Senior QA Lead – Federal Programs & Automation

Steampunk, Inc.; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Steampunk, Inc. is seeking a Quality Assurance Lead in McLean, VA to own the QA function for a multi-product federal program and lead a team of testers. You will set testing standards, provide program-level risk visibility, and grow the QA staff while stepping in to test alongside the team when needed.

You will mentor, implement test strategies, drive automation plans, and ensure UAT, accessibility, and data management plans align with delivery timelines and quality gates.

Qualifications

• Must be able to obtain a government clearance.
• 4+ years in software quality assurance.
• Proven track record of managing people, setting priorities, giving direct feedback, and growing testers.
• Experience defining test strategy, plans, and standards across multiple products or projects.
• Ability to assess risk and release readiness and present it clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong manual testing and test design skills with requirements traceability and defect management in Jira or similar tools.
• Hands-on experience with test automation for web applications and APIs to guide strategy and review the team’s work.
• Knowledge of UAT planning, test data management, and Section 508 accessibility testing.
• Experience delivering in Agile environments (Scrum, SAFe, or similar).
• Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, Git, and a test management tool such as TestRail or Zephyr.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Manage and mentor a team of manual and automation testers; allocate work against capacity and provide timely feedback.
• Define and maintain testing standards, QA processes, and reusable templates for product teams.
• Lead program- and project-level test planning and review various test plans (UAT, accessibility, test data, automated testing).
• Own QA deliverables, requirements traceability, defect management, and defect metrics.
• Build and maintain QA KPIs and report risk and release readiness to leadership and customers.
• Guide the strategy for increasing automated testing use and grow test suites.
• Oversee test environments and test data setup to ensure timely testing with reliable data.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies and help write clear, testable acceptance criteria.

Skills

Leadership

Risk assessment

Manual testing

Test design

Communication

Agile/SAFe experience

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Git

TestRail

Zephyr

Selenium

Postman

REST Assured

Provar

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Job description

Steampunk, Inc. is seeking a Quality Assurance Lead in McLean, VA to own the QA function for a multi-product federal program and lead a team of testers. You will set testing standards, provide program-level risk visibility, and grow the QA staff while stepping in to test alongside the team when needed.

You will mentor, implement test strategies, drive automation plans, and ensure UAT, accessibility, and data management plans align with delivery timelines and quality gates.