QA Manager

Alkira, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Alkira, Inc. is seeking a QA Manager to lead the QA & Automation team, driving automation, test coverage, and release quality for a scalable networking platform. You will mentor engineers, shape QA strategy, and collaborate with Engineering and Product to ensure reliable releases.

This hands-on technical leadership role requires Python automation expertise, Terraform/CI experience, and strong networking knowledge across AWS/Azure/GCP. Hybrid onsite work in San Jose, CA.

Qualifications

• Strong Python programming for test automation and framework development.
• Hands-on experience with Terraform and CI systems (Jenkins or equivalent).
• Working knowledge of public cloud networking constructs (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Networking fundamentals: BGP, IPsec/VPN, routing, firewall/NAT behavior.
• Experience designing test plans for complex distributed systems, including negative and scale testing.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop the QA & Automation team, providing technical direction, mentorship, prioritization, and career development.
• Own the overall QA strategy for Alkira's networking platform, including functional, integration, regression, negative, performance, and scale testing.
• Design and automate test coverage for new features and releases across all supported clouds.
• Maintain and extend our automated test framework and its CI infrastructure; keep regression suites healthy and fast.
• Build and run scaling/performance test campaigns that validate platform limits ahead of customer growth.
• Develop Terraform-based deployment automation used for large customer onboardings.
• Gate releases: triage regression failures, drive bugs to resolution with development teams, and sign off on release quality.
• Coordinate execution with distributed team members, and participate in an on-call rotation supporting release validation and test-infrastructure availability.

Skills

Python

Terraform

CI pipelines

Cloud networking

BGP

Bug triage

Distributed systems

Tools

Jenkins

Terraform

Job description

About The Team

The QA & Automation team is the quality gate for every product release. It owns our in-house automated test framework - a Python, Terraform, and Jenkins-based system that runs large-scale regression suites continuously across all major public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI). Beyond release validation, the team builds scaling and performance tests that prove the platform keeps up with customer and traffic growth, and develops Terraform-driven deployment automation that makes large customer onboardings fast and repeatable. The team works across multiple geographies, so you'll collaborate with engineers in different time zones.

We are looking for a QA Manager to lead our QA & Automation team and help ensure the quality, scalability, and reliability of every product release.

The Role

As QA Manager, you will lead the team responsible for this critical quality infrastructure. You will set the QA strategy, drive automation and test coverage, establish quality standards, and partner closely with Engineering and Product to ensure releases meet a high bar for reliability.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You should be comfortable diving into Python automation, CI pipelines, cloud environments, networking issues, and test failures while also mentoring engineers and managing priorities across a distributed team.

What you'll do

• Lead and develop the QA & Automation team, providing technical direction, mentorship, prioritization, and career development.
• Own the overall QA strategy for Alkira's networking platform, including functional, integration, regression, negative, performance, and scale testing.
• Design and automate test coverage for new features and releases across all supported clouds.
• Maintain and extend our automated test framework and its CI infrastructure; keep regression suites healthy and fast.
• Build and run scaling/performance test campaigns that validate platform limits ahead of customer growth.
• Develop Terraform-based deployment automation used for large customer onboardings.
• Gate releases: triage regression failures, drive bugs to resolution with development teams, and sign off on release quality.
• Coordinate execution with distributed team members, and participate in an on-call rotation supporting release validation and test-infrastructure availability.

What we’re looking for

• Strong Python programming for test automation and framework development — this is an automation-first team, not manual QA.
• Hands-on experience with Terraform and CI systems (Jenkins or equivalent).
• Working knowledge of public cloud networking constructs (VPC/VNet, routing, peering) in at least one of AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Networking fundamentals: BGP, IPsec/VPN, routing, firewall/NAT behavior — enough to design meaningful network test scenarios and debug failures.
• Systematic debugging and triage skills: isolating product bugs from test-infrastructure issues, and writing crisp, actionable bug reports.
• Experience designing test plans for complex distributed systems, including negative and scale testing.

Nice to have

• Performance/scale testing experience (traffic generation, load tooling).
• Experience testing networking or security products.
• Exposure to building or operating test labs or ephemeral cloud test environments.

On-call

This role includes a mandatory on-call rotation covering release-validation windows and the availability of the test and automation infrastructure the release pipeline depends on.

Location and Sponsorship

We're looking for a candidate who is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area and already authorized to work in the U.S. Unfortunately, we're not able to offer visa sponsorship for this role at this time, as well as relocation bonus. This position is a hybrid role and requires onsite collaboration with the team at San Jose, CA office.

About Alkira

Alkira, a Lumen company, is building the future of enterprise networking: one programmable platform to connect, secure, and operate every cloud, site, partner, data center, and AI workload.

Founded by Amir and Atif Khan, the creators of Viptela and pioneers of the SD-WAN market, Alkira was built to radically simplify how enterprises deploy and manage network infrastructure. Today, as part of Lumen, we are bringing that cloud-native operating model to a global network foundation trusted by the world’s largest enterprises.

Our platform helps customers move faster without managing hardware, stitching together providers, or operating fragmented cloud networks. Teams can build and scale connectivity on demand, apply consistent security and segmentation, and gain visibility across distributed environments from one place.

At Alkira, you'll help shape the next chapter of networking: cloud-like consumption, private-network performance, and total control across the enterprise. We move fast, solve hard problems, and build technology that changes how global businesses connect.

Join us and help build the future of networking.

Compensation

The salary range for this position is $150,000 - $200,000 USD plus benefits. Your actual base salary and level will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge, skills, experience, education and location.

Life at Alkira, a Lumen Connect Solution

Life at Alkira is human and connected, even in a fast moving, AI-focused organization. We set clear expectations and trust people to meet them. With real support and shared accountability, teams collaborate better, move faster, and deliver meaningful outcomes.

Our Lumen 8 behaviors guide how we interact, make decisions, and work together, shaping a culture built to perform and win. To learn more about Life at Alkira, a Lumen Connect Solution and how we live into the Lumen 8, please visit:

https://jobs.lumen.com/global/en/life-at-lumen

Background Screening

If you are selected for a position, there will be a background screen, which may include checks for criminal records and/or motor vehicle reports and/or drug screening, depending on the position requirements. For more information on these checks, please refer to the Post Offer section of our FAQ page. Job-related concerns identified during the background screening may disqualify you from the new position or your current role.