Automation Lead

About Julius Baer

At Julius Baer, we value and celebrate each individual's unique qualities, empowering you to make an impact, foster entrepreneurship, and create value that extends beyond wealth management. Join us in shaping the future of wealth management.

Role Overview

The Automation Lead role involves spearheading the design, development, and innovation initiatives related to test automation for Core Banking and satellite applications. You will lead a dedicated team of test automation engineers, SDETs, and performance engineers, responsible for crafting and implementing automation frameworks using both open source and traditional tools across cloud and on-premises platforms. A strong foundation in software engineering, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), cloud technologies, and development toolchains is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Create and deploy test automation frameworks and solutions that encompass UI and API automation, service virtualization, and CI/CD pipeline and test management tool integration such as JIRA and XRAY.
• Lead and supervise test automation teams to ensure alignment of automation efforts with both business objectives and technical requirements.
• Collaborate closely with project stakeholders from core banking and satellite application domains to understand automation needs and define strategies and deliverables.
• Encourage adoption of cutting-edge technology stacks and adherence to industry best practices within the automation teams.
• Maintain automated and performance test repositories to guarantee smooth execution, reporting, and integration with deployment pipelines.
• Foster a culture of continuous innovation and enhancements in test automation and performance testing.
• Review and monitor deliverables produced by the automation teams.
• Establish comprehensive test strategies, automation methodologies, environment configurations, and test data management for projects of all scales.
• Work collaboratively across various project, business, and operations teams to meet shared goals.
• Provide status updates, proactively identify risks or issues, and recommend effective solutions.
• Drive active stakeholder management, engaging with senior IT and business leaders to promote best practices and automation innovations.
• Partner with IT risk teams to embed a strong risk culture within automation and testing disciplines.
• Ensure clear communication and involvement of key participants throughout project lifecycles to support timely delivery and quality standards.
• Uphold regulatory and risk management responsibilities by demonstrating values such as integrity, diligence, fairness, conflict of interest management, competence development, and compliance with relevant laws and regulations.
• Take accountability for risk and issue identification and management, guiding stakeholders to meet deadlines and quality expectations.

Required Experience and Skills

• At least 12 to 15 years of experience leading test automation strategies and technical solutions.
• Preferably experienced in private banking environments, especially with Temenos T24 Core Banking systems.
• Strong ability to devise technical solutions and remain current with emerging technologies and automation innovations.
• Proficient in Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe.
• Skilled in automation tools including Selenium, Playwright, STEP, and other recognized industry standards.
• Hands-on expertise with test automation frameworks and tools like Cucumber and API automation tools.
• Advanced Java programming skills.
• Good knowledge of cloud platforms, preferably Microsoft Azure.
• Experience with CI/CD tools, with preference for GitLab.
• Well-versed in containerization and orchestration technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.
• Strong command of Linux operating systems.
• Understanding of software engineering best practices including clean coding, branching strategies, release and version management.
• Familiarity with streaming platforms such as Confluent Kafka and IBM MQ.
• Experience with load and performance testing using tools like JMeter, K6, and Playwright.
• Knowledge of observability and monitoring solutions including Grafana, Dynatrace, and Splunk.
• Exposure to Core Banking solutions, particularly Temenos T24.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Strong ethical work standards and problem-solving skills.
• Team-oriented with a service-focused attitude and meticulous, systematic working style.
• Proven leadership ability to manage teams across multiple locations effectively.