Overview
Do you want to be part of an inclusive team that works to develop innovative therapies for patients? Every day, we are driven to develop and deliver innovative and effective new medicines to patients and physicians. If you want to be part of this exciting work, you belong at Astellas!
Astellas Pharma Inc. is a pharmaceutical company conducting business in more than 70 countries around the world. We are committed to turning innovative science into medical solutions that bring value and hope to patients and their families. Keeping our focus on addressing unmet medical needs and conducting our business with ethics and integrity enables us to improve the health of people throughout the world. For more information on Astellas, please visit our website at www.astellas.com .
This position is remote and is based in Bangalore, India. At Astellas we recognize the importance of work/life balance, and we are proud to offer a hybrid working solution allowing time to connect with colleagues at the office with the flexibility to also work from home. We believe this will optimize the most productive work environment for all employees to succeed and deliver. Hybrid work from certain locations may be permitted in accordance with Astellas’ Responsible Flexibility Guidelines.
Purpose and Scope:
As the Chapter Lead – Testing Chapter, you will provide strategic leadership, technical oversight, and talent development across multiple squads focused on software testing. You will drive the enterprise-wide testing strategy, ensuring best-in-class testing frameworks, automation, and performance testing capabilities across agile teams. Your role will focus on test excellence, fostering a culture of quality, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
Our agile operating model is structured into two key components:
Digital Execution – Ensures product development aligns with business goals, facilitating large-scale collaboration.
Digital Capability – Focuses on skill growth and career development within the testing discipline, ensuring expertise and leadership development.
As the Chapter Lead – Testing, you will be responsible for developing enterprise-wide testing capabilities, standardizing best practices, and mentoring Chapter Leads and Test Engineers to drive efficiency, resilience, and agility.
Responsibilities and Accountabilities:
Strategic Leadership & Testing Vision
Define and implement the enterprise-wide testing strategy, ensuring alignment with digital transformation objectives.
Champion a quality-first mindset, integrating testing into all phases of the software development lifecycle (shift-left testing).
Advocate for test automation, performance testing, and security testing across the organization.
Ensure testing aligns with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices.
People Leadership & Capability Development
Lead, mentor, and develop multiple Chapter Leads and Test Engineers, fostering a high-performance testing culture.
Define career development pathways, technical learning agendas, and skill-building frameworks for testers.
Build a strong talent pipeline by attracting, retaining, and upskilling top testing professionals.
Collaboration & Cross-functional Influence
Act as the bridge between agile product teams and testing expertise, ensuring balance between delivery speed and test coverage.
Partner with engineering, DevOps, and product teams to drive test-driven development (TDD), behavior-driven development (BDD), and continuous testing practices.
Advocate for experimentation, learning, and automation-first strategies.
Operational Excellence & Technical Governance
Establish and enforce best practices, frameworks, and governance for testing in an agile environment.
Drive automation, CI/CD integration, and AI-driven testing capabilities to enhance test effectiveness.
Ensure test environments, data, and execution strategies support scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions.
Lead compliance-driven testing efforts, ensuring adherence to regulatory and quality assurance standards (e.g., GxP, HIPAA, GDPR)
Required Qualifications:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
15+ years of experience in software testing, with at least 5 years in a leadership role.
Experience driving enterprise-wide test strategies and automation adoption.
Hands-on experience with modern test automation frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, JMeter, Gatling, OWASP ZAP).
Deep understanding of Agile and DevOps methodologies and how testing integrates within them.
Expertise in utilizing best-in-breed testing tools such as Tricentis Tosca, TestComplete, Ranorex, Eggplant, Applitools, Sauce Labs, BrowserStack, and similar industry-leading platforms.
Strong background in test automation, performance testing, and security testing.
Expertise in integrating testing into CI/CD and DevOps pipelines.
Experience with AI/ML-driven testing strategies and predictive test analytics.
Familiarity with cloud-native testing (AWS, Azure, GCP) and microservices testing.
Exceptional people leadership, mentorship, and coaching skills, with experience in leading multiple Chapter Leads.
Ability to balance technical and strategic priorities, ensuring alignment between business and technology.
Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence at the executive level.
Excellent communication, facilitation, and negotiation skills.
Ability to drive a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and test excellence.
Passion for developing talent, fostering innovation, and scaling testing best practices.
Preferred Qualifications:
ISTQB Advanced Level, Certified Agile Tester (CAT), Certified Test Automation Engineer (CTAE), Tricentis Tosca Certification, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer, or equivalent industry-recognized testing certifications.
Working Environment:
Category PlatformX
Astellas is committed to equality of opportunity in all aspects of employment.
EOE including Disability/Protected Veterans
- Pune, Maharashtra, India
- Pune, Maharashtra, India
- Pune, Maharashtra, India
- Pune, Maharashtra, India
- Pune, Maharashtra, India