and stabilise flaky tests in line with best practices.
• Introduce practical AI-driven solutions (e.g., intelligent test generation, self-healing where appropriate, AI-based insights).
• Establish and enforce automation design principles & coding standards.

CI/CD & Execution Optimisation

• Own automation stability.
• Ensure tests run frequently, consistently and reliably.
• Monitor results, identify patterns, and drive root cause resolution.
• Ensure failed test cases are triaged appropriately to ensure timely investigation and resolution.
• Escalate recurring or systemic quality issues impacting stability.  

Quality Engineering Leadership

• Support QA leadership in building an accountable, high-performance engineering culture.
• Mentor team members and raise automation standards.  
• Conduct meaningful code reviews focused on architecture and maintainability.
• Contribute to hiring and onboarding new QA team members.

Product Understanding & Test Strategy

• Develop deep understanding of our digital banking solutions architecture and business flows.
• Ensure automation validates critical business flows, not just UI interactions.
• Collaborate with teams to identify meaningful test coverage.

Required Experience, Skills & Competencies

Technical Capability:

• 7+ years in automation engineering with strong framework design experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• Deep expertise in Java, Selenium, Appium, TestNG, RestAssured.
• Strong experience implementing stable parallel execution frameworks in large-scale automation suites.

• Hands-on experience with AI/ML-powered testing tools (e.g., Applitools, Tricentis, or similar).

• CI/CD experience (Jenkins, Git).
• Experience testing multi-tier systems (DB, services, web, mobile).
• Experience in regulated environments (banking, fintech, payments, or card processing) is advantageous.

Engineering Mindset:

• Strong understanding of thread safety and framework lifecycle design.
• Values clean, modular, maintainable and easy to debug automation code.

Communication & Team Collaboration:

• Confident in challenging ambiguity and driving clarity.
• Clear communicator across technical and non-technical audiences.
• Mentoring and cross-team collaboration experience.

Growth Mindset:

• Brings ideas to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Applies AI pragmatically to enhance testing outcomes.
• Demonstrates ownership and continuous improvement mindset.

Success Metrics

Within the first 6–12 months:

• Significant reduction in flaky test failures.

• Reliable parallel execution in place.

• Reduced test cycle time.
• Improved CI stability and reporting clarity.

• Stronger automation code standards adopted across teams.

• Automation aligned to true business risk and critical workflows.

Equal Opportunity Statement
CR2 HPS Group is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.