Chapter Area Lead – Software Testing and Test Automation

What you will be responsible for

• Set the professional direction for software testing and test automation, translating business needs and technology developments into a clear capability strategy and roadmap.
• Define and evolve testing standards, methods, reference practices and guardrails while allowing teams appropriate flexibility for their product and delivery context.
• Lead, coach and develop Chapter Leads; strengthen succession, leadership capability and a culture of ownership, feedback and continuous learning.
• Build the required competence portfolio through recruiting, workforce planning, upskilling and reskilling, ensuring that expertise is available where business risk and demand are highest.
• Represent the Chapter Area toward the Software Engineering Chapter Domain, Product and Business Alliances, Tribes, regions and customers as a senior expert and thought leader.
• Drive reuse and cross-organizational adoption of test frameworks, practices and engineering enablers instead of fragmented project-specific solutions.
• Shape the evolution of AI-enabled quality engineering, continuous testing, automation, performance, security and reliability practices.
• Balance professional excellence with capacity, staffing, skill mix, utilization, cost and measurable business value.

What we are looking for

You combine deep software-quality expertise with the ability to lead leaders, shape a global professional community and operate at the intersection of technology, people and business.

Leadership experience

• Several years of substantial leadership experience in software engineering, IT, digital product development or a comparable technology environment.
• Experience leading leaders, multiple teams or a broad professional community rather than only one delivery team.
• A strong record of developing people, building capability and enabling others to take ownership.
• Experience influencing across functions, regions and organizational boundaries without relying solely on formal authority.

Technical and professional expertise

• Recognized senior expertise in software testing, test automation or quality engineering.
• Deep understanding of software-development lifecycles, risk-based testing, test design and test-automation architecture.
• Practical knowledge across several areas: API and integration testing, functional and non-functional testing, load and performance testing, CI/CD and DevOps, test environments and data, quality metrics, secure software practices, reliability engineering.
• Ability to evaluate emerging approaches, including AI-assisted testing, and separate sustainable engineering improvements from short-lived tooling trends.

Strategic and business capability

• Ability to translate technology and market developments into an actionable capability strategy.
• Sound judgment on where global standards and reuse create value and where local flexibility is necessary.
• Experience anticipating competence gaps and steering recruiting, development and deployment priorities.
• Confidence working with workforce supply and demand, capacity, staffing, investment priorities and measurable outcomes.

Communication and stakeholder leadership

• Ability to explain complex engineering and quality topics in clear business terms.
• Confidence facilitating decisions where quality, delivery speed, capacity, cost and risk compete.
• Credibility with testing experts, engineering leaders, Product Owners, Product and Service Managers, architects and senior business stakeholders.
• Excellent English and the ability to work effectively across cultures and time zones.

Your leadership style

• You grow by growing others and coach leaders instead of solving every problem personally.
• You lead through expertise, credibility and purpose, creating autonomy through clear alignment.
• You combine high technical standards with pragmatism, customer orientation and business judgment.
• You actively give and seek constructive feedback and create room for experimentation and learning.
• You remain effective in ambiguity, resolve conflicts constructively and take accountability for decisions.
• You think globally, are capable of managing multicultural teams, respect different contexts and build trusted networks across boundaries.

Education and experience

• University degree in computer science, software engineering, engineering, business information systems or a comparable discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
• Significant professional experience in software engineering and quality engineering, including responsibility beyond a single product or project.
• Leadership experience in an international, distributed technology organization.
• Excellent English; additional languages are an advantage.