Manager, Quality Assurance (QA Manager)

Job Description

Job Description

At AmaWaterways, we believe meaningful careers begin with purpose, passion and a shared commitment to delivering unforgettable experiences. For those who value curiosity, connection and personal enrichment, AmaWaterways offers the opportunity to help craft meaningful river journeys that invite travelers to follow their own current. Built on a foundation of heartfelt hospitality, we treat our guests—and each other—with genuine care, warmth and respect. AmaWaterways fosters a collaborative environment both onboard our ships and across our global network of offices, where team members grow together, support one another and take pride in upholding the high standards and thoughtful service our company is known for.

We invite talented, motivated professionals to explore our career opportunities and begin their journey with AmaWaterways today.

This position is primarily responsible for leading and growing the quality assurance function across the company’s web platform, APIs, integrations, and supporting services. The QA Manager owns the overall QA strategy, standards, and processes; manages and develops the QA team; and partners with engineering, product, and DevOps to ensure releases are predictable, reliable, and delivered with confidence. 

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Defines, owns, and continuously improves the end-to-end QA strategy across web, mobile-web, backend services, and integrations. 
• Leads, mentors, and grows a team of QA specialists, automation engineers, and SDETs, fostering a culture of quality and accountability. 
• Establishes and maintains QA standards, test plans, regression suites, smoke-test procedures, and release sign-off processes. 
• Champions shift-left testing and embeds quality practices across the engineering organization. 
• Identifies critical user journeys and high-risk areas, ensuring appropriate test coverage at each layer of the test pyramid. 
• Sets the direction for automation frameworks across UI, API, and integration testing, and ensures suites are robust, maintainable, and trusted. 
• Oversees integration of automated tests into CI/CD pipelines, and defines quality gates, deployment criteria, and rollback triggers in collaboration with DevOps. 
• Owns release readiness and sign-off, ensuring consistent, repeatable, and low-risk deployments across Dev, QA, UAT, and Production. 
• Defines, tracks, and reports on key quality metrics such as defect leakage, escape rate, test coverage, flakiness, MTTD, and MTTR. 
• Provides clear, regular quality reporting and risk assessments to engineering leadership and business stakeholders. 
• Manages relationships with external QA vendors and tooling providers, and contributes to build-versus-buy decisions. 
• Analyzes production incidents to identify gaps in coverage and process, and drives corrective and preventive actions. 
• Establishes and maintains quality governance, including audit readiness, compliance, and data-handling considerations relevant to the business. 
• Evaluates and introduces new tools, technologies, and methodologies to advance the QA function. 
• Provides project effort estimations and resource planning for QA activities across competing priorities. 
• Communicates effectively with technical and non-technical groups, both internally and externally. 
• Maintains current knowledge of relevant technology and quality engineering practices, as assigned. 
• Participates in special projects, as required. 
• Performs other related duties as assigned by management. 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES :

• This job carries out supervisory responsibilities in accordance with the organization’s policies and applicable laws:
• Provides day-to-day leadership, mentorship, and technical direction to QA team members.
• Leads interviewing, evaluation, and hiring of QA specialists, automation engineers, and SDETs.
• Owns onboarding and training to ensure adherence to quality standards and best practices.
• Assigns work, monitors progress, and ensures timely delivery of testing and release activities.
• Conducts performance discussions, sets goals, and supports the professional development of team members.
• Manages capacity and resource allocation across projects, releases, and competing priorities.
• Addresses workplace or project-related concerns and escalates issues when appropriate.

QUALIFICATIONS :

• Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS) from a four-year college or university, or seven or more years of related experience and/or training, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Seven or more years of professional QA experience, with at least three years in a lead or management capacity.
• Proven track record of building, leading, and scaling QA teams and functions.
• Computer skills required: Microsoft Office Suite; Project Management Software; Test Management and Defect Tracking Software (e.g., Jira); Database Software; Development Software; Internet Software; Spreadsheet Software; Word Processing Software; Electronic Mail Software; Presentation Software.
• Other skills required:
• Strong technical foundation in test automation, with hands-on experience in UI automation (Playwright, Cypress, or Selenium) and API testing tools (Postman/Newman, REST Assured, or Pact).
• Experience defining QA strategy and embedding quality practices across engineering organizations.
• Solid understanding of CI/CD pipelines and integrating automated testing into delivery workflows (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar).
• Strong grasp of testing methodologies: TDD, BDD, the test pyramid, risk-based testing, and exploratory testing.
• Solid understanding of REST APIs, authentication mechanisms (OAuth, JWT), and API contract testing.
• Experience with version control (Git) and code review practices.
• Strong experience with relational databases and writing SQL queries for data validation and analysis.
• Demonstrated people-management skills: hiring, mentoring, performance management, and resource planning.
• Cloud, DevOps, and CI/CD:
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (preferably Microsoft Azure), including app hosting, storage, networking, and security concepts.
• Experience embedding automated build, test, and deployment quality gates across multiple environments (Dev, QA, UAT, Prod).
• Experience with application monitoring, logging, and alerting in cloud environments (e.g., Datadog, New Relic, Grafana, Sentry).
• Performance and load testing experience with k6, JMeter, or Gatling is a plus.
• Security Methodology:
• Knowledge of secure coding and application security principles (e.g., OWASP Top 10) and security testing fundamentals.
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments; Scrum Master experience is a plus.
• ISTQB Advanced Level certification, or other relevant quality/leadership certification, is a plus.
• Experience managing QA in travel, hospitality, or other data-sensitive industries is a plus.
• Additional Leadership Expectations:
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to provide technical leadership and mentor team members.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate with and influence cross-functional teams.
• Ability to balance multiple priorities and deliver high-quality outcomes on time.

COMPETENCIES :

• Adaptability - Adapts to changes in the work environment; Manages competing demands; Changes approach or method to best fit the situation; Able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
• Problem Solving - Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; Gathers and analyzes information skillfully; Develops alternative solutions; Works well in group problem solving situations; Uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics.
• Professionalism - Approaches others in a tactful manner; Reacts well under pressure; Treats others with respect and consideration regardless of their status or position; Accepts responsibility for own actions; Follows through on commitments.
• Project Management - Develops project plans; Coordinates projects; Communicates changes and progress; Completes projects on time and budget.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS AND WORK ENVIRONMENT:

• Occasionally required to stand
• Occasionally required to walk
• Continually required to sit
• Continually required to utilize hand and finger dexterity
• Frequently required to talk or hear 

• While performing the duties of this job, the noise level in the work environment is usually moderate 
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds 
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include: Close Vision