Principal QA Engineer

Overview

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.

The Opportunity

• We're looking for a Principal QA Automation Engineer to be the most senior technical authority for test automation across our engineering teams. This is a role for someone who lives and breathes automation—you've architected frameworks from scratch, solved problems at scale, and shaped how entire teams approach automated testing.
  
  

You're deeply proficient in Playwright and TypeScript, but your knowledge goes well beyond a single framework. You understand the full engineering ecosystem—front-end, back-end, infrastructure, CI/CD—and you use that breadth to design automation solutions that genuinely fit the architecture they're testing. You think about maintainability, reliability, and developer experience as much as test coverage.

You're also shaping how we use AI in automation. Not just using copilots and code assistants—but defining how AI fits into our automation strategy, evaluating emerging tools, and setting the standard for how the wider team adopts them.

You lead through expertise and influence. You mentor leads and senior engineers, define company-wide automation standards, and bring a consultative mindset to complex engagements. You're comfortable representing automation at the highest level—whether that's advising a client on strategy or steering technical direction across multiple accounts.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Set the technical direction for test automation across multiple accounts and teams
• Define and evolve company-wide automation standards, frameworks, and best practices
• Architect automation solutions for complex, large-scale engagements—designing for scalability, maintainability, and performance
• Drive the automation strategy across web, API, and mobile testing
• Ensure automation is deeply integrated into CI/CD pipelines and fits naturally into the delivery workflow
• Drive innovation in how we use AI across automation—defining standards, evaluating tools, and embedding AI into our engineering practices
• Provide consultative guidance on automation approach for complex engagements, helping teams and clients make informed technical decisions
• Mentor and develop lead and senior QA engineers, raising automation capability across the business
• Contribute to the QA community—sharing knowledge, running sessions, and shaping how we grow the automation discipline
• Represent automation in senior client conversations and strategic technical discussions
• Support business development with technical input on scoping, estimation, and capability positioning
  
  

• Extensive experience in test automation with a clear track record of operating at a senior technical level across complex programmes
• Expert-level proficiency in Playwright and TypeScript
• Broad technical understanding beyond automation—you're comfortable across architecture, CI/CD, DevOps, and front-end/back-end technologies
• Experience designing and evolving automation frameworks at scale—not just for one team, but across multiple accounts and codebases
• Strong experience with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf) and a vision for how AI transforms automation practices
• Experience defining automation standards and best practices that work across teams
• A consultative mindset—able to advise on approach, trade-offs, and automation strategy at an engagement level
• Proven ability to mentor and develop senior engineers and leads
• Confident engaging with senior client stakeholders and representing automation at a strategic level
• A genuine continuous learner who stays ahead of the automation landscape and brings new thinking back to the business
• Pragmatic, opinionated where it matters, and motivated by raising the bar for everyone around you
  
  

Alongside the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting brands around the world, we’ll also prioritise your career development and help you grow your skills. We’ll empower you to make a difference, allow you to be yourself, and respect who you are.

Our culture thrives on our core values, designed for impact-driven individuals: Heart, Brains and Courage.

We lead with Heart, fostering empathy and trust where genuine connections and human-centric work flourish.

We empower your Brains for innovation, valuing relentless curiosity and collaborative intelligence to solve complex challenges.

And we champion Courage, inspiring you to speak up, embrace experimentation, and advocate for bold solutions that push our thinking to be better than yesterday.

AT VML Enterprise Solutions

Our Enterprise Solutions division houses strategic consultants, creative and technical architects and skilled developers and operators that together help some of the world’s leading organisations to deliver outstanding digital experiences across all major routes to market worldwide: marketplaces, online retailers, D2C, B2B and social platforms. With over 4,200 experts in 55 operational centres across 34 countries, our capabilities span the entire buying journey from customer acquisition, through engagement, to conversion and loyalty, driving multi-channel growth for world-leading brands.

We work with some of the most exciting brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, EY, Bosch, Unilever, Ford, DFS, Mercedes-Benz, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Sainsbury’s, Selfridges, Shell and Tiffany & Co. We’ve built over 500 platforms for brands and retailers and generate in excess of $29bn annually for our clients and work with over 50 strategic partners including Adobe, SAP, Salesforce, HCL, Shopify, Sitecore, BigCommerce, commerce tools and Acquia. Our reputation is based on our people, and we believe we have some of the best in the business.

As our business grows internationally, we’re looking for new people to join us on our journey to inspire and take a key role in shaping some of the best commerce solutions, services, and websites in the world. Working as a team, no problem is insurmountable; we share in our client’s successes and believe that anyone can show creative bravery no matter what their role is in the team.

WPP (VML Enterprise Solutions) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.

VML is a WPP Agency. For more information, please visit our website, and follow VML on our social channels via Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.

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