QA Lead - Playwright

Title: QA Lead (Playwright)
Location: Remote
Rate: $25-30/hour 

We''re looking for a hands-on QA Lead who combines strong technical testing expertise with the maturity to lead quality initiatives across the engineering organization. This person should be a proactive leader who takes ownership, builds trust with development teams, and drives quality from the earliest stages of the software development lifecycle.

The ideal candidate has a strong foundation in both manual and automated testing, develops deep product knowledge, and brings an automation-first mindset while recognizing when manual testing provides the greatest value. AI should be a natural part of their day-to-day workflow.

Responsibilities

• Lead quality initiatives across manual and automated testing efforts.
• Design, develop, and maintain automated test suites using Playwright.
• Perform comprehensive manual testing to validate functionality, usability, and edge cases.
• Become a subject matter expert (SME) for the application and understand how changes impact the overall platform.
• Partner closely with developers and product teams to ensure quality is built into the development process.
• Proactively identify quality risks, gaps in test coverage, and opportunities to improve testing processes.
• Champion an automation-first mindset while maintaining strong manual testing practices.
• Mentor QA engineers and help establish best practices across the team.
• Leverage AI as a standard part of the testing and automation workflow to improve productivity and quality.

Qualifications

• Strong background in software quality assurance with hands-on experience in both manual and automated testing.
• Proven experience building and maintaining Playwright automation frameworks.
• Demonstrated maturity to lead testing efforts, influence engineering teams, and drive quality initiatives with minimal direction.
• Ability to think critically, make sound testing decisions, and proactively solve problems before they impact delivery.
• Deep understanding of QA methodologies, test strategy, defect management, and risk-based testing.
• Automation-first mindset with the judgment to balance automation and manual testing appropriately.
• Experience working in Agile software development environments.
• Comfortable incorporating AI into daily QA and automation workflows.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering, product, and QA teams.