Lead the Quality Engineering strategy for complex digital products, owning architectural decisions, evaluating testing technologies and influencing stakeholders while remaining hands-on with modern automation and AI-assisted engineering.

Define, present and own Quality Engineering strategies and architectural approaches across delivery projects

Evaluate automation tools and frameworks, recommend solutions and explain technical trade-offs to stakeholders

Design and build automation frameworks from the ground up using Cypress and/or Playwright

Lead cross-functional teams in embedding quality while remaining hands-on with automation, coding and CI/CD

This is an opportunity for an experienced Senior Architect with strong Quality Engineering expertise to own testing strategy, architectural decisions and quality practices across complex software delivery environments. Active AGSVA clearance of NV1 or higher is required for this role.

You’ll combine hands-on automation expertise with the ability to develop quality strategies, assess technology options and communicate recommendations to business and technical stakeholders. We are looking for someone who has shaped the approach to delivery, rather than solely implemented a solution under an established direction.

What you’ll be doing

Owning and presenting testing strategies and quality architecture for medium to large-scale projects.

Translating project requirements, delivery risks and business objectives into a clear, pragmatic Quality Engineering approach across the software development lifecycle.

Building automation frameworks from scratch and evolving them to support scalable, maintainable test automation.

Evaluating and comparing automation tools and technologies, including Cypress and/or Playwright, and recommending options based on suitability, cost, maintainability and integration.

Presenting testing strategies, tool assessments and architecture recommendations to project stakeholders, explaining options,



trade-offs and delivery implications.

Providing technical direction to engineers, making design decisions and adapting the strategy as project needs evolve.

Driving increased automation coverage across UI, API, service, contract and data testing.

Adopting AI-assisted engineering practices to accelerate delivery and improve quality.

Embedding quality practices early in the development lifecycle through Shift Left approaches.

Supporting quality post-release through effective Shift Right practices.

Leading test planning, execution, reporting and requirements traceability.

Defining quality goals, acceptance criteria and test coverage alongside product and engineering teams.

Prioritising testing activities in line with the test pyramid and delivery priorities.

Performing exploratory testing alongside engineering teams and customers.

Facilitating defect triage and driving effective defect resolution.

Contributing to project governance, including quality risks, mitigations and reporting.

Providing technical leadership, coaching and mentoring to Quality Engineers.

Remaining hands-on across automation, coding and quality engineering activities.

What we’re looking for

You’ll bring broad Quality Engineering experience together with strong hands-on automation and software engineering capability.

Experience across some of the following would be highly regarded:

Quality Engineering: Up-to-date testing strategies, whole-team quality ownership, test pyramid and quality engineering principles

Automation Frameworks:



Proven experience building test automation frameworks from scratch, rather than solely working with pre-existing frameworks

Automation Tools: Strong hands-on experience with Cypress and/or Playwright, alongside other modern test automation technologies

Test Automation: UI, API, service, contract and data validation testing

Programming: 4 years of hands-on coding experience using Python, JavaScript, TypeScript and/or Java

Non-Functional Testing: Performance, load and security testing

Agile Delivery: 8 years of professional testing experience across Agile/Scrum and the full software development lifecycle

DevOps & CI/CD: Continuous integration, automated testing and up-to-date DevOps practices

AI-Assisted Engineering: Experience or interest in using AI-enabled development and testing practices

Leadership: Experience leading, mentoring and developing Quality Engineering teams

Stakeholder Management: Strong communication skills and the ability to build trusted relationships across business, product and engineering teams

Quality Strategy: Experience embedding quality from requirements and design through to production and post-release

You’ll be comfortable working autonomously, breaking down ambiguous technical problems and communicating quality and engineering decisions clearly to both technical and senior stakeholders.

The opportunity

You’ll work in a highly technical environment with exposure to modern Quality Engineering, automation and AI-enabled delivery practices.

The role offers significant scope to influence how quality is embedded across engineering teams, while remaining hands-on with automation, coding and technical problem-solving. You’ll have the opportunity to build automation frameworks from the ground up, shape testing strategies, mentor other engineers and help delivery teams accelerate software delivery without compromising quality, reliability or scalability.

📌 Senior Architect - Quality Engineering (Canberra)
🏢 Anson McCade
📍 Canberra