Cognizant
Test Director – Telecom Transformation Quality Engineering
- Permanent
- Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- Experience 15 - 20 yrs
Job expiry date: 16/05/2026
Job overview
Date posted
01/04/2026
Location
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Salary
SAR 50,000 - 60,000 per month
Compensation
Job description
The Test Director – Telecom Transformation Quality Engineering role is responsible for leading quality engineering and testing delivery for a large-scale telecom transformation program within a technology and engineering environment. The position requires ownership of end-to-end test strategy, delivery governance, demand management, and resource optimization while managing large distributed testing teams and multi-vendor delivery ecosystems. The Test Director will lead AI-first quality engineering adoption, leveraging AI-enabled testing, intelligent automation, and predictive quality metrics to enhance productivity, predictability, and business outcomes. The role includes managing testing portfolios across multiple transformation workstreams, ensuring fixed bid contractual commitments related to scope, cost, timelines, and quality, and driving cost optimization and margin protection through automation-led efficiencies. The Test Director collaborates closely with client leadership, program directors, architecture teams, and delivery partners to ensure quality objectives are achieved across releases. The role also includes program-level testing budget management, forecasting, governance establishment, risk mitigation, change control, and quality lifecycle oversight. Additionally, the position involves defining AI adoption roadmaps, building automated testing ecosystems across functional and non-functional testing, implementing shift-left and shift-right testing strategies, and delivering executive dashboards and predictive quality insights. The Test Director will also oversee demand management, capacity planning, workforce scheduling, and skill transformation initiatives, while driving telecom domain quality transformation and ensuring governance across Agile delivery environments.
Required skills
Key responsibilities
- Own and drive the end-to-end testing strategy and execution for large-scale telecom transformation programs by defining quality engineering frameworks, aligning testing delivery with transformation workstreams, ensuring governance across release cycles, and managing delivery milestones to meet scope, cost, timeline, and quality objectives.
- Lead testing across multiple transformation workstreams by managing large distributed testing teams, coordinating multi-vendor delivery partners, ensuring execution consistency, optimizing delivery performance, and maintaining governance across complex telecom transformation environments.
- Establish and implement program-level quality governance frameworks aligned with release plans, program milestones, and contractual commitments while managing risk mitigation, scope management, change control, defect governance, and release readiness processes.
- Drive AI-first quality engineering adoption by implementing AI-enabled testing, intelligent automation, predictive quality metrics, and AI-based analytics while defining AI adoption roadmaps and building automated testing ecosystems across functional and non-functional testing.
- Manage testing demand across multiple releases and workstreams by leading demand management, capacity planning, workforce scheduling, skill-based resource allocation, and ramp-up planning aligned with transformation program priorities.
- Oversee program-level financial management including testing budgets, cost optimization, forecasting, margin protection, productivity improvements, and resource utilization to ensure financial discipline across testing delivery.
- Act as primary QA leader interfacing with senior client stakeholders by providing strategic guidance, facilitating executive quality reviews, delivering executive dashboards, and supporting program-level decision-making processes.
- Establish proactive risk and quality management mechanisms by implementing predictive quality metrics, monitoring testing lifecycle governance, preventing defects, ensuring quality assurance compliance, and driving continuous quality transformation initiatives.
Experience & skills
- Demonstrate 18+ years of experience in quality engineering and testing including leadership of large-scale telecom transformation programs, end-to-end test strategy ownership, and governance management across complex delivery environments.
- Possess minimum 8+ years managing large transformation programs including multi-workstream telecom transformation initiatives, fixed bid delivery models, and outcome-based testing engagements.
- Demonstrate proven leadership experience managing large distributed QA teams exceeding 100 resources across multi-vendor ecosystems and geographically distributed delivery environments.
- Show strong telecom domain expertise including transformation program delivery, release governance, testing lifecycle management, and telecom-specific quality engineering frameworks.
- Demonstrate experience implementing AI-enabled testing, intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and modern testing practices within enterprise-scale transformation environments.
- Possess strong program governance and stakeholder management capabilities including engagement with client leadership, program directors, architecture teams, and delivery partners.
- Demonstrate expertise in demand management, capacity planning, resource forecasting, workforce scheduling, and skill-based allocation across large testing portfolios.
- Show strong background in Agile delivery, quality transformation initiatives, risk management, release governance, and enterprise-scale testing delivery management.