QA Lead

About Lokal

Lokal is India's leading vernacular hyperlocal platform, built for the next billion users across Bharat. We help millions of users discover local information, jobs, opportunities, communities, and services through regional-language experiences.

As our products and user journeys scale across multiple platforms and use cases, we're looking for a QA Lead Engineer who can take end-to-end ownership of quality and help us build a scalable, automation-first QA culture.

This is a hands-on leadership role where you will work closely with Engineering, Product, Design, and other stakeholders to ensure that quality is built into the product—not tested in only at the end.

What You'll Own

Own the overall QA strategy, test architecture, and quality standards across Lokal's consumer-facing productsDrive end-to-end quality for mobile applications across Android and iOS, along with APIs and backend integrationsDefine and implement robust test strategies, test plans, release criteria, and sign-off processes for critical product journeysLead the design, development, and maintenance of automation frameworks and regression suitesIdentify critical user journeys and progressively improve automation coverage to increase release confidence and speedEstablish effective functional, regression, exploratory, usability, localization, integration, and performance testing practicesValidate analytics, event tracking, and product instrumentation to ensure accurate data collectionWork closely with Engineering and Product teams from requirement and design stages to identify quality risks earlyOwn the defect lifecycle—from identification and prioritization to root-cause analysis and closureMonitor production releases, identify quality risks proactively, and drive improvements to reduce production defectsIntegrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and improve the overall release process

Requirements

6+ years of experience in Quality Assurance / Software Testing, with experience leading QA initiatives or teamsStrong hands-on experience testing B2C consumer-facing mobile applicationsStrong understanding of QA methodologies, test strategy, software development lifecycle, and release managementBelief that adoption of technology can increase output and speed of QA instead of more peopleProven experience building or scaling mobile automation frameworks using tools such as Appium, Maestro, Detox, or equivalentHands-on scripting/programming experience in JavaScript, Python, or SQLStrong debugging, analytical, and root-cause analysis skillsExperience defining quality metrics and improving release qualityAbility to independently drive QA initiatives and influence engineering and product decisionsStrong communication and stakeholder-management skills

Good to Have

Experience with tools such as Firebase, Sentry, Charles Proxy, or equivalentExperience with performance, load, or reliability testing of Mobile appsExperience testing products with multiple languages/localization requirementsExperience working with analytics and event-tracking systemsExperience mentoring and developing QA engineersFamiliarity with Agile/Scrum environmentsExperience working in high-growth consumer technology or product companies

What Success Looks Like

Critical user journeys have strong and reliable automated regression coverageProduction defects are consistently reduced through proactive quality practicesReleases become faster and more predictable without compromising product qualityQA is involved early in the product development lifecycle rather than only during release testingAutomation and CI/CD significantly improve release confidenceQuality metrics provide clear visibility into product and release healthEngineering, Product, and QA teams operate with a shared quality-first mindsetThe QA function evolves into a scalable, engineering-driven quality practice as Lokal grows

Why Join Lokal?

At Lokal, you'll have the opportunity to influence quality across products used by millions of users across BharatYou'll work in a fast-moving product environment where ownership, speed, experimentation, and customer experience matter. As the QA Lead Engineer, you'll have the opportunity to shape our testing architecture, automation strategy, release processes, and overall quality culture from the ground up