Quality Engineering Lead

The Quality Engineering Lead is responsible for leading the transformation to a modern quality model, embedding quality across the software lifecycle through shift-left testing, automation, and enforceable quality standards. This role balances execution and strategy while establishing best practices, standards, and governance to support long-term growth to establish a federated quality model across delivery teams.

The ideal candidate is self-driven, pragmatic, detail-oriented, and capable of building lightweight but effective QA processes in a collaborative environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. Quality Transformation & Enablement

• Lead transition to quality engineering practices
• Mentor developers and BAs on writing testable requirements & unit/integration test expectations
• Drive adoption of developer-owned testing (unit, integration, contract testing)
• Promote testability in system design and architecture
• Embed quality ownership within delivery teams
• Establish "definition of done" inclusive of quality gates
• Coach teams on risk-based and lean testing approaches

2. Test Strategy & Oversight

• Design and implement a scalable QA framework tailored to organizational needs
• Define QA standards, processes, templates, and governance practices
• Develop testing strategies across unit, integration, system, regression, and UAT support
• Define testing strategies across: integrated systems (APIs, middleware, SaaS platforms), data pipelines and transformations and downstream reporting impacts
• Establish data validation frameworks (reconciliation, completeness, accuracy)
• Ensure end-to-end test coverage across system boundaries
• Define release readiness criteria and quality gates
• Establish entry/exit criteria for each testing phase
• Introduce testability standards for requirements
• Apply lean testing principles: eliminate redundant testing; prioritize high-risk areas; and optimize test coverage vs effort
• Continuously evaluate ROI of testing activities
• Introduce best practices in risk-based testing and test coverage

3. Test Planning & Execution

• Ensure appropriate test design and coverage aligned to risk and business criticality
• Oversee defect lifecycle and quality signal integrity
• Identify, document, and track defects through resolution
• Define and enforce automated-first testing strategy
• Ensure appropriate coverage at unit, API, and integration layers
• Minimize manual regression through automation and risk-based testing

4. Test Automation

• Establish and expand automated test coverage
• Select and implement appropriate automation tools and frameworks
• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines where applicable
• Define automation standards and maintain test suites
• Drive toward automation-first testing model
• Ensure critical paths are fully automated
• Continuously reduce manual regression footprint

5. Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Escalate quality risks proactively to leadership
• Communicate testing progress, risks, and quality metrics to stakeholders
• Own and drive UAT planning and execution
• Hold teams accountable for meeting quality standards
• Challenge incomplete or untestable requirements
• Enforce adherence to QA and release standards
• Act as final quality authority for release readiness, including the ability to block releases that do not meet defined criteria

6. Quality Governance & Standards

• Owns and enforces enterprise quality standards
• Establishes mandatory quality gates for all releases
• Establishes audit/compliance mechanisms
• Conducts periodic quality audits across teams
• Define controls for validating data integrity across environments (test vs production)
• Owns release quality sign-off

7. Continuous Improvement

• Introduce metrics and KPIs to measure quality and testing effectiveness
• Conduct root cause analysis on defects and recommend improvements
• Promote a quality-first mindset across teams
• Keep QA processes lightweight while maintaining discipline and rigor

Qualifications

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
• 5+ years of experience in software QA
• Experience building or maturing QA processes

Skills & Competencies

• Strong understanding of modern quality engineering practices (automation, CI/CD, shift-left)
• Experience defining quality strategy in complex system environments
• Experience with enterprise systems (ERP, SaaS platforms, integrations, and data platforms)
• Experience with automated testing frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Selenium, etc.)
• Experience with API and integration testing
• Understanding of SDLC and Agile methodologies
• Strong analytical and investigative skills
• Excellent communication and stakeholder coordination skills
• Highly independent and self-motivated

Preferred

• Experience implementing QA in growing or transforming organizations
• Familiarity with CI/CD tools
• 2+ years in a lead or senior QA role
• ISTQB or equivalent certification

Success Factors

• Increases release confidence and predictability

• Improves system reliability and uptime

• Reduces production defects and incident severity

• Decreases cycle time for testing and release validation

• Improves early defect detection (shift-left effectiveness)

• Establishes measurable quality KPIs tied to business outcomes, including:

• Defect leakage rate

• Escaped defects (production)

• Test coverage by layer (unit/API/UI)

• Release readiness score

• Mean time to detect defects

• % automation coverage of critical workflows

• Improves defect detection early in the lifecycle

• Ensures testing effort is aligned to business and technical risk

Benefits of Employment

ECPI University provides a comprehensive benefits program designed to help our faculty and staff stay healthy, feel supported, and maintain a work/life balance. To learn more about benefits at ECPI University, click HERE.

Committed to excellence and innovation, ECPI University is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.