The Software Quality Team Leader is responsible for leading a team of QA engineers to ensure the delivery of high‑quality, scalable, and reliable software products across Shahid’s digital platforms. This role combines hands-on quality ownership, team leadership, and process improvement, with a strong focus on OTT streaming services across mobile, web, Smart TVs, and connected devices.The role plays a critical part in protecting the Shahid user experience by driving effective testing strategies, reducing production defects, and ensuring quality is embedded throughout the software development lifecycle.Key ResponsibilitiesQuality Leadership & Team ManagementLead, mentor, and support a team of manual and automation QA engineers.Conduct task planning, workload distribution, and day‑to‑day execution tracking.Support performance evaluations, goal setting, and skill development plans.Promote a strong quality culture and ownership mindset across the team.Test Strategy & ExecutionDefine and own test strategies for assigned products and platforms.Ensure adequate test coverage (functional, regression, smoke, sanity, exploratory).Review and approve test plans, test cases, and execution results.Coordinate test cycles for releases, hotfixes, and production validations.Ensure effective testing across OTT platforms (Web, iOS, Android, Smart TVs, STBs).Automation & Continuous ImprovementDrive adoption and expansion of test automation frameworks.Identify candidates for automation and track automation coverage KPIs.Work closely with automation engineers on stability and maintainability.Continuously improve QA processes, tools, and workflows.Cross‑Functional CollaborationAct as the main QA point of contact for product managers, developers, and DevOps.Participate in grooming, sprint planning, retrospectives, and release readiness reviews.Proactively raise quality risks, release blockers, and mitigation plans.Ensure quality requirements are clearly understood and implemented.Defect Management & Release QualityEnsure accurate defect reporting, prioritization, and lifecycle management.Analyze defect trends and perform root-cause analysis.Validate release quality gates and sign‑off decisions.Support post‑release monitoring and incident investigations.Documentation & ReportingMaintain clear and up‑to‑date QA documentation and reporting.Provide regular quality status reports (coverage, defects, risks).Track and report KPIs such as defect leakage, test execution progress, and automation ROI.Required QualificationsExperience & Skills6+ years in Software Quality Assurance, with at least 2 years in a leadership or senior role.Strong experience testing consumer-facing digital products, preferably OTT or media platforms.Solid understanding of SDLC, Agile/Scrum methodologies, and CI/CD pipelines.Experience testing applications across multiple platforms and devices.Hands-on experience with defect tracking and test management tools.Good understanding of test automation concepts and frameworks.Technical KnowledgeStrong knowledge of functional, regression, smoke, and exploratory testing.Familiarity with automation tools (e.g., Playwright, Selenium, Appium, or similar).Understanding of streaming concepts (playback, DRM, latency, bitrate, buffering).Experience working with APIs, logs, and basic debugging techniques.Soft SkillsStrong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.Ability to balance hands‑on work with team leadership responsibilities.Detail‑oriented with strong problem‑solving and analytical skills.Comfortable working in fast‑paced, high‑scale production environments.Clear, professional communication in English.