658 Test Lead jobs in South Africa

We are seeking a skilled and experienced Test Lead to oversee and coordinate all testing activities across projects, with a strong focus on both manual and automated testing practices. The ideal candidate will have deep knowledge of software testing methodologies, excellent leadership skills, and hands-on experience in designing and executing test strategies in fast-paced environments. This role will be pivotal in ensuring the quality and reliability of our software products through structured testing processes and effective team management.

• Lead the planning, execution, and delivery of all QA activities across multiple projects.

• Develop and maintain comprehensive test strategies, plans, and scripts for both manual and automated testing.

• Coordinate the test efforts across functional and cross-functional teams including developers, business analysts, and project managers.

• Manage test environments, data, and tools to ensure efficient test execution.

• Oversee the creation, maintenance, and execution of automated test suites using tools like Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, or similar.

• Review and ensure adequate test coverage across functional, regression, integration, system, and user acceptance testing (UAT).

• Track and report defects and testing metrics using tools such as JIRA, TestRail, or Zephyr.

• Ensure compliance with quality standards and recommend improvements to processes and tools.

• Mentor and support junior QA team members and ensure continuous knowledge sharing and skills development.

• Collaborate with DevOps or CI/CD teams to integrate automated tests into the deployment pipeline.

• Minimum 5 years experience in software testing, with at least 2 years in a Test Lead or Senior QA role.

• Proven experience in both manual and automated testing approaches.

• Strong understanding of QA methodologies, tools, and processes.

• Experience with one or more test automation tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Postman, JUnit, TestNG).

• Proficiency in bug tracking and test management tools (e.g., JIRA, Zephyr, TestRail).

• Solid knowledge of software development life cycle (SDLC), agile, and DevOps practices.

• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

• Ability to write clear, concise, and comprehensive test plans and test cases.

• ISTQB certification or equivalent is a plus.

• Experience with performance and load testing tools (e.g., JMeter, LoadRunner).

• Familiarity with APIs and experience using tools such as Postman or SoapUI.

• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and tools such as Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps.

• Experience in cloud-based environments (e.g., AWS, Azure).

We're Hiring: Test Lead – Full-Time | Johannesburg

Location:
Johannesburg |
Engagement:
Full-Time (FTE)

We are looking for an experienced
Test Lead
to join one of our leading
Insurance client
in Johannesburg.

Role Overview:

As a Test Lead, you will drive testing strategies, ensure quality delivery, and guide the automation framework. This role requires both strong technical expertise and leadership skills.

Requirements:

11+ years of overall testing experience

Strong in
Automation
with
Selenium, Java, TestNG

Hands-on experience with
API Testing

Excellent communication skills & ability to lead test efforts

Strong command on testing methodologies and best practices

Overview

SUMMARY: POSITION INFO

Overall, Job Purpose

• This role requires the test lead is to manage the complete project test cycle from eliciting test requirements, executing test cases, analyse test results and formulate findings.
• To keep the testing group inspired, actively involved, and cooperatively working toward the project’s objectives.
• Handling the planning phase to the execution phase, the end-to-end process falls under the view of a responsible and adept test lead. It requires working closely with other company workstream leads, including business, technical, operations, industry test managers, and third parties, to deliver testing for the project.
• The test lead will be the point of contact for all interoperability testing ensuring all parties are adhering to testing standards, procedures, and tools.

• Internal: Execs, colleagues in other departments.
• External: Company members and relevant external organizations.

• Support the Test Manager in the overall program plan under the various payments project portfolio and / or programmes.
• Manage and oversee the day-to-day test activities of the bank’s test managers.
• Work with the bank stakeholders to review, provide feedback, and sign off on the test strategy, test plans, and other artifacts for the testing service delivery.
• Coordinate with the bank test management teams to ensure the adoption of testing methods, standards, and tools.
• Ensure that any changes to the scope of services are communicated to the respective test service providers and the impact is factored into the plan.
• Act as the first point of escalation for any test / implementation issues raised by Bank stakeholders.
• Quantify, manage, track, and report test-related statuses, targets are met by Bank test managers.
• Elicit and document Test and Implementation requirements
• Translate Test requirements into Test Cases
• Drive and collaborate with all bank stakeholders to plan all testing-related deliveries for the project.
• Timeously escalate stakeholders who are not adhering to the plan to ensure delivery of the implementation according to plan.
• Facilitate industry meetings to drive testing outcomes.
• Establishes and maintains effective working relationships with the Bank Test Managers / Test Leads.
• Drive continuous improvement to streamline the industry testing process.

Education and Experience Required :

Qualification :

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, or other related field (master’s degree is advantageous)
• Professional qualification in test management required.
• A relevant post-graduate qualification is preferred.

Experience :

• 3+ years' experience in a Testing Manager role with experience working on complex program structures.
• Experience in leading diverse teams.
• National Payment System exposure with experience in the following payment systems :
• Low-value electronic payment systems (debits and credits)
• Card payments
• High-value and settlement systems

Skills and knowledge required :

• Strong leadership and management skills.
• Strong communicator and experienced working in highly matrixed, cross-functional organizations.
• Ability to engage at an executive level to provide updates and escalations as necessary.
• Ability to manage daily progress, track testing issues and risks through to conclusion.
• Progressive experience managing and deploying testing management functions for application teams.
• Experience with Application Release Management.
• Experience with IT Resource and Capacity Management.
• Experience driving change across IT and Business stakeholders.
• Experience aligning teams to testing best practice methods and tools and building new tools where necessary.

• Creating and enforcing a testing plan.
• Creating a testing strategy and a battery of tests.
• Supervising Testers Overseeing Testing Procedures.
• Tracking test results and providing updates.
• Test-related risk assessment and mitigation.
• Conducting tests per predetermined quality criteria.
• Informing key stakeholders on the testing progress.
• Keeping abreast of developments in testing equipment, methods, and standards.

Kindly regard your application as unsuccessful if you have not heard from the agency within 2 weeks.

Overview

Overall, Job Purpose

• This role requires the test lead to manage the complete project test cycle from eliciting test requirements, executing test cases, analysing test results and formulating findings.
• To keep the testing group inspired, actively involved, and cooperatively working toward the project’s objectives.
• Handling the planning phase to the execution phase, the end-to-end process falls under the view of a responsible and adept test lead. It requires working closely with other company workstream leads, including business, technical, operations, industry test managers, and third parties, to deliver testing for the project.
• The test lead will be the point of contact for all interoperability testing ensuring all parties are adhering to testing standards, procedures, and tools.

• Internal: Execs, colleagues in other departments.
• External: Company members and relevant external organizations.

• Support the Test Manager in the overall program plan under the various payments project portfolio and/or programmes.
• Manage and oversee the day-to-day test activities of the bank’s test managers.
• Work with the bank stakeholders to review, provide feedback, and sign off on the test strategy, test plans, and other artifacts for the testing service delivery.
• Coordinate with the bank test management teams to ensure the adoption of testing methods, standards, and tools.
• Ensure that any changes to the scope of services are communicated to the respective test service providers and the impact is factored into the plan.
• Act as the first point of escalation for any test / implementation issues raised by Bank stakeholders.
• Quantify, manage, track, and report test-related statuses, ensuring targets are met by Bank test managers.
• Elicit and document test and implementation requirements.
• Translate test requirements into test cases.
• Drive and collaborate with all bank stakeholders to plan all testing-related deliveries for the project.
• Timeously escalate stakeholders who are not adhering to the plan to ensure delivery of the implementation according to plan.
• Facilitate industry meetings to drive testing outcomes.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with the Bank Test Managers / Test Leads.
• Drive continuous improvement to streamline the industry testing process.

Education and Experience Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, or other related field (master’s degree is advantageous)
• Professional qualification in test management required.
• A relevant post-graduate qualification is preferred.

• 3+ years’ experience in a Testing Manager role with experience working on complex program structures.
• Experience in leading diverse teams.
• National Payment System exposure with experience in the following payment systems:
• Low-value electronic payment systems (debits and credits)
• Card payments
• High-value and settlement systems

• Strong leadership and management skills.
• Strong communicator and experienced working in highly matrixed, cross-functional organizations.
• Ability to engage at an executive level to provide updates and escalations as necessary.
• Ability to manage daily progress, track testing issues and risks through to conclusion.
• Progressive experience managing and deploying testing management functions for application teams.
• Experience with Application Release Management.
• Experience with IT Resource and Capacity Management.
• Experience driving change across IT and Business stakeholders.
• Experience aligning teams to testing best practice methods and tools and building new tools where necessary.

• Creating and enforcing a testing plan.
• Creating a testing strategy and a battery of tests.
• Supervising testers and overseeing testing procedures.
• Tracking test results and providing updates.
• Test-related risk assessment and mitigation.
• Conducting tests per predetermined quality criteria.
• Informing key stakeholders on the testing progress.
• Keeping abreast of developments in testing equipment, methods, and standards.

We're Hiring: QA Automation Lead

Do you thrive in leading teams, building robust automation frameworks, and ensuring seamless delivery? If so, we'd love to hear from you.

About the Role

We're looking for an experienced
QA Automation Lead
to oversee end-to-end
testing
strategies, champion test automation, and mentor a growing QA team. In this role, you'll ensure quality standards across planning, development, and delivery, while collaborating closely with development, DevOps, and business teams to align QA efforts with overall project goals.

Key Responsibilities

Define and own the automation
testing
strategy, ensuring alignment with product and project objectives.

Identify automation opportunities, perform ROI analysis, and prioritise test cases.

Design, implement, and maintain scalable automation frameworks (Hybrid, BDD, POM).

Lead the creation of automation test plans, including scope, tools, timelines, and risk mitigation.

Mentor QA engineers in automation and best practices.

Monitor and report test coverage, quality metrics, and drive process improvements.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate requirements into effective test cases.

Participate in agile ceremonies—planning, grooming, retrospectives.

What We're Looking For

Experience:
10+ years in software
testing
, with at least 4–5 years in a lead role.

Automation Tools:
Hands-on expertise with Selenium (TestNG), plus experience with Cypress, Playwright, or equivalent.

Frameworks & Languages:
Strong knowledge of JavaScript/TypeScript; Python is a plus. Proficiency in TestNG, JUnit, Cucumber.

API & Performance
Testing
:
Solid RESTful API
testing
, plus exposure to K6, JMeter, or Gatling.
testing
, plus exposure to K6, JMet.

DevOps & CI/CD:
Experience with Git-based systems (GitHub/Bitbucket/GitLab), Jenkins,
Azure
DevOps, or GitLab CI.

Other Skills:
Mobile
testing
(Appium), cross-browser/device
testing
(BrowserStack, Sauce Labs), Docker/Kubernetes, OWASP ZAP security
testing
.

Soft Skills:
Strong leadership, stakeholder management, and communication skills.

Nice to Have

Computer Science degree or equivalent.

ISTQB Certification.

2+ years in short-term
insurance
projects.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to take ownership of automation strategies, lead innovation in QA practices, and shape a culture of quality. You'll work in a collaborative environment where your expertise directly impacts the success of projects and products.

* In order to comply with the POPI Act, for future career opportunities, we require your permission to maintain your personal details on our database. By completing and returning this form you give PBT your consent

"If you have not heard from us in two weeks, please note that you were unsuccessful for the role. However, we will keep your resume on file and reach out if any other suitable opportunity arises in the future".

Urgent requirement

Location South Africa

1-Test Lead

10 years of experience in automation and a strong background in leading automation engineers.

10+ years of experience in software testing with at least 4-

5 years in a lead role.

 Strong experience with automation tools like Cypress or

Playwright or Selenium, or equivalent.

Proficient in JavaScript/TypeScript; experience in Python

is an added advantage.

olid experience in testing RESTful APIs and backend

services.

xpertise in frameworks such as Cucumber, JUnit, or

TestNG.

ands-on knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and integration

tools like GitLab CI, Azure DevOps or Jenkins.

xperience working with Git-based version control

systems (GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab).

ood understanding of STLC, agile methodologies

(Scrum/Kanban), and DevOps practices.

trong leadership and communication skills to lead QA

teams, resolve conflicts, and manage stakeholders

Preferred Skills

xperience in performance testing tools like K6, JMeter or

Gatling.

xposure to mobile testing frameworks such as Appium.

xperience with cross-browser and cross-device testing

on platforms like Browser Stack or Sauce Labs.

amiliarity with Docker/Kubernetes environments.

nderstanding of security testing practices and tools like OWASP ZAP.

Please share your resume

Our client in the automotive industry, a global leader known for innovation and advanced mobility solutions, is seeking a Senior Automation Test Lead to join their dynamic IT Hub in South Africa. Embedded within the cutting-edge RetailerHUB product team, this role plays a vital part in shaping the digital backbone of their international dealer network. If you're passionate about test automation, thrive in Agile environments, and have a sharp eye for quality, this is your opportunity to drive excellence in a fast-paced, tech-forward environment.

Duties and responsibilities

Essential skills requirements

Advantageous skills requirements

Qualifications and Experience