Lead Quality Engineer

ZipRecruiter; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading FinTech as a Lead Quality Engineer, where you'll drive software testing initiatives, enhance automation frameworks, and ensure product quality. Collaborate within a dynamic team to redefine banking experiences for Canadians. Enjoy a hybrid work environment with competitive benefits.

Benefits

Competitive discretionary bonus

Market leading RRSP match program

Medical, dental, vision, life, and benefits

Employee Share Purchase Plan

Maternity/Parental top-up

Generous vacation policy

Annual professional development allowance

Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years in Software Quality Engineering.
• Experience leading large testing and automation initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Support planning, design, and execution of software testing activities.
• Drive improvements in automation coverage and framework stability.

Skills

Automation

Leadership

Java

JavaScript

Microservice Architecture

Agile Delivery

Education

University Degree in Computer Science

Tools

Selenium WebDriver

Cucumber

Postman

Appium

JIRA

Confluence

Job description

Job Description Join a Challenger

Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing. We are big believers in innovating the banking experience because we believe Canadians deserve better options, and we challenge ourselves and our teams to creatively transform what’s possible in banking. Our team is made up of inquisitive and agile minds that find smarter ways of doing things. If you’re not afraid of taking on big challenges and redefining the future, you belong with us. You’ll get to work with people who will encourage you to reach new heights. We like to keep things fun, ask questions and learn together.

We are a big (and growing!) family. Overall we serve more than 670,000 people across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than six million members. Together we have over $125 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Our customers have named our EQ Bank digital platform (eqbank.ca) one of the top banks in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks list since 2021.

Equitable Interview

As we continue to scale our team, candidates selected for our comprehensive interview process may be considered for a different level — either higher or lower — based on their interview performance. This equitable hiring approach allows us to ensure that talented individuals from a variety of industries are set up for long-term success within EQB’s dynamic, growing environment. Our goal is to support candidates in building lasting careers, rather than relying solely on perceived experience. The hiring committee will thoughtfully assess each candidate’s skills and potential, and adjust the level of the role as needed to create the best possible fit.

Purpose of Job

The Lead Quality Engineer is a key member of the team responsible for supporting the planning, design, and execution of software testing activities within Equitable Bank. Reporting to the Manager of Quality Engineering, the QE Lead will work collaboratively within the IT department and with other business units to ensure product quality and end-to-end testing with TEMENOS integration including API, middleware and microservices. The QE Lead will take ownership for advancing automation frameworks, optimizing test stability, integrating performance, security, and resiliency testing into pipelines, and ensuring end-to-end traceability and audit-readiness. They will also support all testing phases and lead continuous improvements in QE tooling, metrics, and strategy.

Accountability

The incumbent reports to the Manager, Quality Engineering and is responsible for:

• Providing regular updates on quality status, metrics, and risks to stakeholders
• Driving improvements in automation coverage, framework stability, and feedback loops
• Escalating potential risks related to timelines, quality, or compliance early with mitigation plans
• Acting as a senior technical and strategic quality advocate within the broader engineering team
• Contributing to the adoption of shift-left testing mindset, advancing automation maturity, and enhancing customer satisfaction through improved product quality

Main Activities:

• Assess business requirements for Digital Banking enhancements or Product Launches under technical and functional lenses, providing actionable feedback across multiple teams.
• Review technical/integration requirement documents and collaborate with internal stakeholders for testability improvements.
• Define structured test strategies and scalable test plans for all initiatives, ensuring risk-based prioritization.
• Design, develop, and optimize automation frameworks and detailed test cases covering UI, API, and mobile layers.
• Configure and maintain automated test suites integrated within CI/CD pipelines, ensuring execution efficiency and timely feedback loops.
• Lead and mentor the quality team, establishing automation coding standards and performing reviews.
• Oversee cross-team automation initiatives to improve coverage, reliability, and tooling.
• Highlight potential quality risks and propose mitigation strategies early in the lifecycle.
• Drive continuous improvement of testing documentation, best practices, and frameworks.
• Develop and evolve quality metrics dashboards, analyze trends, and drive actionable engineering improvements.
• Participate actively in root cause analysis and contribute to the design of resilient QE systems and tooling.
• Lead configuration and setup of test environments in coordination with vendors and IT teams.
• Lead and facilitate reviews of testing artifacts with project and product teams.
• Define ethical and practical AI usage practices within the testing and automation processes.
• Support UAT activities with business units as needed.
• Deliver training, guidance, and mentoring for the QE team to grow automation and quality capabilities.

Qualifications and Skill Set:

• Minimum of 8 years’ experience in Software Quality Engineering with proven experience leading large testing and automation initiatives, preferably in the financial services sector.
• Minimum of 5 years' experience in developing and maintaining UI and API automation frameworks.
• University Degree in Computer Science, Engineering or related technical degree or equivalent experience is required
• Strong understanding of Microservice Architecture and testing strategies for distributed systems.
• Expertise with automation frameworks and tools such as Selenium WebDriver, Cucumber (BDD), Postman, JavaScript, and Appium for mobile.
• Strong programming knowledge in Java and JavaScript with the ability to write automation code from scratch.
• Experience with integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or similar).
• Working knowledge of service virtualization tools (eg: Parasoft/Smartbear/IBM Rational Tester), and log analysis platforms (eg: Kibana, Splunk).
• Experience with database testing and writing complex SQL queries.
• Exposure to cloud testing and security compliance best practices.
• Strong understanding of SDLC processes for Agile delivery models.
• Strong skills in JIRA, Confluence, Zephyr (or any test management tool) and test management practices.
• Build custom tools/processes to enhance QE workflows.
• Proficiency with performance, resiliency, and security testing frameworks.

Additional Nice to Have Skills:

• Experience working with Test Data Management tools like Delphix or CA TDM.
• Exposure to cloud- architectures, containerization (Docker)
• Experience piloting and adopting new QE tools, plugins, or frameworks.
• Experience with Temenos, VisionPlus or other core banking platforms.
• Familiarity with AI-based approaches to accelerate and optimize quality engineering activities.

Job Complexities / Thinking Challenges

• Establish and optimize new automation strategies, frameworks, and best practices across teams.
• Proactively identify gaps in quality, automation, infrastructure, or metrics and propose improvements.
• Maintain focus in a fast-paced environment with multiple competing initiatives.
• Mentor and guide the team on best practices while leading by example on coding standards and automation excellence.

What we offer [For full-time permanent roles]

Competitive discretionary bonus

Market leading RRSP match program

Medical, dental, vision, life, and benefits

Employee Share Purchase Plan

Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one

Generous vacation policy and personal days

Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues

Annual professional development allowance and a comprehensive Career Development program

A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience

The incumbent will be working hybrid and in office time will be spent working from Equitable Bank’s additional office space located at 2200-25 Ontario Street, Toronto, ON.

Equitable Bank is deeply committed to . Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well.

We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position.

We can’t wait to get to know you!