Job Summary
This job is responsible for steering software development strategies that support the organization's goals. It involves setting coding standards, leading teams in the creation of innovative software, and managing ongoing support for existing platforms. Key duties include overseeing software releases, collaborating with managers on project delivery, and handling large-scale budgets. It also focuses on integrating new technologies to improve development practices and partnering cross-functionally to align with broader organizational objectives.Job Description
Function: Freewheel | Global Quality Engineering
FreeWheel, a Comcast company, provides comprehensive ad platforms for publishers, advertisers, and media buyers. Powered by premium video content, robust data, and advanced technology, we’re making it easier for buyers and sellers to transact across all screens, data types, and sales channels. As a global company, we have offices in nine countries and can insert advertisements from around the world.
Freewheel, a Comcast company, is seeking a Director, SDET to lead the global quality engineering organization across all Freewheel platforms. This leader will drive test strategy, automation architecture, and quality engineering practices, ensuring reliable and scalable releases across distributed systems. The role requires strong technical leadership while partnering closely with global product, engineering, and operations stakeholders to embed quality at every stage of the software lifecycle.
Location: Chennai
Key Job Responsibilities
Quality Engineering Strategy & Delivery
Test strategy: Own and evolve the enterprise-wide QA strategy, ensuring consistent quality across Freewheel’s diverse product portfolio.
Automation architecture: Define and implement a robust unified automation framework supporting UI, API, and Data validation.
Environment strategy: Drive test environment planning, provisioning, and reliability to support large-scale distributed systems.
Predictable delivery: Align QA execution with agile release cycles, proactively managing risks and dependencies.
Metrics & governance: Establish KPIs for defect leakage, automation coverage, and release readiness, with transparent reporting.
Technical Leadership
Raise QA standards: Champion excellence in test design, automation frameworks, performance testing, and observability.
Scalable validation: Ensure QA systems are built for scale, resilience, and high availability in revenue-critical environments.
Innovation: Introduce modern validation techniques including contract testing, service virtualization, and chaos testing.
Mentorship: Provide coaching and strategic direction to QA managers and teams (2-4 teams comprising 40+ engineers).
Organizational Leadership
Global alignment: Represent QA initiatives across Freewheel globally, ensuring strong alignment on priorities and strategy.
Cross-functional partnerships: Collaborate with Product, UX, Engineering Ops, Data and Engineering to embed quality into every stage of development.
Talent development: Hire, grow, and retain high-performing SDETs and QA managers, fostering a strong leadership pipeline.
Culture building: Cultivate a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous learning across the QA organization.
Drive performance excellence through clear expectations, differentiation, and promotion readiness.
Build organizational depth through thoughtful succession planning across both technical and managerial career tracks.
Cultivate a culture of ownership, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning.
Minimum Qualifications & Requirements
Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Engineering, or related technical field.
18+ years of experience in software engineering, with deep expertise in automation and distributed systems.
10+ years of leadership experience managing QA teams and developing managers.
Strong background in test automation frameworks (e.g., Cypress, Playwright, Selenium) and backend validation using modern languages (Python, TypeScript, Golang, Java).
Experience with API testing, contract validation, and service virtualization.
Proven expertise in performance and scalability testing for distributed microservices architectures.
Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure, OCI etc).
Strong database validation experience (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle) and exposure to NoSQL systems (MongoDB, Cassandra).
Experience validating event-driven systems and Kafka-based architectures.
Track record of partnering cross-functionally to deliver high-quality releases.
Preferred Qualifications
Prior experience in the AdTech domain.
Familiarity with real-time bidding (RTB), ad serving, user targeting, or analytics platforms.
Experience working in global technology organizations or India operations of U.S.-based companies.
Exposure to high-throughput, low-latency systems and their validation challenges.
Employees at all levels are expected to:
Disclaimer: This information has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees in this role. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities and qualifications.
We believe that benefits should connect you to the support you need when it matters most, and should help you care for those who matter most. That's why we provide an array of options, expert guidance and always-on tools that are personalized to meet the needs of your reality—to help support you physically, financially and emotionally through the big milestones and in your everyday life.
Please visit the benefits summary on our careers site for more details.
Education
Bachelor's DegreeWhile possessing the stated degree is preferred, Comcast also may consider applicants who hold some combination of coursework and experience, or who have extensive related professional experience.Certifications (if applicable)
Relevant Work Experience
10 Years +Comcast is an equal opportunity workplace. We will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.Want to know if this job is worth applying to?
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