QA Lead

Seeking a QA Lead to plan, lead, and drive quality assurance activities across a complex enterprise modernization effort. This role requires an experienced, hands-on QA leader who can create the QA strategy, build detailed test plans, lead test teams, coordinate across multiple cross-functional workstreams, and provide detailed QA status reporting. The ideal candidate is proactive, structured, detail-oriented, and able to drive delivery rather than simply take direction. This position requires strong waterfall and hybrid QA experience. Candidates with only agile delivery experience are not preferred unless they can demonstrate proven waterfall test planning, formal test execution, dependency management, stage-gate discipline, and release readiness support.

Key Responsibilities
• Own and drive the overall QA strategy, test planning, test readiness, execution tracking, defect management, and QA reporting for assigned program scope.
• Create and maintain detailed test plans, test schedules, test scenarios, test cases, entry and exit criteria, test data plans, environment readiness plans, and sign-off checkpoints.
• Lead QA execution across business teams, IT teams, vendor teams, SaaS platform teams, downstream application teams, integration teams, infrastructure teams, security teams, and legacy/mainframe teams.
• Stay hands-on with testing details, including test coverage, test execution progress, defect status, test data readiness, environment readiness, dependencies, risks, and open decisions.
• Drive daily or regular QA checkpoints during test execution and ensure progress, blockers, defects, decisions, and next steps are clearly documented.
• Identify and escalate QA risks, issues, blockers, and dependency gaps early with clear impact, recommended options, and management actions needed.
• Lead defect triage and coordinate resolution across application, integration, vendor, downstream, and business teams.
• Ensure traceability from requirements to test cases, test execution results, defects, and release readiness decisions.
• Prepare detailed QA status reports with measurable progress, defect metrics, accomplishments, upcoming activities, risks, issues, dependency status, and decision needs.
• Support release readiness, go/no-go preparation, stakeholder communication, production validation planning, and post-test lessons learned.


Required Qualifications
• Senior-level QA leadership experience on large enterprise modernization, transformation, or complex system implementation programs.
• Hands-on experience developing and executing QA strategies, test plans, test cases, test schedules, test data plans, and defect management processes.
• Proven experience leading QA teams in a cross-functional enterprise environment with multiple upstream, downstream, vendor, business, and technology teams.
• Strong waterfall delivery experience, including phase-based planning, formal test cycles, stage gates, sign-offs, dependency tracking, risk management, and executive-level reporting.
• Experience coordinating system integration testing, regression testing, end-to-end testing, user acceptance testing support, production readiness testing, and release validation through test management tools.
• Experience with automation testing strategy, automation frameworks, regression automation, and determining where automation provides practical value to program delivery.
• Strong experience managing end-to-end QA execution through test management tools, including test case oversight, execution progress tracking, defect triage, risk visibility, reporting dashboards, and cross-team coordination across multiple test phases.
• Strong project management skills, including planning, milestone tracking, dependency management, risk and issue management, action item follow-up, and status reporting.
• Ability to influence without direct authority and work effectively with business SMEs, IT teams, vendors, project managers, product/platform teams, and leadership stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present QA status clearly, concisely, and with sufficient detail for leadership decision-making.
• Highly detail-oriented, proactive, accountable, organized, and comfortable driving delivery in ambiguous, high-pressure, cross-functional program situations.
Preferred Qualifications
• SaaS platform implementation or SaaS product testing experience, including vendor coordination, release validation, configuration testing, integration testing, and service-level considerations.
• Experience testing in a large enterprise ecosystem with multiple downstream systems, interface dependencies, batch processes, data conversion, reconciliation, and production readiness considerations.
• AWS or cloud platform exposure, especially where QA must coordinate environment readiness, connectivity, security, performance, or integration validation.
• Mainframe or legacy platform testing experience, including batch processing, interface validation, regression testing, data comparison, and downstream impact analysis.
• Experience supporting modernization programs involving legacy-to-modern platform transition, data migration, integration redesign, or parallel run validation.
• Experience in automotive, finance, warranty, vehicle service contract, claims, contract administration, dealer-facing systems, or similar regulated business domains.

Minimum Experience Profile
• Experience serving as a QA Lead, Test Lead, QA Manager, Test Delivery Lead, or similar senior QA leadership role.
• Experience leading QA delivery for large enterprise programs with multiple system integrations and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience producing detailed QA status reporting for program leadership or executive stakeholders.
• Experience working in a waterfall or hybrid delivery environment with formal planning, execution, control, and sign-off expectations.