Senior QA Leader: AI-Driven Testing & Growth

Merkle; Lisboa; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 vacation days

Mental Health support and wellness

Health insurance

Hybrid working

Dentsu Academy access

Team events

Job summary

Merkle, a dentsu company, seeks a Senior Manager, QA, to lead a QA team, shaping strategy, standards and delivery excellence. You will drive client engagements, oversee quality, and grow the capability through AI-enabled testing and modern tools.

You will manage workforce planning, hiring, onboarding and development, while collaborating with clients and internal teams to deliver high-impact outcomes from Lisbon and beyond.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in QA and software testing, including leadership of delivery teams and client-facing engagements.
• Proven record of building, developing and retaining high-performing teams.
• Strong knowledge of modern QA practices, test automation and quality engineering tools.
• Hands-on understanding of how AI can be applied to QA, such as AI-assisted test generation, automation and defect analysis, and experience leading teams to adopt it responsibly.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management and consulting skills.
• Commercial awareness, with experience supporting proposals, pitches or pre-sales.
• ISTQB certification is an advantage.
• Work visa sponsorship is not available. For local documentation (NIF, NISS), please consult Portuguese authorities.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve QA standards, methodologies and best practices.
• Oversee delivery quality across engagements: identify risks early and provide options.
• Lead scalable, cost-effective QA solutions and project plans for client challenges.
• Keep documentation current in Confluence and SharePoint.
• Represent the domain through events, publications and communities of practice.
• Own the full employee lifecycle for your team: planning, hiring, onboarding and development.
• Coach and mentor team members to support growth and high performance.
• Drive engagement and retention; manage wellbeing and workload signals.
• Lead AI-related QA initiatives, including AI-assisted test design and automation.

Skills

QA leadership

Client-facing engagements

Communication

Commercial awareness

AI in QA

Stakeholder management

Education

ISTQB certification (advantage)

Tools

Claude

Copilot

Test automation tools

Job description

Merkle, a dentsu company, seeks a Senior Manager, QA, to lead a QA team, shaping strategy, standards and delivery excellence. You will drive client engagements, oversee quality, and grow the capability through AI-enabled testing and modern tools.

You will manage workforce planning, hiring, onboarding and development, while collaborating with clients and internal teams to deliver high-impact outcomes from Lisbon and beyond.