QA Team Lead

Position Title : QA Team Lead

Manager : SVP Product

Location: LOCAL CANDIDATES ONLY | In-office Wednesdays | No relocation assistance

Broomfield, CO | Full-time

Work Authorization : Must be authorized to work in the US without employer sponsorship, now or in the future

Annual Base Salary Range : $95,000 - $115,000

About IKE

Every utility pole carries something essential: power, fiber, and the connections communities depend on. We're ikeGPS, the PoleOS™ Company, and we're working to become the standard for collecting, managing, and analyzing pole and overhead asset information. Electric utilities, communications companies, and their engineering partners rely on our solutions to design, construct, and inspect overhead infrastructure. It's an industry that flies under the radar, and we're proud to help build the power and communications infrastructure of the future.

IKE is publicly traded on the New Zealand (NZX) and Australian (ASX) stock exchanges under the ticker IKE. We're a collaborative team, with our US headquarters in Broomfield, Colorado, offices in Chelsea, Alabama, and Wellington, New Zealand, and colleagues working across the US. We're guided by Manaakitanga, a te reo Māori word for caring for and uplifting others, which we live as "we rise by lifting others." Our values shape how we work: we keep things simple, speak openly, and bring ingenuity to every challenge.

The Role

IKE is in an exciting phase of growth, expanding into multi-source data acquisition, advanced analytics, AI-powered workflow automation, and next-generation infrastructure intelligence. Quality isn't an afterthought here; it's a competitive advantage.

As QA Team Lead, you'll establish and lead quality assurance across our product portfolio while owning test automation hands-on for key releases. This is a player-coach role. Most of your time is spent alongside the team, building automation, executing tests, and setting technical standards, with day-to-day direction and mentorship for two US-remote QA Specialists. Formal performance management, compensation, and headcount sit with the SVP of Product and Human Resources.

You'll work at the intersection of legacy product maintenance and next-generation platform development, and help shape how a growing company thinks about quality. We operate AI-first, so tools like Claude and Copilot are part of how the work gets done, from test case generation to defect analysis and documentation.

Work Schedule

Our teams span US time zones from Eastern to Pacific, and our New Zealand engineering team is 18 to 20 hours ahead of Colorado, depending on daylight saving. Collaboration may require flexibility for early morning or evening meetings.

Travel: Estimated at 5 to 10 percent for company meetings, conferences, and team collaboration.

Strategic Context

As IKE expands into multi-source data acquisition, advanced analytics, and intelligent workflow automation, quality assurance must address:

• Software quality for customer-facing applications and enterprise platforms
• Data quality for imagery and remote sensor data from diverse collection sources
• AI/ML model quality, including accuracy, bias detection, and performance monitoring
• Integration quality across complex data pipelines and third-party systems
• User experience quality, ensuring intuitive interfaces for complex technical capabilities
• Engineering calculation quality, ensuring consistency and accuracy of analytical outputs across software version updates, with version-to-version variance documented and explained

Key Responsibilities and Expected Outcomes

Hands-On Testing & Quality Assurance (30%)

• Personally execute test plans and conduct testing for high-complexity or high-risk features.
• Perform exploratory testing to uncover issues automated tests miss.
• Validate critical customer-facing releases before production deployment.
• Test new product capabilities, including geospatial data processing, 3D visualization, and AI-powered features.
• Validate engineering calculation outputs against known reference results and prior versions, maintaining a documented audit trail across releases.
• Think like the end user, understanding how outputs translate to real-world infrastructure decisions.

Test Process & Automation (25%)

• Design and implement scalable test processes that support Agile development and continuous delivery.
• Build and own the automated test suite for key product initiatives through general availability release this calendar year.
• Establish automated testing for regression, integration, and end-to-end workflows.
• Develop performance and load testing capabilities for cloud-native applications.
• Create efficient test data management practices, and evaluate and implement testing tools and frameworks.
• Use AI-powered tools, including Claude and Copilot, to accelerate test creation, documentation, and defect pattern analysis.

Quality Strategy & Standards (20%)

• Define and maintain quality standards for software, data, and AI/ML products.
• Establish testing strategies appropriate for different product types and development stages.
• Define data quality standards for multi-source data acquisition, including drone imagery, vehicle-based capture, mobile, airborne, and satellite.
• Establish AI/ML quality criteria, including model accuracy, bias detection, and explainability.
• Define engineering calculation quality standards with a documented audit trail of version-to-version variance.
• Partner with Product Management to define acceptance criteria and definition of done.

Cross-Functional Collaboration (15%)

• Partner with Product Managers and Engineers to advocate for testability, quality, and customer experience.
• Frame defect priority in terms of customer impact and business risk, not just technical severity.
• Coordinate with User Support to analyze customer-reported issues and identify systemic improvements.
• Engage with US and New Zealand-based engineering teams, accommodating time zone differences.
• Communicate quality status, risks, and improvements clearly to leadership and stakeholders.
• Participate in sprint planning, retrospectives, and product planning.

QA Practice Leadership & Mentorship (10%)

• Serve as the senior quality voice for a current team of two US-remote QA Specialists, setting the standard through your own work.
• Help the team grow through example, feedback, and collaboration.
• Establish consistent quality standards and testing methodologies across the QA function.
• Foster a culture of quality, continuous improvement, and customer advocacy.
• Support onboarding of new QA team members and build team capability in emerging practices, including AI/ML testing and data quality validation.

Note: This role provides technical mentorship and day-to-day team direction. Formal performance management, compensation decisions, and headcount budgeting sit with the SVP of Product and Human Resources.

Competencies

• AI-Powered Quality Tools
• QA Leadership & Team Development
• Quality Assurance Expertise
• Engineering Calculation Validation
• Test Automation
• Agile & DevOps Practices
• Technical Aptitude

Knowledge, Skills, and Experience

Required

• 5+ years of quality assurance experience in software product companies.
• 3+ years in a senior, lead, or team lead QA role.
• Deep knowledge of QA methodologies, including functional, integration, regression, and acceptance testing.
• Hands-on experience building and maintaining automated test frameworks.
• Proficiency with test automation tools such as Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, SmartBear, or similar.
• Strong understanding of Agile/Scrum development processes and CI/CD integration.
• Experience with AI-powered test and productivity tools, including LLMs and AI code assistants.
• Experience with bug tracking and test management tools such as Jira, TestRail, or similar.
• Ability to validate engineering calculation outputs for accuracy; experience with utility engineering calculations such as structural analysis, load analysis, or secondary voltage is preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate technical quality issues for diverse audiences.
• Proven ability to work effectively across time zones with distributed teams.

Preferred

• Familiarity with electric utility operations and field workflows.
• Experience with geospatial data, GIS systems, engineering software, or mapping applications.
• Knowledge of utility, telecommunications, or infrastructure industries.
• Experience with data quality testing for imagery, LiDAR, or sensor data.
• Knowledge of AI/ML testing, including model validation and bias detection.
• Experience with computer vision or image analysis quality assurance.
• Background in both legacy system maintenance and new product development.
• Experience in high-growth or transformation environments.

Pay and Benefits

The annual base pay range for this role is $95,000 - $115,000. Final pay depends on skills, experience, qualifications, and location.

We take care of our people with a comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with a 4% company match, plus pre-tax and Roth options
• Company-paid basic life insurance
• Paid time off and paid holidays
• Employee assistance program

Benefits are subject to change. Full details are shared during the offer process.

Application Deadline

This position will remain open until November 14, 2026 or until filled, whichever is first.

Equal Opportunity Employer

ikeGPS is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We will provide reasonable accommodations during the hiring process if requested.