Engineering Lead, Quality

Vancity; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 113,000 - 153,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Living Wage Employer

Top Employer

Health benefits

Generous vacation

Job summary

Vancity is seeking an Engineering Lead, Quality to drive automation‑first quality across member‑facing platforms. You will lead a team of quality engineers, build scalable automation frameworks, and partner with product and engineering to embed quality in delivery.

This is a senior, hands‑on engineering role focused on API‑first testing, AI‑driven approaches, and CI/CD integration. The role offers hybrid work with on‑site requirements for events, based at Vancity head office with openness to BC

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering or quality engineering.
• Experience as a senior technical contributor or SDET.
• Proven track record designing and evolving automation frameworks.
• Deep experience in API‑first testing and reducing UI reliance.
• Experience with AI‑powered testing or test generation.
• Experience integrating test automation into CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong automated NFR validation experience.
• Experience with scalable API automation frameworks (REST, microservices).
• Hands‑on with Playwright, Cypress, Postman or equivalents.

Responsibilities

• Lead quality engineering as a senior contributor and coach SDETs in automation design/engineering.
• Set technical direction and drive quality objectives within product and engineering teams.
• Design and evolve scalable automation frameworks across API, service, and UI layers.
• Integrate automated validation into CI/CD pipelines and provide continuous feedback.
• Lead root cause analysis for production issues and promote shift-left quality practices.
• Deliver data‑driven quality metrics and drive automation coverage and reliability.

Skills

Automation design

SDET leadership

API‑first testing

CI/CD

Data‑driven testing

Performance testing

AI‑powered testing

Quality advocacy

Code reviews

Problem solving

Quality engineering craft

Tools

Playwright

Cypress

Postman

AWS

Azure

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

We’re Vancity, a member‑owned credit union built on the principles of inclusion and social justice. Since 1946, our relentless commitment to these values has helped us challenge the status quo and break down barriers. We’ve made bold commitments to become net‑zero by 2040 across all mortgages and loans, and we’re actively pursuing strategies in Indigenous banking and financial resilience for our members.

As the largest private sector Living Wage Employer in Canada, we’re proud to be consistently recognized as one of the country’s Top Employers. If you’re ready to join our team of 2,300 diverse individuals, access competitive rewards and benefits, and be part of a greater movement – apply today!

Your Role in Supporting Our Members:

As a Engineering Lead, Quality, you will play a senior technical role responsible for ensuring the quality, reliability, and performance of member‑facing platforms through hands‑on engineering leadership and execution of automation‑first practices across the SDLC. This position focuses on designing and implementing quality engineering solutions, leveraging deep technical expertise in automation, API‑first testing, AI‑driven/agentic techniques, and non‑functional validation. This is not a traditional QA Lead role – we are looking for a senior engineer (senior SDET) to lead a team of quality engineers in a dotted line capacity building scalable, code‑driven quality solutions, not just manage testing activities.

Full‑time, Permanent role based at Vancity head office. Our head office is based in Vancouver, but we are open to candidates in BC and Ontario. While this position provides a hybrid work arrangement, you will be expected to be on‑site for events and business demands when needed.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

Quality Strategy & Planning

• Translating quality engineering strategy and technical direction into executable plans and approaches aligned to business and delivery needs
• Collaborating directly with product and engineering partner teams to embed quality objectives within those teams’ delivery contexts
• Designing and implementing scalable, data‑driven automated validation approaches that reduce reliance on manual and UI‑heavy testing
• Contributing to metrics and quality signals (e.g. automation coverage, test reliability metrics, CI/CD feedback loops) through instrumentation and KPIs
• Implementing and enforcing quality gates (API coverage, performance thresholds, reliability criteria) within Dev‑owned CI/CD pipelines

Technical Leadership

• Providing technical leadership as a senior individual contributor to the Quality Engineering team, operating as a “first among equals” within SDET community
• Influencing, guiding and coaching SDETs through hands‑on collaboration in various areas including coding, automation design / engineering, data analysis, etc.
• Leading by example through design, coding and reviews, setting a high standard for the quality engineering craft
• Bringing teams together and drive alignment in ambiguous situations through technical credibility and sound business judgement, not formal authority
• Identifying risks and guiding teams through technical problem‑solving, risk‑based testing and execution leadership

Automation & Tools

• Designing, building and evolving scalable automation frameworks across API, service, and UI layers— with API‑first as core principle
• Integrating validation into CI/CD pipelines (e.g. Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) for continuous quality feedback
• Implementing modern API testing approaches such as contract testing, service virtualization, and data‑driven validation
• Driving the transition from Selenium‑heavy UI automation to a layered testing approach (API > integration > minimal UI)
• Exploring and implementing AI‑assisted and agentic testing approaches to improve coverage, speed, and maintainability of our test automation

Quality Advocacy

• Partnering with developers to improve testability, observability, and API‑first approach
• Collaborating with DevOps and releasing engineering to support reliable, automated deployments
• Leading root cause analysis for production issues and implementing preventative engineering solutions
• Being the Dev teams’ quality advocate, promoting shift‑left quality practices over manual and UI‑driven downstream approaches
• Designing and implementing automated validation across API, service, and system layers
• Building systems that prevent defect leakage through early validation and automation
• Executing performance, security, and regression validation through automated frameworks integrated into pipelines

What You’ll Bring to the Team:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, quality engineering, or related field
• Experience operating as a senior technical contributor or SDET
• Proven experience designing and building and evolving automation frameworks (not just using them)
• Deep experience in API‑first testing and reducing reliance on UI‑based automation
• Experience with AI‑powered testing or test generation: LLMs, agentic and spec‑driven automation
• Experience integrating test automation into CI/CD pipelines
• Strong experience in automated NFR validation
• Experience with scalable API automation frameworks (REST, event‑driven systems)
• Hands‑on experience with tools like Playwright, Cypress, Postman, or equivalent
• Experience with distributed systems and microservices architectures
• Familiarity with AWS or Azure, containers (Docker/Kubernetes)
• Data‑driven approach to measuring and improving quality
• Ability to evaluate quality effectiveness by analyzing automation outcomes and leveraging data to identify patterns and signals

You’ll Thrive Here If You Are:

• Engineering‑minded – Treating testing as a software engineering discipline.
• Collaborative – Influencing teams and building alignment without formal authority.
• Analytical – Solving complex technical problems in ambiguous environments.
• Innovative – Exploring AI‑driven automation and modern engineering practices.

What You’ll Earn:

This role offers a salary range of $113,000 to $153,000 per annum. The base pay offered may vary depending on factors such as relevant qualifications, skills, previous experience, and internal equity. As part of our total rewards package, employees may also be eligible for our annual incentive program, subject to program eligibility requirements.

Why You’ll Love Working Here:

A career at Vancity is more than just a job, you’re joining a tradition of change‑makers who are creating lasting change for our communities. Beyond base pay, we offer a comprehensive total rewards package to ensure our employees are empowered to thrive:

• Living Wage Employer: We’re the largest private‑sector Living Wage Employer in Canada and consistently ranked among Canada’s Top Employers
• Customizable Benefits: Permanent employees receive flexible benefit packages that can be tailored annually to meet evolving needs
• Generous Vacation: New employees start with 3‑4 weeks of vacation per year, with additional days earned over time
• Extra Stat Holidays: In addition to BC’s 11 statutory holidays, we offer 2 extra days, plus care days for personal or family illness
• Immediate Health Coverage: Health and dental benefits begin on your hire date, with three levels of coverage to choose from
• Defined Benefit Pension: Our retirement plan provides a guaranteed income for life, recognizing that retirement looks different for everyone

Vancity Talent Programs:

Vancity supports an inclusive hiring process for candidates who self‑identify as Indigenous, Black, or Trans. With special permission from the BC Human Rights Commissioner, this initiative provides access to career development opportunities, prioritized job screening, and feedback. Any information you choose to share will be stored securely and used only for recruitment and career development connected to this initiative, in line with the BC Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA). For details, please see our dedicated Talent Programs job posting.

We value lived experience, so if you are interested in this role, we encourage you to apply even if you feel your skills don’t perfectly align with those listed.

This role is an open vacancy, and our hiring process is grounded in fairness, transparency, and inclusion. We are committed to an inclusive, barrier‑free and accessible recruitment experience for all candidates. If you require any accommodations or support at any stage of the recruitment process (including the application stage), we encourage you to let us know by contacting our Talent Acquisition team at [e-mail]. We’re here to work with you to ensure your needs are met promptly and effectively. All requests will be handled with the utmost respect and confidentiality, so you can participate fully in the process.