QA Lead

The Freeman Company (TFC) Brands; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance

Tuition Reimbursement

Paid Parental Leave

Life, Accident and Disability

Retirement with Company Match

Paid Time Off

Job summary

The Freeman Company is seeking a QA Lead to oversee the Application QA group, driving day-to-day testing, regression, and change validation for our applications. This senior role will champion AI-assisted test creation, lead specialized testing, and build out load/performance testing capabilities, reporting to the QA Manager.

Based in a hybrid schedule with in-office/show-site days, the ideal candidate will be located in Dallas, TX or Orlando, FL, and will collaborate across Technology Services

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software QA/testing across multiple applications or teams.
• Hands-on test automation development; JavaScript and Playwright preferred.
• Experience designing a test strategy and identifying high-risk areas.
• Experience load/performance testing (e.g., JMeter).
• Experience using AI/LLM tools to generate QA deliverables.
• Strong cross-team communication and coordination.

Responsibilities

• Serve as escalation point for Application QA team and provide backfill coverage when needed.
• Lead priority and specialized testing initiatives beyond traditional QA scope.
• Partner with QA team to ensure testing standards and processes are followed.
• Own ad hoc requests and coordinate resources or perform the work.
• Evaluate development solutions to build a test strategy and prioritize coverage.
• Document how existing functionality works and coordinate end-to-end testing across teams.
• Design and execute load and performance test plans (e.g., with JMeter).
• Leverage AI tools to generate test cases and scripts to improve efficiency.
• Develop and maintain test automation using JavaScript and Playwright; scale automation practice.
• Share knowledge across teams to reduce single points of failure risk.
• Provide regular status updates and elevate risks to QA Manager.

Skills

Test automation

Leadership

Cross-functional collaboration

AI/LLM tooling

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Information Systems

Tools

Playwright

JMeter

JavaScript

AI/LLM tools

Job description

About Us

The Freeman Company is a global leader in events, on a mission to redefine live for a new era. With a data-driven approach and the industry’s largest network of experts, The Freeman Company's insights shape exhibitions, exhibits, and events that drive audiences to action. The integrated full-service solutions leverage a 99-year legacy in event management as well as new technologies to deliver moments that matter.

The Freeman Company is a global leader in events, on a mission to redefine live for a new era. With a data-driven approach and the industry’s largest network of experts, The Freeman Company's insights shape exhibitions, exhibits, and events that drive audiences to action. The integrated full-service solutions leverage a 99-year legacy in event management as well as new technologies to deliver moments that matter.

Summary

The QA Lead is a senior, cross-functional quality assurance role overseeing the Application QA group — who handle day-to-day testing, regression, and change validation for their application. This role ensures Application QA consistently follows established process and standards and serves as an escalation point. The QA Lead's other primary responsibility is leading priority and specialized testing — work that falls outside traditional application QA scope or supports new initiatives — either executing it personally or coordinating the right resources depending on scope. The role also builds out the team's load/performance testing capability and champions the use of AI to accelerate test creation and other QA activities. The QA Lead reports directly to the QA Manager.

This position will support our Technology Services team. It is eligible to work a hybrid schedule, generally requiring work in-office and/or show‑site 2‑3 days per week. The ideal candidate will be based out of any of the following locations:

• Dallas, TX
• Orlando, FL

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

• Serve as the escalation point for the Application QA team — answering process questions, resolving ambiguity, and providing backfill coverage when team members are unavailable.
• Lead priority and specialized testing initiatives that fall outside traditional application QA scope — whether within an existing application or as part of a new initiative — either executing the work personally or coordinating the right resources depending on scope.
• Partner with QA team members to ensure testing standards, processes, and best practices are consistently understood and followed across all teams.
• Own one-off and ad hoc requests as they arise — either leading the effort by coordinating the right people, or performing the work directly, depending on scope and urgency.
• Evaluate proposed development solutions and technical designs to build a test strategy and approach, identifying high‑risk areas and prioritizing test coverage accordingly.
• Work across multiple teams to extract and document how existing functionality works, break complex features into testable components, and coordinate cross‑team execution and documentation of end‑to‑end testing results.
• Design, build, and execute load and performance testing plans to validate system scalability, reliability, and readiness for key events or releases (e.g., using tools such as JMeter).
• Utilize AI tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude) to generate test cases, performance test scripts, and other QA artifacts, improving team efficiency and coverage.
• Develop and maintain test automation using JavaScript, Playwright and .NET‑based frameworks; contribute to and help scale the team's overall automation practice.
• Hold and participate in regular knowledge‑transfer sessions across teams to build shared understanding of integrated applications and reduce single‑point‑of‑failure risk.
• Provide regular status updates and proactively elevate risks, blockers, or process gaps to the QA Manager.

Education & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in software quality assurance / testing, including experience working across multiple applications or teams simultaneously.
• Hands‑on test automation development experience; JavaScript and Playwright experience preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to design a test strategy and identify high‑risk areas from a solution design or set of requirements.
• Experience designing and executing load/performance testing (e.g., with JMeter or a comparable tool).
• Experience using AI/LLM tools to generate or accelerate test cases, scripts, or other QA deliverables.
• Strong cross‑team communication and coordination skills; comfortable acting as a point of contact across multiple stakeholder groups with competing priorities.
• Self‑starter who is comfortable with ambiguity, context‑switching across applications, and taking ownership of problems without waiting to be assigned.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and direct the work of team members on priority and specialized testing initiatives — setting priorities and ensuring the team completes tasks on time.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field preferred; equivalent practical experience will also be considered.
• Experience testing or supporting enterprise platforms such as Salesforce, SAP, or custom‑built enterprise applications.
• Experience building or scaling integration test suites across upstream/downstream systems.
• Prior experience mentoring or informally leading other QA engineers.

Travel Requirements

Travel up to 25%

What We Offer

The Freeman Company provides benefits that aim to empower our people and their families to thrive mentally, physically, and financially. These are a handful of the types of programs and benefits our full‑time people may be eligible for. There may be some variances in specific benefits across regions.

• Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid Parental Leave
• Life, Accident and Disability
• Retirement with Company Match
• Paid Time Off

Diversity Commitment

At The Freeman Company, our commitment to diversity and inclusion is helping us to create not only a great place to work, but also an environment where our employees, our customers and our communities around the world can reach their goals and connect with each other. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status and other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.