QA Engineering Lead

Role-based in Uganda 

Type: Onsite role

Start date: November 2026

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Who we are:

At SafeBoda, driving Africa forward by transforming transportation and delivery services to be safe, affordable, and reliable. Our platform is carefully designed to meet the needs of African consumers as a one-stop shop for transportation and on-demand services.

Operational in Uganda and Kenya we are a venture-funded Series B company that is already having a huge impact on millions of people in Africa. Our backers include Google, Unbound, Argor (GoJek’s VC), AllianzX, Yamaha, and Beenext, among others. We have a passionate and highly engaged team of superstars based in East Africa. Together, we aim to revolutionise transport and logistics in Africa’s cities.

Job Summary:

This role requires you to take end-to-end ownership of quality across our mobile apps, web applications, and backend services, as a senior, hands-on QA leader. You'll combine individual-contributor automation engineering, building test automation strategy and infrastructure from the ground up; with day-to-day leadership of a QA team. You will own and build the automation roadmap and automation frameworks, write automated tests, cultivate quality standards through leading and mentoring QA engineers, manage release readiness sign-offs and effectively communicate quality metrics to stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and own SafeBoda's test automation strategy end-to-end: design, write, and maintain automated test suites (API/E2E, Mobile UI, Web-frontend & backend) across all core backend services, all mobile applications and web applications.
• Integrate automated suites into CI/CD (Argo pipelines), with coverage reporting that is accurate and actionable, not just a percentage on a slide.
• Represent QA in cross-functional planning with PMs, Engineering, and DevOps to ensure realistic testing timelines are built into the roadmap from the start, not bolted on at the end.
• Lead and manage the day-to-day performance of QA engineers: set individual goals, run regular 1:1s, and actively develop the team's automation and structured test-design skills.
• Define and enforce QA process standards: test case documentation, bug triage/severity criteria, release sign-off criteria, and regression scope per release.
• Own accurate, real-time visibility into QA capacity and ticket status (time-in-QA vs. time queued), replacing informal tracking with a defensible system of record.
• Partner with Engineering leads to resolve recurring bottlenecks before they hit QA; batched ticket arrival, incomplete or outdated feature documentation, missing requirement sign-off.
• Track production bug trends by service/feature over time (not single incidents), run retrospectives, and feed learnings back into automation and process priorities.
• Act as the quality gate for the releases across Android, iOS, and backend services; make and clearly communicate go/no-go recommendations.

Qualifications & Technical Skills

• 5+ years in QA/software testing, including 2+ years in a lead or senior individual-contributor automation role.
• Proven hands-on experience building automated test suites from scratch, i.e. API testing (Postman/Newman, REST Assured, or similar) and mobile automation (Appium, Espresso/XCUITest, or similar).
• Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines (Argo, Jenkins, GitLab CI, or similar) and integrating automated tests into them.
• Experience testing complex, multi-service backend systems i.e. microservices, async/event-driven flows; payment or wallet reconciliation experience is a strong plus.
• Experience managing or mentoring QA engineers, including performance management and skills development.
• Comfortable defining and defending QA metrics/OKRs to non-technical stakeholders.
• Prior experience in fintech, ride-hailing, delivery, or another high-transaction-volume consumer platform is a strong plus.

Key Competencies:

• Automation-first mindset: defaults to building repeatable, maintainable test infrastructure over manual repetition.
• Ownership & accountability: treats quality as their own deliverable, not a gate to route blame through.
• Structured communication: writes clear, self-contained tickets and status updates; calibrates technical depth to the audience.
• Coaching & people management: grows team members rather than simply directing them.
• Data-driven judgment: uses trend data to make quality and performance calls.
• Resilience under ambiguity: operates well with incomplete documentation and shifting priorities typical of a fast-moving platform.

Benefits:

1. A supportive team environment with mentorship from SafeBoda leadership
2. Be a critical part of a team at the pinnacle of tech entrepreneurship in Africa
3. Competitive salary
4. Health insurance
5. Free lunch every day for all staff at the SafeBoda academy
6. SafeBoda Wallet credits for transport

Company Values:

1. Community: Community drives us. We treat every driver, staff member, and customer with respect, knowing that together, we are stronger.
2. Safety: We stand for safety. We protect our drivers, passengers
3. Innovation: We challenge the status quo and create smart, practical solutions that make everyday life simpler and safer
4. Transparency: We are open-minded and candid, openly sharing our opinions without fear of judgment. We actively seek feedback on our product and performance to continuously improve.
5. Integrity: We earn trust by staying true to our values, holding ourselves to the highest standards, and delivering on our promises.
6. Collective Commitment: Everyone is encouraged to disagree while a decision is being made. However, once a decision has been made, everybody must commit to it. “I agree, and I commit; I disagree and commit

Ready for the Challenge?

Send an email to recruitment@safeboda.com, attaching your CV. Please use "QA Enginnering Lead" as the email subject. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

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