AVP, Quality Engineering Lead (L10)

Job Description:

Role Title: AVP, Quality Engineering Lead (L10)

Company Overview: Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry’s most complete digitally enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, outdoors, pet and more.

• We have recently been ranked #2 among India’s Best Companies to Work for by Great Place to Work. We were among the Top 50 India’s Best Workplaces in Building a Culture of Innovation by All by GPTW and Top 25 among Best Workplaces in BFSI by GPTW. We have also been recognized by AmbitionBox Employee Choice Awards among the Top 20 Mid-Sized Companies, ranked #3 among Top Rated Companies for Women, and Top-Rated Financial Services Companies.

• We provide best-in-class employee benefits and programs that cater to work life integration and overall well-being.

• We provide career advancement and upskilling opportunities, focusing to take up leadership roles

Organizational Overview: Synchrony's Engineering Team is a dynamic and innovative team dedicated to driving technological excellence. As a member of this Team, you'll play a pivotal role in designing and developing cutting-edge tech stack and solutions that redefine industry standards. The Credit Card that we use every day to purchase our essentials and later settle the bills - A simple process that we all are used to on a day to day basis. Now, consider the vast complexity hidden behind this seemingly simple process, operating tirelessly for millions of cardholders. The sheer volume of data processed is mind-boggling. Fortunately, advanced technology stands ready to automate and manage this constant torrent of information, ensuring smooth transactions around the clock, 365 days a year. Our collaborative environment encourages creative problem-solving and fosters career growth. Join us to work on diverse projects, from fintech to data analytics, and contribute to shaping the future of technology. If you're passionate about engineering and innovation, Synchrony's Engineering Team is the place to be.

Role Summary/Purpose
The QE Lead will lead quality engineering for API/service-layer products, with strong hands-on ownership of test automation using Java + Cucumber (BDD), reporting via Allure, and test/defect management in ALM/Octane. This role partners closely with engineering, product, DevOps and QE CoE to embed quality into CI/CD and deliver reliable, secure, and scalable APIs.  While this role is automation-first, the QA Lead should be comfortable performing manual testing as needed for exploratory testing, complex scenarios, or when automation is not yet available.

Key Responsibilities

• Own and drive end-to-end QE strategy for API releases: functional, integration, regression, and contract testing.

• Lead and contribute hands-on to Java-based API automation using Cucumber/Gherkin (feature design, step definitions, hooks, tags, data-driven execution) and perform manual testing when required (exploratory, validation of new/complex features, triage/verification of defects, and ad-hoc release readiness checks).

• Build/maintain API automation frameworks (commonly RestAssured/HTTP client, JSON schema validation, serialization/deserialization, auth handling).

• Implement Allure reporting (test categorization, trends, flaky test analysis, actionable dashboards).

• Manage test planning, execution, requirements traceability, and defects using ALM/Octane (test sets, runs, metrics).

• Integrate automated suites into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins), establish quality gates for smoke/regression.

• Drive shift-left practices: define testable acceptance criteria, add automation during sprint.

• Mentor QA engineers; perform code reviews; establish automation standards and best practices.

• Communicate release readiness, quality metrics, and risks clearly to stakeholders.

Required Skills/Knowledge

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering or equivalent experience.

• 6+ years in QA/Testing with 2+ years leading QA or owning quality for a team/product.

• Strong test automation experience in Java with Cucumber (BDD) and API testing.

• Solid hands-on API automation experience (e.g., RestAssured, request/response validation, headers/auth, retries, idempotency checks).

• Strong experience with Allure (reports, categories, attachments, trends).

• Strong experience with ALM/Octane for test case management and defect lifecycle.

• Good understanding of test design techniques, STLC, Agile/Scrum.

• Experience with Git, Maven/Gradle, and CI/CD integration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Contract testing experience and/or schema validation (JSON schema).

• Exposure to messaging/async systems (Kafka/RabbitMQ) testing.

• Database validation (SQL), test data management, and service virtualization (WireMock).

• Security testing basics for APIs (OAuth2/JWT, OWASP API Top 10 awareness).

• Performance testing exposure (JMeter) for APIs.

Core Competencies

• Strong ownership, execution focus, and ability to unblock cross-team dependencies.

• Clear communication of quality status, risks, and go/no-go readiness.

• Coaching/mentoring mindset; sets standards and raises the bar for automation.

Eligibility Criteria: Bachelor's degree with minimum 5 years of IT experience or in lieu of degree, High School Diploma/GED and 7 years of IT experience

Work Timings : 2 PM -11 PM IST

This role qualifies for Enhanced Flexibility offered in Synchrony India and will require the incumbent to be available between 06:00 AM Eastern Time – 11:30 AM Eastern Time (timings are anchored to US Eastern hours and will adjust twice a year locally). This window is for meetings with India and US teams. The remaining hours will be flexible for the employee to choose. Exceptions may apply periodically due to business needs)

For Internal Applicants:

• Understand the criteria or mandatory skills required for the role, before applying

• Inform your manager and HRM before applying for any role on Workday

• Ensure that your professional profile is updated (fields such as education, prior experience, other skills) and it is mandatory to upload your updated resume (Word or PDF format)

• Must not be any corrective action plan (First Formal/Final Formal, LPP)

• L8+ Employees who have completed 18 months in the organization and 12 months in current role and level are only eligible.

• L08+ Employees can apply.

Grade/Level: 10

Job Family Group:

Information Technology