QA Manager

Default Brand; Oxford (MS); On-site; USD 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Default Brand is seeking a QA Manager to lead a team of QA analysts and automation specialists across the SDLC. You will coordinate manual and automated testing, validate releases, and ensure quality aligns with business needs and customer expectations.

The role collaborates with Product Owners, Developers, DevOps, and Support to translate priorities into test plans, allocate work, and communicate risks. Hands‑on testing support may be required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated progression in software quality assurance and team leadership.
• Experience coordinating manual and automated testing across web apps, APIs, and databases.
• Strong understanding of SDLC, Agile/Kanban, risk-based testing, and release validation.
• Experience using Azure DevOps, Aha, or comparable tools to manage test plans and defects.

Responsibilities

• Lead QA analysts, automation analysts, and testing staff; assign work and remove blockers.
• Oversee test plans, cases, data, and coverage for functional, regression, and API testing.
• Coordinate testing with stakeholders and ensure traceability to requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Guide automation of frontend and backend tests and integration with CI/CD pipelines.
• Document defects with evidence, severity, business impact, and verification results.

Skills

QA leadership

Automation testing

SQL data validation

CI/CD collaboration

Test planning

Selenium/Playwright/Cypress

Azure DevOps

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IS/SE

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

Azure DevOps

Aha

SQL tooling

Selenium

Playwright

Cypress

Job description

The Quality Assurance (QA) Manager leads the day-to-day work of QA analysts, QA automation analysts, and application testing personnel responsible for software quality across the software development life cycle (SDLC). This role coordinates manual and automated testing, application release validation, and user acceptance and beta testing to ensure software meets business requirements, quality standards, and customer expectations. Working closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Development, DevOps, Technical Support, and business users, the manager translates delivery priorities into practical test plans, assigns work, removes obstacles, and communicates testing results and release risks. This is a hands‑on supervisory role that combines team leadership with technical guidance and direct testing support when needed.

Principal Accountabilities and Responsibilities

• Team supervision and development: Assign and prioritize work across manual testing, automation, and application release testing; balance capacity against delivery commitments; establish clear expectations; and provide onboarding, coaching, training, and development opportunities.
• Test planning and coverage: Oversee test plans, scenarios, cases, and test data covering functional, regression, integration, smoke, user acceptance, UI, and API testing. Use business impact and technical risk to focus testing effort and maintain traceability to requirements and acceptance criteria.
• Delivery coordination: Represent QA in backlog refinement, sprint planning, standups, reviews, and Kanban activities. Identify testing dependencies early, estimate effort with the team, and elevate resource or schedule constraints before they affect releases.
• Automation oversight: Guide the development and maintenance of reliable frontend and backend automated tests for C#/.NET applications. Partner with Development and DevOps to integrate tests into CI/CD pipelines, address unreliable tests, and prioritize automation that improves meaningful coverage and reduces repetitive work.
• Defect management: Establish consistent practices for documenting reproducible defects, including supporting evidence, severity, business impact, and verification results. Coordinate defect triage with Product and Development, track resolution, and ensure fixes are retested.
• Release readiness: Define test entry and exit criteria with stakeholders; coordinate pre‑release smoke and regression testing; and provide evidence‑based readiness recommendations that clearly identify unresolved defects, coverage gaps, and residual risks. Escalate release‑blocking concerns to the appropriate decision‑makers.
• Business‑user and beta testing: Coordinate testers supporting the Data Entry Application and other business applications. Work with Technical Support, Concierge Services, Development, and business users to explain changes, target important workflows, and consolidate actionable feedback.
• Environments and post‑release validation: Coordinate test environment and test data needs across development, QA, integration, and user acceptance environments. Support deployment validation, production issue reproduction, and post‑release testing in accordance with established access and change procedures.
• Technical guidance: Review test cases, automation changes, and results for completeness and maintainability. Help the team troubleshoot application and data issues using SQL, API testing tools, logs, and other appropriate diagnostic resources.
• Quality reporting: Maintain clear reporting on test progress, coverage, defect trends, automation reliability, and post‑release issues. Communicate status and risks to technical and non‑technical stakeholders and turn recurring findings into prioritized improvement actions.
• Continuous improvement: Partner with Development and Product to investigate root causes, prevent recurring defects, improve testability, and refine QA standards, documentation, frameworks, and release testing procedures.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated progression in software quality assurance, including ownership of testing for software releases and experience leading, mentoring, or supervising QA personnel.
• Experience coordinating manual and automated testing across web applications, backend services, APIs, and relational databases.
• Strong understanding of the SDLC, Agile and Kanban practices, risk‑based testing, defect management, and release validation.
• Experience using Azure DevOps, Aha, or comparable tools to manage test plans, test cases, defects, work assignments, and testing status.
• Practical knowledge of SQL for data validation and troubleshooting, REST API testing, and testing applications built on C#/.NET.
• Working knowledge of UI automation tools such as Selenium, Playwright, or Cypress; automated test frameworks; version control; and CI/CD integration sufficient to guide technical testing decisions.
• Ability to organize competing priorities, allocate testing resources, resolve dependencies, and communicate delivery risks clearly.
• Strong analytical, problem‑solving, documentation, and communication skills, with the ability to coach colleagues and collaborate with technical and business stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Previous direct supervisory responsibility for a QA team spanning manual testing, automation, and business‑user testing.
• Hands‑on experience building or maintaining automated tests, including test assertions, data validation, and setup and teardown logic.
• Experience with Azure DevOps Test Plans and pipelines.
• Experience testing enterprise, multi‑user transaction‑processing, or financial software applications.
• Experience coordinating beta testing, user acceptance testing, and releases for operational applications such as the Data Entry Application.
• Experience improving automation maintainability, test reporting, and defect prevention practices.
• ISTQB or another relevant software testing certification.

Success Factors

• Testing priorities, ownership, and release expectations are clear across the team and its stakeholders.
• Release readiness decisions are supported by documented test results and transparent communication of remaining risks.
• Manual and automated coverage addresses critical business workflows, with reliable automation supporting repeatable delivery.
• Defect trends and post‑release findings lead to measurable process improvements rather than recurring issues.
• Team members receive consistent guidance and opportunities to expand technical skills and application knowledge.
• QA, Development, Product, Support, and business users coordinate effectively to deliver dependable software.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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