Software Quality Assurance Manager

Job Description

Quality Assurance Manager (Enterprise QA Program Lead)

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Location: Remote; travel twice every six months for two days per trip (location coordinated)

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Employment Type: Temporary/contract, with potential conversion to full-time employment

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Work Hours: 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. Pacific Time

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Experience: 10+ years leading QA and testing for complex, multidisciplinary IT projects

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Program Scope: 30+ interrelated projects

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Position Overview

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We are seeking an experienced Enterprise QA Program Lead to establish and coordinate a consistent, transparent, business-focused quality assurance approach across a complex technology program of more than 30 interrelated IT projects. This is a strategic QA leadership and program coordination role—not a hands-on test execution position. The successful candidate will develop and refine the end-to-end testing strategy, align project-level test plans into a unified program-level approach, establish governance and reporting, and support release and cutover planning. The emphasis is on ensuring that a comprehensive plan and clear responsibilities are in place before testing begins. The Quality Lead will connect IT, QA, PMO, development, product, business, and UAT teams to ensure that technical requirements and real-world operational scenarios are validated together. This role requires influencing multiple teams through program governance and collaboration, without necessarily having direct managerial authority over them.

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Key Responsibilities:

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Integrated Testing Strategy

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• Assess current QA processes, test strategies, project plans, and risks across 30+ interconnected projects.

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• Develop a program-level testing strategy covering unit, functional, system integration, end-to-end, performance, smoke, and user acceptance testing (UAT).

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• Consolidate individual project test plans into an integrated approach with defined test coverage, dependencies, ownership, milestones, and entry/exit criteria.

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• Align IT-led testing, QA testing, PMO-led end-to-end testing, and business-led UAT, including operational readiness scenarios.

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• Support release and cutover strategy planning and ensure the approach is agreed upon before test execution.

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Program Planning and Coordination

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• Coordinate testing plans, schedules, resources, and cross-project dependencies with project managers and testing leads.

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• Provide testing schedule inputs using Microsoft Project and other approved tools.

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• Identify and escalate resource conflicts, sequencing issues, delivery risks, and readiness gaps.

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• Establish a consolidated view of testing preparation, execution progress, defects, and key milestones.

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Quality Governance and Release Readiness

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• Define or refine quality gates, defect management standards, test entry and exit criteria, and required evidence for signoff.

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• Establish consistent expectations for defect severity, ownership, resolution, retesting, and escalation.

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• Partner with business and UAT leads on technical and business acceptance criteria.

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• Conduct program-level quality and readiness assessments to support evidence-based release go/no-go decisions.

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• Track unresolved quality risks and support coordinated release and cutover readiness.

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Metrics, Reporting, and Executive Communication

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• Develop scalable dashboards and reporting that consolidate QA performance across participating projects.

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• Monitor testing progress, requirements coverage, defect severity and aging, retest results, dependencies, and release readiness.

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• Translate technical test results into business impact, operational risk, and clear recommendations for leadership.

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• Present program quality status, trends, risks, and corrective actions to executive and cross-functional stakeholders.

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• Use Jira, test management systems, and established program reporting tools to provide transparent, consistent quality information.

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Continuous Improvement and Team Leadership

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• Guide QA managers, testing leads, and stakeholders toward consistent processes and standards.

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• Identify recurring defects, gaps in coverage, process weaknesses, and opportunities to improve testing effectiveness.

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• Mentor QA team members and improve testing discipline, defect analysis, and cross-team coordination.

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Required Qualifications

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• 10+ years of experience leading QA and testing across complex, multidisciplinary IT projects.

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• Proven leadership of enterprise or program-level testing strategies spanning multiple concurrent projects or products.

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• Deep understanding of unit, functional, integration, system, end-to-end, performance, smoke, and UAT testing.

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• Experience coordinating technical testing, QA, PMO, and business/UAT teams under a unified testing strategy.

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• Strong background in testing governance, quality gates, defect management, risk assessment, release readiness, and go/no-go recommendations.

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• Ability to manage cross-project test schedules, dependencies, milestones, and delivery risks.

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• Proven success building quality metrics, executive dashboards, and business-focused reporting.

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• Proficiency with Microsoft Project and experience with Jira, test management systems, and defect tracking tools.

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• Understanding of SDLC and Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid delivery environments.

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• Familiarity with software release management, version control practices, CI/CD, and test automation concepts.

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• Strong executive presentation, stakeholder communication, problem-solving, mentoring, and cross-functional leadership skills.

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Preferred Qualifications

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• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field.

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• ISTQB, PMP, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Six Sigma, or comparable certification.

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• Experience in healthcare, financial services, or another regulated industry.

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• Knowledge of test automation tools and frameworks.

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Ideal Candidate

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An experienced QA Program Lead, Enterprise Test Lead, Testing Program Manager, or senior Quality Assurance Lead who has coordinated testing across a large portfolio of related IT projects.

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The strongest candidates can demonstrate how they aligned separate technical and business testing teams, defined a unified testing strategy, strengthened defect governance, improved executive visibility, and supported informed release decisions.

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Success in this role means a sustainable, coordinated quality framework that improves testing predictability, makes program risks visible, and strengthens confidence in release readiness.