Test Lead Engineer

1. Test Strategy & Planning

• Lead the development of comprehensive test strategies, test plans, test approaches and test schedules for AFC and e-payment projects.
• Analyse business, functional, technical, interface and system requirements to determine test scope, coverage and risks.
• Establish end-to-end test coverage and maintain traceability between requirements, test cases, test results and defects.
• Define appropriate testing approaches for:

1. Front-end AFC devices
2. Embedded software
3. Android/mobile applications
4. Back-office systems
5. APIs and interfaces
6. Payment processing
7. Database and transaction processing

• Estimate testing effort, resources and timelines and coordinate testing activities to meet project milestones.
• Identify testing risks and recommend appropriate mitigation measures.

2. Hands-on Test Engineering

• Personally design, develop and execute complex test cases and test scenarios.
• Perform functional, integration, system, regression, end-to-end, performance, reliability and stress testing.
• Validate complete transaction flows across reader devices, payment applications, communications networks and back-office systems.
• Develop test data and test conditions covering normal, abnormal, boundary and failure scenarios.
• Conduct exploratory testing to identify defects and system behaviours not covered by scripted test cases.
• Participate directly in system integration, customer acceptance and production verification activities.

3. Test Automation& Engineering

• Design, develop and maintain automated test frameworks and reusable test utilities.
• Identify suitable test scenarios for automationbased on risk, frequency, complexity and expected return on investment.
• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop automation for UI, mobile, API, databaseand end-to-end transaction testing.
• Maintain test scripts and frameworks to minimisetest flakiness and ensure repeatable results.
• Evaluate and introduce new testing technologies, including AI-assisted testing where appropriate.
• Coach Test Engineers in automation practices and coding standards.

4. AFC & Payment System Testing

• Lead testing of AFC transaction flows involving:

1. Contactless smart cards
2. CEPAS
3. EMV contactless payments
4. NFC/mobile wallets
5. Reader/validator devices
6. Fare gates
7. Back-office transactionprocessing
8. Clearing and settlement

• Validate transaction integrity, including successful, declined, interrupted, duplicate and failed transactions.
• Test device-to-back-office communication and transaction synchronisation.
• Support testing of card clash/card collision scenarios and other contactless transaction edge cases.
• Analyse transaction logs, device logs, protocol traces and backend records to identify transaction failures.
• Ensure testing adequately covers revenue-impacting scenarios and potential transaction discrepancies.

5. Performance & Reliability Testing

• Plan and execute performance, load, stress and endurance testing.
• Establish performance benchmarks and monitor:

1. Transaction response time
2. Throughput
3. Transaction success rate
4. Failure rate
5. System resource utilisation
6. Network latency
7. Device performance

• Analyse performance bottlenecks across device, application, network, middleware, database and backend components.
• Work with development and infrastructure teams to identify and resolve performance issues.
• Conduct reliability and endurance testing for systems operating continuously in public transport environments.

6. Defect Management & Root Cause Analysis

• Lead defect identification, classification, prioritisation and tracking through to closure.
• Conduct defect triage with development, system engineering and project teams.
• Perform technical rootcause analysis for complex defects.
• Analyse logs, stack traces, database records, network traffic and transaction traces to isolate defects.
• Distinguish between application, device, communication, infrastructure, configuration and data-related issues.
• Verify fixes and conduct appropriate regression testing before release.
• Identify recurring defectsand recommend preventive actions.

7. Test Environment & Laboratory Management

• Coordinate and maintain test environments covering devices, applications, databases, network components and supporting systems.
• Work with LTA/customer test laboratories and external testing facilities where required.
• Coordinate test equipment, test cards, mobile devices, simulators, test data and test configurations.
• Ensure test environments are properly configured, controlled and documented.
• Support Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT) and other customer acceptance activities.

8. Technical Leadership

• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to Test Engineers and junior engineers.
• Review test plans, testcases, automation scripts and test reports prepared by team members.
• Establish testing standards, coding practices and quality guidelines.
• Lead technical problem-solving sessions involving testing and development teams.
• Promote shift-left testing by identifying defects and testability issues early in the SDLC.
• Remain hands-on in complex testing and troubleshooting activities rather than focusing solely on test administration.

9. Documentation & Reporting

• Prepare and maintain:

1. Test Strategy
2. Master Test Plan
3. Test Specifications
4. Test Cases
5. Test Scripts
6. Automation Framework Documentation
7. Test Reports
8. Defect Reports
9. Performance Test Reports
10. Traceability Matrix
11. Test Completion/Acceptance Reports

• Prepare testing status reports highlighting progress, risks, defects, quality metrics and outstanding issues.
• Ensure test documentation is maintained throughout the SDLC and complies with project and customer requirements.

10. Stakeholder Management

• Liaise with customers, LTA representatives, project teams, developers, system engineers, vendors and external test laboratories.
• Lead test walkthroughs, defect review meetings, test readiness reviews and test result presentations.
• Explain technical testing issues and risks clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Support customer demonstrations, acceptance activities and production deployment verification.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electronics Engineering or a related discipline.
• Professional certification in software testing such as ISTQB is preferred.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in software testing, system testing, test automation or quality engineering.
• At least 3 to 5 years in a Test Lead, Senior Test Engineer, SDET Lead or equivalent technical leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience in both manual and automated testing.
• Experience participating in the complete SDLC from requirements analysis through development, testing, deployment and production support.