QA Practice Lead

NTT DATA Europe & Latam; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 146,000; Full time

Job summary

NTT DATA Europe & Latam is seeking a QA Practice Lead to drive the establishment and institutionalization of a transversal Quality Assurance Practice for a large-scale technology transformation in a global financial-services setting. The role focuses on governance, standardization, and executive visibility into quality risks across the IT portfolio.

Responsibilities include leading the QA framework, operating model, governance routines, and coordinating four Specialist Leads across IT Roadmap

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading or operating QA Practices, CoEs, or enterprise QA governance.
• Experience supporting SaaS implementations.
• Experience in regulated financial institutions or similar environments.
• Strong knowledge of test strategy, planning, defect management, metrics, and release-readiness.
• Practical knowledge of integration and API testing.
• Knowledge of data-migration validation, data quality, and reconciliation.
• Knowledge of security, compliance, risk, IAM, and control testing.
• Knowledge of test automation and regression automation.
• Ability to coordinate across business, IT, vendors, SI and control functions.
• Professional working proficiency in English; available to work ET.

Responsibilities

• Lead QA Framework review and operationalize the QA Manual.
• Define and operate transversal QA Practice operating model.
• Establish QA governance routines, reviews, Quality Gates, escalation.
• Coordinate four Specialist Leads across IT Roadmap initiatives.
• Define and improve QA standards, templates, metrics, dashboards, and evidence.
• Maintain a portfolio-level QA Roadmap aligned with IT Roadmap.
• Monitor quality risks, defect trends, testing progress, dependencies, and go-live readiness.
• Coordinate with project teams, EA, Cybersecurity, Data, Operations, SaaS vendors, and systems integrators.
• Lead executive reporting and readiness recommendations.
• Drive knowledge transfer and institution the QA Practice long-term.

Skills

QA governance

Test strategy

Defect management

API testing

Data validation

Security testing

Test automation

Release readiness

Stakeholder coordination

English proficiency

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/Engineering or related field

Tools

QA/test management tools

CI/CD tooling

API testing tools

Job description

Location: Hybrid (2-3 day/week) in Washington, DC.

Contract Length: 1 year, with potential extension

Salary Range: $120,000 - $146,000 per year. Final compensation will be determined based on relevant experience and overall fit for the position.

NTT DATA is seeking a driven QA Practice Lead to lead the operationalization and institutionalization of a transversal Quality Assurance Practice supporting a large-scale technology transformation program within a global financial-services organization. This senior leadership role will focus on strengthening QA governance, standardizing quality processes, coordinating specialist leads, improving visibility into quality risks, and providing documented release-readiness recommendations across the IT portfolio.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the review, adjustment, and operationalization of the existing QA Framework and Operational Manual.
• Define and operate the transversal QA Practice operating model.
• Establish and facilitate QA governance routines, quality reviews, Quality Gates, and escalation mechanisms.
• Coordinate four Specialist Leads and their transversal work across IT Roadmap initiatives.
• Define and continuously improve QA standards, templates, metrics, dashboards, and evidence requirements.
• Maintain a portfolio-level QA Roadmap aligned with the broader IT Roadmap.
• Monitor quality risks, defect trends, testing progress, dependencies, and release or go-live readiness.
• Coordinate with project teams, Enterprise Architecture, Cybersecurity, Data, Operations, SaaS vendors, and system integrators.
• Lead executive reporting and prepare documented readiness recommendations.
• Drive knowledge transfer and support the long-term institutionalization of the QA Practice.

Required Experience:

• 5+ years of experience establishing, leading, or operating QA Practices, QA Centers of Excellence (CoEs), or enterprise-wide QA governance functions within complex enterprise environments.
• Experience supporting SaaS implementations.
• Experience working within regulated financial institutions or comparable controlled environments.
• Strong knowledge of test strategy, test planning, defect management, quality assurance methodologies, testing metrics, reporting, and release-readiness processes.
• Practical knowledge of integration and API testing.
• Knowledge of data-migration validation, data quality, and reconciliation.
• Knowledge of security, compliance, risk, IAM, and control testing.
• Knowledge of test automation and regression automation.
• Ability to coordinate effectively across business, IT, vendors, system integrators, and control functions.
• Ability to produce practical, reusable, and auditable QA deliverables.
• Professional working proficiency in English.
• Availability to work in alignment with U.S. Eastern Time.

Nice-to-Have:

• Spanish and/or Portuguese language skills.
• Experience working in an international financial-services environment.
• Experience creating or improving enterprise-level QA metrics, dashboards, and reporting standards.
• Experience coordinating specialists across API and integration testing, data validation, security and risk, and automation.
• Relevant certifications in Quality Assurance, software testing, QA governance, Agile, project management, IT service management, security, or risk.

Tools & Technologies:

• QA and test management platforms, defect-management tools, and enterprise reporting dashboards.
• API and integration-testing tools, test-automation frameworks, and CI/CD environments.
• Data-quality, reconciliation, security, risk, IAM, and control-testing practices.

Education & Certifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Relevant certifications in Quality Assurance, software testing, QA governance, Agile, project management, IT service management, security, or risk are preferred.

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA is a Top 5 global IT services provider with more than 190,000 professionals across 50+ countries. We combine industry expertise with capabilities in consulting, technology, AI, cloud, applications, infrastructure, and connectivity to help organizations innovate, optimize, and transform. Through responsible innovation, we deliver meaningful business outcomes, accelerate client success, and create a positive impact on society.

Equal Opportunity Employer

NTT DATA is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action-Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. NTT DATA is an Equal Opportunity Employer Male/Female/Disabled/Veteran and a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.