Lead QA Engineer

About the role: The company builds blockchain infrastructure that lets companies create wallets and launch products on chain through simple APIs. We are hiring our first dedicated quality lead: one senior person who owns testing and release quality across the whole platform. This is a hands-on leadership role, not a management seat. You will build the QA function from zero: the test strategy, the automation frameworks, and the release process. We expect AI to be central to how you work, from test generation to risk analysis, because that is how one lead covers an entire platform. You will work directly with the tech leads of each product team. As the function proves itself, you will help hire and shape the QA engineers who join after you. What you will do: – Own the QA function end to end: test strategy, coverage priorities, and quality standards across all products. – Build test automation frameworks from scratch across web and API layers with a modern framework such as Playwright, and wire them into CI so every deployment runs through automated quality gates. – Make AI a core part of the quality toolchain: AI-assisted test generation, pull request analysis, risk-based test targeting, and whatever else multiplies your coverage. – Own release quality: define the regression baseline, run release candidates through it, triage and prioritise defects, and give the go/no-go recommendation before production deployments. – Set up risk-based testing across the platform, focusing effort where failures cost the most. – Work with tech leads and product management to bring quality practices into how features are designed and built, not only how they are tested at the end. – Establish defect prevention practices and act as the internal reference on testing for the engineering teams. What we are looking for: – 7+ years in software testing and test automation, including experience owning a QA function or leading QA on a product, not only executing within one. – Strong automation engineering skills in TypeScript/JavaScript with a modern framework, Playwright for example. – Active, hands-on use of AI in quality work: generating tests, analysing coverage and risk, or building AI-assisted tooling around testing. For us this is the default way of working, not an experiment. – Solid API testing experience and the ability to test backend services directly, not only through the UI. – Experience integrating test suites into CI/CD (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar) and maintaining them as a reliable signal rather than a flaky one. – A track record of building test infrastructure from zero and getting engineering teams to adopt it. – Comfort operating with minimal direction: you define what good looks like, propose the plan, and execute it. – Fluent English; we are a distributed team and communicate in writing a lot. Nice to have: – Experience testing blockchain, custody, payments, or other security-sensitive financial systems. – Experience building your own AI-assisted quality tooling, not only using off-the-shelf tools. – Exposure to regulated environments where test evidence and traceability matter (finance, healthcare, or similar). – Arabic language skills.