Senior QA Coordinator

The Creative Assembly Ltd; Horsham; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Relocation package

Private medical and dental insurance

Job summary

Creative Assembly in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior QA Co-Ordinator to lead two remote QA teams and drive quality across the project lifecycle. You will mentor staff, develop KPI metrics, and ensure robust test planning and defect management supporting development teams.

The role demands strong leadership, excellent communication, and experience in AAA title QA with push-left practices. Hybrid working with some travel and relocation considerations applies.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading remote QA teams.
• Proven ability to develop KPI metrics and drive performance.
• Experience in AAA game development and QA practices such as quality assistance / push left.
• Strong communication and staff mentoring skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and manage two remote QA teams feeding the development process.
• Develop and monitor KPI reports to objectively measure team performance.
• Coordinate test plans, playthroughs and defect triage with internal teams.
• Hold regular 1:1s, retrospectives and planning sessions with QA and Dev teams.
• Maintain test case databases and ensure high quality defect reporting.
• Collaborate with QA Manager to drive process improvements and efficiency.
• Travel to Sofia, Bulgaria for face time with remote team as needed.
• Champion quality culture and lead by example within a fast-paced agile environment.

Skills

Remote leadership

QA mentoring

KPI development

Stakeholder comms

Quality assurance

Test planning

Agile experience

Tools

Jira

TestRail

Perforce

UE5

Job description

Join Creative Assembly and craft deep and detailed games that last, entertaining millions of players across the globe for decades. The Role As the Sr QA Co-Ordinator, you will be responsible for Leading, managing and co-ordinating 2 small Remote teams the Development QA Team who’s primary purpose is assist the Developers of the project in their pursuit of Quality and the Functional QA Team, who’s primary role is to run test plans and playthroughs. With a focus on leadership, you will be focused on developing both wings of the remote team, managing performance, assisting innovating in their assigned areas and managing priorities and work load, and assisting the QA manager and the internal team. We are looking for someone who is experienced in leading staff, ideally with experience in development QA / quality assistance / push left QA approach. They must have good initiative, and autonomy, and have a passion for people management and development. Staff development and mentoring through 1 to 1s, resolving issues both personal and professional will play a big part of the role. Must be experienced in leading remote teams.

What you’ll be doing

Reporting to the QA manager, your role as a Sr QA Co-ordinator will predominately hands off the game role, where the focus will be on directly leadership, mentoring the team members to strive for success, keeping them motivated and assisting them develop there on skills and the processes that they use in there assigned area to best assist the development team. the role will also involve quality control and assessment of the team, monitoring and helping the QA Manager create useful KPI’s and other metrics to objectively assess the team, autonomously challenging falling performance and weak areas.

On a day-to-day basis, you will:

• Assisting the QA manager in creating, maintaining and recording team KPI’s
• Monitoring the issue database and Teams communication channels for quality in defects reports and proactively assisting the team in achieving the highest quality of communication possible
• Be responsible for ensuring that your team are supporting their assigned teams needs
• Holding regular weekly 121s with the Dev QA team
• Assist the QA Manager in holding team meetings, retrospectives and planning sessions
• Oversee the creation and maintenance of the projects test case database
• Assist in quality control of defect report and the bug database as a whole
• Generally support the cohesion of the external teams with each other and the internal QA team
• Creating reporting on the Teams progress and performance for the QA Manager
• Acquire in depth knowledge of core features for the title, from development, to releas and all the way though to post-launch support.
• Be a role model for staff, mentoring and supporting them in their own career goals.
• Assist the Sr Dev QA and QA Manager managing cover and absence on the team
• Attending Development team retrospectives and planning sessions to gain context and understanding of the wider team
• Assisting the dissemination of information from the internal in-office and ensuring the remote Dev QA team are kept in the loop of the most recent changes and decisions made by the internal team
• Holding performance reviews with the external QA manager
• This role will involve making trips to Sofia, Bulgaria to spend face time with the remote team
• Running Dev QA team retrospectives and planning sessions
• Assisting the QA Manager in constantly innovating, iterating and tailoring Dev QA processes to achieve maximum efficiency on the team
• Attending daily stand ups with internal QA team to align on the day to day work
• Testing the game holistically as an end user
• Assisting the QA>Dev Feedback loop and process
• To work alongside the External QA Leadership to Quality control the Functional QA Team, managing coverage, as well as consistency of performance and general development of the functional QA teams capabilities

What we are looking for

• Essential Experience in Directly manging and mentoring remote teams
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to relay important information in the most suited format.
• Previous experience in a leadership role within the game industry particularly QA
• Knowledge on “Quality assistance, push left, development QA”
• Knowledge on game production practices and methodologies
• Experience in managing interpersonal issues on a team
• Experience in creating team KPI’s and other team quality measuring and control frameworks
• Experience in innovating process within the game industry
• Proficient time management and organisational skills, able to handle multiple tasks and meet set deadlines and priorities.
• Ability to follow set process and implement this among the team.
• Ability to self-manage and generate tasks to drive the process and testing of an area.
• A desire to lead, mentor and develop staff in a fast-paced agile working environment.
• Wide ranging experience playing a variety of PC and Console video games, with preference Survival horror
• A passion for video games and a desire to be part of the creative process involved in developing video games.

Desirable Previous leadership experience working in Games or other related fields is highly desirable. Previous experience working on a AAA title in a development studio. Knowledge of the development process and the various disciplines involved. Knowledge of writing technical documentation, as well as understanding technical documentation. Experience using Jira, TestRail and Perforce, Ue5 engine. Experience with reporting and reporting software. The ability to speak Bulgarian and English fluently

ABOUT CREATIVE ASSEMBLY

We care deeply about the experiences we create and put our players at the heart of our decisions. We are all game makers; no matter our role we are empowered to make significant contributions to our games, supported by skills development and growth opportunities. Most roles at Creative Assembly are hybrid with 3 days a week in the studio. CA has the right to change requirements based on the needs of the business. We offer many benefits to support you and your family including:

• Work from Anywhere for a temporary period each year (restrictions apply such as VISAs)
• Enhanced holiday allowance, maternity and paternity breaks, flexibility with our core hours, and no-notice holidays
• Performance-based discretionary bonus scheme
• Bespoke relocation package for you and your dependents
• Private medical and dental insurance, life insurance and free health care screening
• Additional benefits ranging from free games and work parties to discounts on technology
• Wellbeing support and virtual confidential counselling

We are an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief. Our studio sites have disabled access.

WORKING THE SEGA WAY

We believe that making the best games relies on having the best people, so we make sure that we look after ours… For our gaming buffs, you can get involved in our lunchtime get gaming sessions in our games lounge and Club SEGA, regular gaming tournaments and free SEGA games on Steam. If you're more of a foodie, you can take advantage of fresh fruit and cereal every single day. Fitness fanatics will love our discounted gym membership, ride to work scheme, workout area and bootcamps in the business park. You can find your zen with weekly yoga classes as well as in-house massage therapy. You'll have access to a comprehensive benefits package that includes life assurance, income protection, private healthcare & dental insurance schemes and an enhanced contributory pension scheme. We offer competitive salaries and a fantastic bonus scheme so that you can stay motivated and focused on making SEGA the best it can be. We hold regular lunch & learn sessions, company updates at incredible venues in Central London and Christmas parties that you’ll want to brag to your mates about! What’s not to love? We pride ourselves on having flexible working hours to ensure that you have a life outside of the office. We want people of all backgrounds to see themselves represented and included in our work, so we actively seek to diversify our team and bring more voices to the table. All applicants are welcome! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check out our Careers Website to find out why we are a workplace you’ll never want to leave!