Quality Automation Lead

Overview

Responsible for leading the enterprise Test Automation Practice, including strategy, standards, governance, tooling, implementation frameworks, automation enablement, and operational excellence. Provides technical and people leadership for a team consisting of Lead Engineers, Senior Engineers, Engineers, and contract resources supporting enterprise testing and test automation capabilities.

Serves as the organizational leader for enterprise testing platforms, frameworks, and automation standards. Responsible for establishing and driving adoption of best practices, reusable patterns, engineering standards, and implementation methodologies utilizing technologies such as SmartBear Zephyr, Playwright, Selenium, Cucumber, Postman, GitLab, and GitLab CI/CD.

Partners closely with Application Development, Architecture, DevOps, Infrastructure, Information Security, Risk, Compliance, Product, and Delivery teams to improve software quality, accelerate delivery, reduce testing costs, and ensure scalable, secure, compliant, and automated testing capabilities across the enterprise.

Completes work in accordance with enterprise technology, risk, security, and regulatory standards while fostering a culture of innovation, continuous improvement, engineering excellence, operational maturity, and quality ownership.

This role combines strategic leadership, people management, technology oversight, and hands-on expertise to advance enterprise test automation capabilities.

Primary Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the enterprise Test Automation Management and Quality Engineering Practice organization, providing both technical leadership and people management.
• Develop and execute the strategic roadmap for enterprise testing capabilities, automation platforms, Test Data Management services, and quality engineering practices.
• Manage a team of Lead Engineers, Senior Engineers, Engineers, and contractor resources, including hiring, coaching, mentoring, career development, performance management, succession planning, and resource allocation.
• Establish, maintain, and govern enterprise testing standards, implementation patterns, reusable frameworks, methodologies, and best practices.
• Provide strategic and technical oversight for automated testing.

Define and maintain enterprise testing frameworks supporting:

• Functional testing
• API testing
• Integration testing
• End-to-end testing
• Regression testing
• User acceptance testing support
• Performance testing
• Continuous testing

Establish standardized automation approaches utilizing technologies such as:

• SmartBear Zephyr
• Selenium
• Playwright
• Cucumber
• Postman
• REST Assured
• GitLab
• GitLab CI/CD
• Jira
• Enterprise observability and reporting platforms

Create enterprise standards and reference architectures for:

• Test automation
• Test case management
• API testing
• CI/CD testing integration
• Quality gates
• Environment management
• Test execution reporting

Drive adoption of:

• Shift-left testing
• Continuous testing
• Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
• Automated quality gates
• Test automation

Additional responsibilities include:

• Partner with Architecture and Engineering leaders to establish long-term quality engineering strategies and technology roadmaps.
• Lead enterprise onboarding initiatives for new teams adopting automated testing platforms, frameworks, and Test Automation services.
• Drive implementation of automated workflows integrating testing tools, test data services, GitLab CI/CD pipelines, application environments, and enterprise monitoring solutions.
• Develop reusable testing accelerators, automation libraries, templates, and implementation patterns that improve consistency and reduce delivery effort.
• Collaborate with application teams to understand testing and data requirements and translate business needs into scalable enterprise solutions.
• Review and approve onboarding designs, testing solutions, framework implementations, and architecture recommendations to ensure alignment with enterprise architecture, security, compliance, and engineering standards.
• Establish governance processes for testing tools, testing frameworks, automation standards, and quality reporting.
• Partner with Engineering, Security, Risk, and Compliance teams to ensure testing solutions meet regulatory and information protection requirements.

Define and track key performance indicators, including:

• Automation coverage
• Test execution efficiency
• Defect leakage
• Defect escape rate
• Environment utilization
• Platform availability
• Quality trends
• Adoption metrics
• Testing cycle times
• Team productivity

Additional leadership and operational responsibilities include:

• Conduct maturity assessments and establish improvement plans for enterprise testing and quality engineering practices.
• Lead platform evaluations and technology selection efforts for automated testing solutions.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI-assisted testing capabilities, intelligent test generation, predictive quality analytics, and modern automation frameworks.
• Provide oversight for vendor relationships, software licensing, consulting engagements, and managed service providers supporting testing functions.
• Establish support models, operational procedures, runbooks, resiliency plans, and service-level objectives for enterprise platforms.
• Present strategy, architecture, roadmap updates, investment recommendations, platform metrics, and maturity assessments to senior technology leadership and governance forums.
• Facilitate communities of practice and knowledge-sharing initiatives to improve organizational testing maturity and engineering capabilities.
• Develop and maintain enterprise documentation, implementation guides, standards, operational procedures, architectural patterns, and governance materials.
• Understand and adhere to the Company's risk and regulatory standards, policies, and controls in accordance with the Company's Risk Appetite. Identify risk-related issues requiring escalation to management.
• Promote an environment that supports a culture of belonging and reflects the Company brand.
• Maintain internal control standards, including timely implementation of audit recommendations and regulatory requirements as applicable.
• Complete other related duties as assigned.

Scope of Responsibilities

Leads enterprise-wide testing, automation, and Test Data Management initiatives spanning multiple technology portfolios and business domains.

Acts as the primary organizational leader responsible for the enterprise Quality Engineering Practice and Test Data Management strategy.

Provides leadership and influence across Technology, Architecture, Development, Infrastructure, Security, and Delivery organizations.

Supervisory / Managerial Responsibilities

Directly manages a team of Lead Engineers, Senior Engineers, Engineers, and contract resources.

Responsible for:

• Performance management
• Career development
• Talent planning
• Workforce planning
• Hiring and recruitment
• Contractor management
• Vendor management
• Budget planning
• Succession planning
• Employee engagement

Education and Experience Required

• A combined minimum of 9 years' higher education and/or work experience, including a minimum of 4 years' engineering and/or architecture experience and 3 years of leadership experience.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in software testing, quality engineering, test automation, Test Data Management, or related engineering disciplines.
• Minimum 3 years of direct people leadership experience managing technical teams.
• Experience leading enterprise testing, automation, or quality engineering initiatives.
• Experience managing enterprise testing tools, frameworks, and governance processes.
• Experience implementing and supporting Test Data Management platforms and services.
• Experience integrating testing capabilities into DevOps and CI/CD delivery pipelines.
• Strong understanding of Agile delivery methodologies, software development lifecycle practices, and quality assurance principles.
• Experience working with relational databases and enterprise application platforms.
• Strong understanding of risk management, data privacy, information security, and compliance requirements.

Education and Experience Preferred

• Experience leading a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE), Quality Engineering Practice, or shared engineering services organization.
• Hands-on experience with: SmartBear Zephyr Selenium Playwright Cucumber Postman GitLab GitLab CI/CD Jira REST Assured
• Experience establishing enterprise testing standards, governance frameworks, and automation strategies.
• Experience implementing quality engineering transformation programs.
• Knowledge of API testing, service virtualization, performance testing, resilience testing, and non-functional testing practices.
• Experience with cloud-native application testing in Azure, AWS, or hybrid cloud environments.
• Experience implementing automated quality controls within GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience evaluating and implementing AI-enabled testing solutions.
• Strong leadership, mentoring, coaching, stakeholder management, and organizational influence skills.
• Experience leading large-scale technology modernization and digital transformation initiatives.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• Strong written, verbal, presentation, and executive communication skills.
• Financial services, banking, or other highly regulated industry experience preferred.

M&T Bank is committed to fair, competitive, and market-informed pay for our employees. The pay range for this position is $116,400.00 - $194,000.00 Annual (USD). The successful candidate’s particular combination of knowledge, skills, and experience will inform their specific compensation.

Location

Buffalo, New York, United States of America