QA Automation Lead

QA Automation Lead
Orlando FL
3+ months contract to Hire
Pay range: $50 - $52/hr
Part-time – 24-28 hours per week

Our Fortune 500 client (One of the world's largest Consulting companies) in Orlando FL is looking for hardworking, motivated talent to join their innovative team.

Are you a QA Automation Lead with a passion for collaborating with multiple teams and an interest in working onsite? Don't wait... apply today!

Position Summary:

Role Summary:
We are seeking a **high-impact Automation Test Lead** to drive **end-to-end test automation strategy, delivery, and innovation** for complex enterprise applications. This is a **client-facing, onshore leadership role in Orlando**, requiring a **hands-on technical leader** who can **own automation outcomes**, influence stakeholders, and continuously improve quality engineering practices. The ideal candidate is a **thought leader** who challenges the status quo, establishes modern automation standards, and introduces **AI-enabled automation** to increase productivity and enhance deliverable quality

Key Responsibilities:
1) Automation Strategy & Thought Leadership
- Own and drive the **automation vision, roadmap, and delivery strategy** across UI and API layers, aligned to business goals and release timelines
- Act as a **thought leader**: identify bottlenecks, propose new ways of working, and introduce innovative quality engineering practices to improve speed, stability, and coverage
- Define and enforce **automation standards** (framework design, coding guidelines, reusable components, reporting, and governance).

2) Automation Engineering (UFT + Playwright)
- Lead development and maintenance of robust **UFT automation suites** for functional/regression coverage, including stability improvements, execution reliability, and maintainability.
- Design and implement modern **Playwright automation** (web) with scalable architecture patterns to improve execution speed and reliability.
- Ensure automation is designed for **reusability, traceability, and business-critical coverage**, including strong failure triage and quick turnaround on stabilization

3) API Automation (Postman Scripting)
- Own API test strategy and implementation using **Postman** (including scripting/collections, automation enablement, and integration into pipelines).
- Establish API quality gates (contract checks, response validation, negative testing, and regression packs) and integrate results into dashboards and stakeholder reporting.

4) AI / GenAI Enablement (Productivity + Quality)
- Introduce **AI-assisted automation** to reduce manual effort, accelerate scripting, and improve maintainability-e.g., **GitHub Copilot-assisted scripting** and AI-enabled approaches for test generation/maintenance
- Drive adoption of AI-enabled toolchains (e.g., **Playwright + MCP-style integrations** where applicable) to modernize automation and increase delivery throughput.
- Build a measurable innovation backlog and report outcomes (e.g., execution speed, maintenance reduction, coverage uplift).

5) CI/CD Integration & Quality Gates
- Integrate automation suites into CI/CD using tools such as **Azure DevOps/Jenkins**, ensuring repeatable runs, stable pipelines, and actionable reporting.
- Define automation entry/exit criteria, enforce quality gates, and ensure release readiness signals are clear for leadership decisions

6) Client Leadership & Onsite-Offshore Delivery
- Serve as the **onshore automation lead** interfacing with client stakeholders; communicate strategy, risks, progress, and outcomes clearly and confidently.
- Lead in a **hybrid onshore-offshore model**: plan work, delegate effectively, remove blockers, and ensure delivery commitments are met with high quality.
- Provide governance: weekly status, risk/dependency management, escalations, and continuous improvements across the automation function

Required Skills & Experience:
- 9+ years** in QA/Test Automation with **3+ years** in a lead role driving automation delivery and stakeholder communication
- Strong hands-on expertise in:
- **UFT (Unified Functional Testing)** and automation framework practices
- **Postman** for API testing and scripting/automation enablement
- **Playwright** (preferred for modern web automation) with structured framework design
- Experience integrating automation into **CI/CD** and version control (e.g., **Azure DevOps/Jenkins, Git)**
- Strong defect triage, root-cause mindset, and ability to stabilize flaky suites and improve reliability
- **Excellent communication** and client-facing skills; ability to influence without authority and drive outcomes.

Preferred / Nice-to-Have:
- AI/GenAI exposure in automation (e.g., Copilot-assisted scripting, AI-assisted test generation/maintenance, intelligent automation concepts)
- Experience in large-scale enterprise environments with distributed teams and multiple releases running in parallel.
- Retail/POS/domain experience (if applicable to the engagement)

Are you interested ? Please click apply button!

If you are not available or if this is not the right role at the moment, please share the job description with your friends and let us know if any of them show interest.

About ManpowerGroup, Parent Company of:  Manpower, Experis, Talent Solutions, and Jefferson Wells

ManpowerGroup® (NYSE: MAN), the leading global workforce solutions company, helps organizations transform in a fast-changing world of work by sourcing, assessing, developing, and managing the talent that enables them to win. We develop innovative solutions for hundreds of thousands of organizations every year, providing them with skilled talent while finding meaningful, sustainable employment for millions of people across a wide range of industries and skills. Our expert family of brands – Manpower, Experis, Talent Solutions, and Jefferson Wells – creates substantial value for candidates and clients across more than 75 countries and territories and has done so for over 70 years. We are recognized consistently for our diversity - as a best place to work for Women, Inclusion, Equality and Disability and in 2022 ManpowerGroup was named one of the World's Most Ethical Companies for the 13th year - all confirming our position as the brand of choice for in-demand talent.