Lead QA Engineer

Title: Lead QA Engineer Location: Toronto, Canada Client: Mastercard Hybrid : days from client office in Ethoca office Key Skills: Snowflake, PySpark, Azure, DevOps Domain: BFSI preferred CAD $110,000- $120,000 We need a Strong QA Lead with Java background, API, Rest Assured, Selenium. This is a pivotal role responsible for quality engineering, automation, and testing of large-scale, distributed, event-driven systems. This position focuses heavily on Kafka-based architectures, data pipelines, and hybrid environments spanning OpenStack (on-prem) and Azure cloud platforms. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in automation-first testing, event-driven validation, and end-to-end system quality across microservices and data platforms. Key Responsibilities: * Lead the design, development, and maintenance of automation frameworks for complex distributed systems * Provide technical leadership for testing strategy across Kafka-based event-driven architectures * Drive testing across: - Kafka-based event-driven systems (producers/consumers, message validation, data consistency) - Data pipelines and simulator-based testing (e.g., NiFi) - API and microservices validation - UI automation testing (Selenium) * Develop and execute end-to-end testing strategies across OpenStack (on-prem) and Azure environments * Minimise manual testing by identifying high-value automation opportunities * Ensure full end-to-end quality coverage across releases, including asynchronous workflows * Collaborate with engineers, architects, product owners, and cross-functional teams * Participate in code reviews and enforce engineering quality standards * Translate system designs into scalable testing strategies * Manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced Agile environment * Participate in on-call rotations and support production issues with root cause analysis All About You: * Bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent experience * Proven years of experience in Software Testing / Quality Engineering * Strong expertise in test automation frameworks and strategy * Hands-on experience with Kafka or event-driven systems testing * Experience testing distributed systems and asynchronous workflows * Strong programming skills in Java * Experience with APIs (REST/SOAP) and SQL/data validation * Experience with simulator tools such as NiFi * Experience with UI test automation using Selenium * Familiarity with Agile methodologies * Strong problem-solving, analytical thinking, and communication skills Technical Skills: * Kafka and event-driven system testing (required) * Automation testing frameworks * CI/CD tools (Jenkins) * OpenStack (on-prem environment testing) * Azure platform experience: - Azure Blob Storage - Azure PostgreSQL - Azure Cosmos DB * API testing and data validation * Code reviews, branching strategies * Monitoring tools such as Dynatrace and Splunk Nice to Have: * Experience with high-throughput, low-latency systems (payments, fintech) * Performance and scalability testing experience * Security and resiliency testing practices * Advanced Kafka patterns and streaming systems * Experience with distributed system failure testing and recovery

Lead the design and maintenance of automation frameworks for complex, Kafka-based event-driven distributed systems. Drive end-to-end testing strategies across microservices, data pipelines, and hybrid cloud environments including Azure and OpenStack.

The ideal candidate must have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and extensive experience in software quality engineering with a strong Java background. Deep expertise in Kafka, API testing, and UI automation using Selenium is required to validate asynchronous workflows.

Identified from the job description. Confirm important requirements above.

• Java
• Kafka
• Selenium
• Rest Assured
• PySpark
• Snowflake
• Azure
• DevOps
• API Testing
• Microservices
• SQL
• NiFi
• Jenkins
• OpenStack
• Distributed Systems
• Agile

Minimum education

Bachelor’s degree

Minimum experience

5+ years

Apply by

Aug 20, 2026