Head of Quality Engineering (Commerce)

### **Who We Are** VML, part of WPP, is a leading creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce, creating connected brands to drive growth. VML is celebrated for its innovative and human first, award\-winning work for blue chip client partners including AstraZeneca, Colgate\-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Microsoft, Nestlé, The Coca\-Cola Company, and Wendy's. The agency is recognized by the Forrester Wave™ Reports, as a Leader among Marketing Creative and Content Service Providers, Commerce Services, Global Digital Experience Services, Global Marketing Services and, most recently, Marketing Measurement \& Optimization. In addition, VML's specialist health network, VML Health, is one of the world's largest and most awarded health agencies. VML's global network is powered by 26,000 talented people across 55\+ markets, with principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore, and Sydney. **About WPP** WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. We unite cutting\-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world\-class creativity, next\-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com. **Head of Quality Engineering to lead and scale our QA function in India (Relocation to Noida required)** This is a pivotal leadership role within our Engineering and Technology team, requiring a unique blend of strategic foresight, commercial awareness, and hands\-on technical expertise. The ideal candidate is not just a manager but a leader and coach—someone who can recruit and build a high\-performing team from the ground up while maintaining involvement in projects and automation. You will be the driving force behind our continued AI Transformation in QA in the region and, ensure our technical capabilities are always one step ahead of business demand. **This role offers relocation to Noida, its important that you are happy to relocate to Noida and our team will support your relocation** **What you'll be doing:** **Leadership, Team Development \& Future\-Readiness** * **Build \& Scale:** Recruit top\-tier QA talent to build the India team. Manage high\-volume, high\-pressure hiring cycles and a establish QA Automation hub. * **Future\-Proofing the Workforce:** Collaborate closely with Sales and Business Development **teams** to understand the sales pipeline and emerging market trends. Translate these insights into training roadmaps to ensure the team is "project\-ready" for next\-generation work before it arrives. * **Talent Development:** Follow and contribury to global engineering career progression frameworks. Foster a culture of continuous learning by coordinating training programs, onboarding graduates, and personally coaching team members. * **Global Collaboration:** Act as the primary liaison for the India region within our global community of QA leaders, ensuring alignment with global standards while addressing local operational needs. * **Employee Wellbeing:** Balance the drive for high performance with a deep commitment to team wellbeing, proactively managing signs of burnout and ensuring a healthy, sustainable work\-life balance for your staff. **AI Transformation \& Technical Excellence** * **AI Leadership:** Champion the adoption of AI\-assisted testing tools and generative AI within the QA workflow. Lead transformation activities to automate test generation, self\-healing scripts, and predictive quality analytics. * **Automation Strategy:** Lead the design and development of robust, scalable test automation frameworks using modern tools, with a specific focus on Playwright. * **Hands\-on Engineering:** Review complex test scenarios and contribute to automation code or framework architecture. You will be expected to guide the team on technical implementation in Java, Python, or JavaScript. * **Shift\-Left \& CI/CD:** Support project teams in integrating quality gates within deployment pipelines and drive the adoption of "Shift\-Left" testing principles. **Strategic Quality Management** * **Metrics \& KPIs:** Define and track quality metrics (DRE, Test Coverage, Cycle Time) to provide transparent reporting to executive stakeholders. * **SDLC Integration:** Collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, and DevOps leads to embed quality as a mindset throughout the development lifecycle. * **Infrastructure \& Data:** Oversee test environment management, data management strategies, and ensure the infrastructure supports rigorous performance and security testing. * **Client Delivery Assurance:** Act as the senior escalation point for critical project quality issues. Build relationships with global account leads to ensure Indian based delivery teams are meeting client expectations and strictly adhering to any SLAs **Process \& Operations** * **Agile Efficiency:** Optimize testing processes to support rapid Agile/Scrum development cycles, reducing time\-to\-market whilst improving quality. * **Prioritization:** Expertly handle multiple conflicting priorities and context switching between strategic planning, crisis management, and recruitment activities. **What we want from you:** * **Extensive QA Leadership \& Team Scaling:** Proven extensive experience in Quality Assurance, leading and managing teams, with a track record of building and scaling QA teams from small to medium sizes (including graduate intake and senior hires). * **Comprehensive Technical QA Expertise:** Strong hands\-on proficiency in test automation frameworks (Java, Python, JavaScript), deep understanding of Functional, API, Performance (JMeter, k6\), and Security testing fundamentals. * **Modern QA Tooling \& CI/CD Mastery:** Experience with Playwright is highly desirable, along with proficiency in modern CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI). * **E\-commerce/Retail Domain Expertise:** Understanding of complex buying journeys within E\-commerce/Retail domains, with experience using platforms like Shopify, Adobe Commerce, SFCC, or CommerceTools. * **Strategic Business \& Commercial Acumen:** Ability to analyse business trends, sales pipelines, and commercial impact to forecast skill requirements, drive proactive team upskilling, and strategically prepare teams for future sales initiatives. * **AI Transformation \& Empowerment:** Proven experience with AI transformation activities and a passion for empowering teams to effectively utilize AI tools in daily workflows. * **Adaptable, Resilient \& Results\-Oriented:** Comfortable with frequent context switching, adept at managing ambiguity in a fast\-paced environment, and capable of handling demanding hiring targets and delivery deadlines. * **Exceptional Communication \& Stakeholder Management:** Excellent verbal and written communication skills, capable of clearly explaining complex technical quality risks to non\-technical stakeholders. * **High Emotional Intelligence \& Relationship Building:** Possesses high emotional intelligence, fostering deep trust and strong relationships across cultural boundaries as an approachable, empathetic listener. * **Vibrant Team \& Tech Community Builder:** Actively…