Systems Testing/QA Specialist - Senior

GovTech Talent Solutions Inc.; Toronto; On-site; CAD 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

GovTech Talent Solutions Inc. is seeking a Quality Assurance Specialist to drive testing efforts for large government systems in Toronto.

You will plan, design, and execute test strategies for GUI, API, and data warehouse components, and collaborate across cross‑functional teams. The role requires strong experience in manual and automated testing, including performance and accessibility testing, with participation in Agile ceremonies and a focus on maintaining rigorous quality metrics and

Qualifications

• Develop test strategy, test plan and test data.
• Experience in manual and automated testing across GUI, API and data layers.
• Experience with WCAG AA compliance testing for web applications.
• Ability to work in Agile, Scrum environments and participate in stand‑ups and sprints.
• Familiarity with ALM, Jira, Bugzilla or Azure DevOps for defect tracking.

Responsibilities

• Advises on testing strategy, test plans, test tool selection and resource requirements.
• Plans and organizes testing for large systems in GUI and non-GUI environments.
• Develops and executes test scripts/cases and maintains test data.
• Executes functional, integration, system and regression tests.
• Tracks defects using ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, Azure DevOps and reproduces issues with developers.
• Develops automated tests using tools like Selenium, Postman, UFT and integrates into CI/CD.
• Performs performance, stress and load testing to ensure scalability.
• Ensures accessibility testing per applicable standards and regulations.
• Collaborates with analysts, project managers and developers; participates in Agile ceremonies.
• Maintains detailed test results and quality metrics; contributes to user manuals and release notes.

Skills

Testing strategy

Manual testing

Automation testing

UI testing

API testing

Scripting

JIRA

CI/CD

Selenium

Postman

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/QA

Tools

Postman

Selenium

Playwright

LoadRunner

JMeter

OpenText UFT

Job description

Project Overview

The Community Services I&IT cluster (CSC) of the Ontario Public Service serves the Colleges and Universities (MCU), Education (EDU), Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH), and Tourism, Culture and Sport (MTCS) Ministries. The Data Product Services (DPS) within CSC provides data collection and analytic service to all four client ministries. DPS supports the ministries by providing information management tools that help enable public policy decision making, business and strategic planning, and program support and improvement. The Data Engineering Unit of DPS works on many different initiatives in the Data analytics, Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence area. These tools collect data and transform it into meaningful information, enabling evidence-based strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making. Client Ministries have access to historical, current and predictive views of business operations, increasing the analysis capacity of decision makers. Enrolment Information Solutions Support team works Data Collection, Data Warehouse area, such as Ontario School Information System (OnSIS), Ontario Education Number (OEN) and Ontario Education Data Warehouse (OEDW). The Ontario School Information System (OnSIS) is a web-enabled system for collecting various student and educator information from schools and school boards. The data collected will be used for financial and statistical analysis as well as policy development and business planning to enhance evidence-informed decision-making at the Ministry, school board and school levels. The Ontario Education Data Warehouse (OEDW) is a data warehouse system to integrate data from various education data sources, such as OnSIS, EQAO, OUAC/OCAS and etc. to facilitate business reporting and data sharing across Ministry of Education while actively supporting government open data initiative. Child Care and Early Years OEN Extension project is to implement an extension of the OEN to the child care sector by leveraging ServiceOntario’s 5 in 1 newborn bundle as the primary delivery pathway - as an API interface system-to-system between Service Ontario Vital Events solution and OEN, and in person services and contact centre services as secondary pathways - ServiceOntario’s clerks will directly login into existing OEN web solution to create the OEN numbers as applicable.

Key Responsibilities

• Provides advice on the testing strategy, test plans, the selection of testing tools, and the identification of resources required for testing.
• Plans and organizes testing efforts for large systems in Graphical User Interface (GUI) and non-Graphical User Interface (GUI) environments, including the execution of systems integration tests, specialized tests, and user acceptance testing (e.g., stress tests).
• The Quality Assurance Specialist is responsible for the development of test plans, test scripts and test cases and executing these against the various components. The tester will work with the testing lead and IT lead of each project as well as the project team members in the analysis, design, development, implementation and ongoing support of the required systems.
• Executes functional, integration, system, and regression tests.
• Validates that the system behaves as expected under various conditions.
• Identifies, document, and track software defects using tools like ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, and Azure DevOps.
• Works closely with developers to reproduce and resolve issues.
• Develops and maintains automated test scripts using tools like Micro Focus, OpenText™ UFT, Selenium, TestComplete, or Postman.
• Integrates automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
• Conducts performance, stress, and load testing to ensure the system can handle expected user traffic and data volumes.
• Knowledge and understanding of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) and related regulations and standards.
• Collaborates with developers, business analysts, and project managers to clarify requirements and ensure quality.
• Participates in Agile ceremonies like sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
• Maintains detailed documentation of test results, test coverage, and quality metrics.
• Provides input for user manuals and release notes.
• Ensures testing processes comply with industry standards and regulatory requirements.

Qualifications & Requirements

REQUIRED

• Must be able to work 5 days onsite per week in Toronto
• Demonstrated experience in developing test strategy, test plan, test cases and test data
• Demonstrated strong experience in manual and automated testing and scripting
• Experience in quality assurance and testing, including unit testing, integration testing, load testing, performance testing, etc.
• Demonstrated experience with automation testing in Windows services and Web API services by testing tools, such as Postman, ThunderClient and Swagger.
• Experience in automation testing tools, such as Playwright, Quick Test pro, Load Runner and etc.
• Demonstrated experience testing for WCAG AA compliance in web applications
• Experience in planning, organizing and implementing testing efforts at the specified experience level
• Knowledge of structured methodologies for the development, design, implementation and maintenance of applications
• Knowledge and experience in the use of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools and data query tools to aid in the development of test cases
• Knowledge and experience in the use of automated test tools and version control systems on one or more platforms
• Experience executing functional tests, non-functional tests and systems level integration tests
• Experience supporting user acceptance testing and participating in UAT activities
• Experience with quality assurance principles, practices, tools and structured methodologies
• Experience creating testing strategy documentation, test plans, test cases and test data for various types and phases of testing, including technical and business functional validation
• Knowledge and experience in all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills; organizational, creativity and perseverance skills; verbal and written communication skills; and interpersonal skills
• A team player with a track record for meeting deadlines
• Knowledge of one or more automated testing tools
• Knowledge of system, integration, regression, and acceptance testing
• Familiarity with Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall methodologies
• Demonstrates ability to write clear, comprehensive test cases and execute them effectively
• Experience with tools like ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, TestRail, Zephyr, etc.
• Familiarity with tools like Selenium, Cypress, or Postman for API testing
• Understanding of scripting languages (e.g., Python, JavaScript, Bash) for automation or test data setup
• Demonstrates ability to write queries to validate data and perform backend testing
• Clear grasp of the software development and testing life cycles
• Experience conducting basic security testing and collaborating with security specialists for deeper penetration testing
• Experience developing and managing robust test data strategies, including generating realistic and sufficient test data, ensuring data privacy, and managing test data environments
• Validates data integrity, consistency, and accuracy across various system components and databases, performing data migration and transformation testing as needed
• Experience developing and executing performance test scripts using tools like JMeter or LoadRunner, and analyzing performance bottlenecks and system scalability

NICE TO HAVE

• Knowledge and experience in at least one programming language
• Experience in the use of information retrieval packages
• Knowledge and understanding of testing methods in an object-oriented environment
• Knowledge and understanding of Information Management principles, concepts, policies and practices
• Knowledge and understanding of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) and related regulations and standards
• Experience planning and organizing testing efforts for both large and small systems
• Experience coding automated test scripts to produce sets of automated test cases
• Experience testing Commercial Off-the Shelf Applications (COTS)

EVALUATION CRITERIA

Technical Skills - 65%

• Demonstrated experience in developing test strategy, test plan, test cases and test data
• Demonstrated strong experience in manual and automated testing and scripting
• Experience in quality assurance and testing, including unit testing, integration testing, load testing, performance testing, etc.
• Demonstrated experience with automation testing in Windows services and Web API services by testing tools, such as Postman, ThunderClient and Swagger
• Demonstrated Experience with automation testing in web application and data warehouse system
• Experience in automation testing tools, such as Playwright, Quick Test pro, Load Runner and etc.
• Demonstrated experience executing different types of software testing processes and testing methodologies
• Demonstrated experience writing test scripts, test cases and test scenarios, testing web applications and reporting defects
• Demonstrated experience investigating production issues for root causes and providing suggestion on solutions
• Demonstrated experience using HPQC and TFS to document, track and record testing progress, test plan and test cases; Demonstrated Experience with VBA and VBS
• Demonstrated experience testing for WCAG AA compliance in web applications, preferable experience using screen reader (JAWS, NVDA) for testing and High Compliance Sherriff tool
• Demonstrated experience creating complex SQL scripting for database testing
• Demonstrated experience with the use of desktop tools such as Visio, MS Office, MS Project, and MS Outlook
• Demonstrated experience in SQL, Databases, and XML in the context of data warehouse testing
• Demonstrated experience in an HP NonStop (Tandem) batch, online, n-tier and web environment
• Demonstrated experience executing testing as part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), including experience testing through all the Software Testing Life Cycle phases
• Demonstrated experience preparing for, conducting and supporting SIT, SAT and UAT testing that adhere to Testing Strategy and Testing Methodology

General Skills - 30%

• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills; verbal and written communication skills; interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Demonstrated experience with conducting system impact analysis by working with business analysts and developers
• Demonstrated Experience in dealing with multiple teams representing various areas in delivering the project and to work collaboratively with client organizations; Demonstrated experience working in an agile and waterfall environment
• Demonstrated experience working collaboratively with client organizations
• Demonstrated experience coordinating multiple projects with competing priorities
• Demonstrated experience producing deliverables on time and on schedule

Public Sector Experience - 5%

• Experience within the public sector, particular with education systems

Key Skills & Competencies

Postman, Playwright, LoadRunner, QuickTest Pro, Selenium, Cypress, JMeter, Micro Focus UFT, OpenText UFT, TestComplete, ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, Azure DevOps, TestRail, Zephyr, HPQC, TFS, SQL, VBA, VBS, Python, JavaScript, Bash, XML, HP NonStop, Tandem, Web API, API testing, Automation testing, Manual testing, Performance testing, Load testing, Regression testing, UAT, CI/CD, Swagger, ThunderClient, Windows services, Data warehouse testing, Database testing, GUI testing, Accessibility testing, JAWS, NVDA, CASE tools, Version control, Agile, Scrum, Waterfall