Lead Manual QA Engineer

Ciklum; Canada; On-site; CAD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading custom product engineering company is seeking a Lead Manual QA Engineer to join their team in Canada. The role focuses on driving QA strategy, collaborating with teams globally, and ensuring high-quality delivery across platforms. Candidates should possess strong leadership skills, experience in Agile methodologies, and proficiency in testing tools. Benefits include a strong community, tailored learning opportunities, and healthcare plans. Come innovate at scale with us!

Benefits

Healthcare

Life Insurance

Professional development opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven experience in designing and developing test strategies.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies.
• Proficiency in various testing tools and database administration.

Responsibilities

• Drive QA strategy and execution as part of the leadership team.
• Ensure consistent application of quality processes across teams.
• Collaborate with various stakeholders to integrate quality into projects.
• Assist in resource planning and workload distribution.

Skills

Testing strategies

Agile methodologies

Test documentation

Team collaboration

Risk identification

Tools

SQL

NoSQL

Bug Tracking Tools

CI/CD tools

Automation Testing Tools

Job description

Overview

Ciklum is looking for a Lead Manual QA Engineer to join our team full-time in Canada.

We are a custom product engineering company that supports both multinational organizations and scaling startups to solve their most complex business challenges. With a global team of over 4,000 highly skilled developers, consultants, analysts and product owners, we engineer technology that redefines industries and shapes the way people live.

About the role:

As a Lead Manual QA Engineer, become a part of a cross-functional development team, engineering experiences of tomorrow. We’re looking for a Lead Quality Assurance to join the QA leadership team within a 300+ member and partner closely with the QA Head in driving QA strategy and execution. This role serves as the primary based QA leader and acts as backup for the QA Head, providing leadership coverage when Europe and India are offline and ensuring late-day US / West Coast QA coverage when the QA Head is unavailable. This role requires working 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM ET, regardless of location.

The Lead Quality Assurance works closely with cross-functional and globally distributed teams to ensure consistent quality practices, enable continuous improvement, and support high-quality delivery across technical platforms. While this role does not include direct management of QA resources, it requires strong leadership presence, independent decision-making, and the ability to effectively engage with partner teams and senior leaders.

In urgent after-hours situations, the Lead Quality Assurance may be required to step in as a hands-on tester to ensure delivery continuity and protect platform quality.

Responsibilities

• Software Testing:
• Proven background in designing and developing test strategies using best practices and patterns
• Experience with setting up test plan for small, big, multi-stream commercial projects
• High proficiency in testing documentation creation and any testing type execution

• Technologies and Tools:
• Experience in most of the testing standard tools for testing (API, Proxy, Mobile, Automation, Bug Tracking, Test Management, Queues, etc.) and database administration (SQL, NoSQL)

• SDLC:
• Master proficiency in Agile Methodologies, able to drive and improve any activity according to selected methodology (such as daily meetings, planning, estimation, retrospective, etc.)
• Experience in any Agile artifact implementation (e.g. SCRUM board, Burndown Chart, etc.)
• In-depth proficiency in the estimation of activities related to testing

Requirements

• Support the QA Head in defining, refining, and enforcing QA strategies, standards, and best practices across the SAFe program
• Ensure consistent application of quality processes across Scrum teams, including functional, regression, automation, performance, and integration testing
• Identify quality risks early and drive effective mitigation strategies
• Collaborate with RTEs, Product Managers, Product Owners, and Scrum Masters to integrate quality into PI planning and team ceremonies
• Track and communicate testing progress, risks, dependencies, and quality metrics to stakeholders
• Assist in resource planning and workload distribution across QA teams
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives and process optimization within the SAFe environment
• Develop and maintain dashboards and KPIs to measure product health, defect trends, and testing effectiveness
• Provide data-driven insights and recommendations to improve product quality and delivery predictability
• Collaborate with QA Leads to understand team development needs and support the ongoing reinforcement of a quality-first mindset
• Coordinate defect triage activities and facilitate cross-functional discussions
• Support release readiness assessments and ensure quality gates are met before deployment
• Establishes process of Requirements Analysis and Requirements Traceability Matrix creation
• Administrates Test Management and Bug Tracking tools
• Experience in using CI/CD tools (Git commands) and debugging proxy tools (Fiddler, CharlesProxy, etc)
• Mobile projects: Master proficiency in Mobile Testing best practices, Mobile Testing Types, Mobile App Distribution Tools, and Mobile Test Strategy development
• Automation projects: Master proficiency in Introduction of Automation test approach, Test cases for Automation creation, Automation Test Reports analysis, Automation metrics gathering
• Cloud projects: Master proficiency in test data migration and Queues testing process establishment

What's in it for you?

• Strong community: Work alongside top professionals in a friendly, open-door environment
• Growth focus: Take on large-scale projects with a global impact and expand your expertise
• Tailored learning: Boost your skills with internal events (meetups, conferences, workshops), Udemy access, language courses, and company-paid certifications
• Endless opportunities: Explore diverse domains through internal mobility, finding the best fit to gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies
• Care: Healthcare, Basic Life Insurance, Short and Long-term disability insurance according to the Company’s Benefit Plans

About us

At Ciklum, we are always exploring innovations, empowering each other to achieve more, and engineering solutions that matter. With us, you’ll work with cutting-edge technologies, contribute to impactful projects, and be part of a One Team culture that values collaboration and progress. Now expanding across Canada, we’re looking for talented professionals to strengthen our North American footprint. Join us to innovate at scale and deliver world-class solutions to global clients.
Want to learn more about us? Follow us onInstagram ,Facebook ,LinkedIn .

Explore, empower, engineer with Ciklum!

Interested already? We would love to get to know you! Submit your application. We can’t wait to see you at Ciklum.