Quality Engineering Lead @ ECP

The Quality Engineering Lead is responsible for leading the transformation to a modern quality model, embedding quality across the software lifecycle through shift-left testing, automation, and enforceable quality standards. This role balances execution and strategy while establishing best practices, standards, and governance to support long-term growth to establish a federated quality model across delivery teams.

The ideal candidate is self-driven, pragmatic, detail-oriented, and capable of building lightweight but effective QA processes in a collaborative environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. Quality Transformation & Enablement

• Lead transition to quality engineering practices

• Mentor developers and BAs on writing testable requirements & unit/integration test expectations

• Drive adoption of developer-owned testing (unit, integration, contract testing)

• Promote testability in system design and architecture

• Embed quality ownership within delivery teams

• Establish “definition of done” inclusive of quality gates

• Coach teams on risk-based and lean testing approaches

2. Test Strategy & Oversight

• Design and implement a scalable QA framework tailored to organizational needs

• Define QA standards, processes, templates, and governance practices

• Develop testing strategies across unit, integration, system, regression, and UAT support

• Define testing strategies across: integrated systems (APIs, middleware, SaaS platforms), data pipelines and transformations and downstream reporting impacts

• Establish data validation frameworks (reconciliation, completeness, accuracy)

• Ensure end-to-end test coverage across system boundaries

• Define release readiness criteria and quality gates

• Establish entry/exit criteria for each testing phase

• Introduce testability standards for requirements

• Apply lean testing principles: eliminate redundant testing; prioritize high-risk areas; and optimize test coverage vs effort

• Continuously evaluate ROI of testing activities

• Introduce best practices in risk-based testing and test coverage

3. Test Planning & Execution

• Ensure appropriate test design and coverage aligned to risk and business criticality

• Oversee defect lifecycle and quality signal integrity

• Identify, document, and track defects through resolution

• Define and enforce automated-first testing strategy

• Ensure appropriate coverage at unit, API, and integration layers

• Minimize manual regression through automation and risk-based testing

4. Test Automation

• Establish and expand automated test coverage

• Select and implement appropriate automation tools and frameworks

• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines where applicable

• Define automation standards and maintain test suites

• Drive toward automation-first testing model

• Ensure critical paths are fully automated

• Continuously reduce manual regression footprint

5. Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Escalate quality risks proactively to leadership

• Communicate testing progress, risks, and quality metrics to stakeholders

• Own and drive UAT planning and execution

• Hold teams accountable for meeting quality standards

• Challenge incomplete or untestable requirements

• Enforce adherence to QA and release standards

• Act as final quality authority for release readiness, including the ability to block releases that do not meet defined criteria

6. Quality Governance & Standards

• Owns and enforces enterprise quality standards

• Establishes mandatory quality gates for all releases

• Establishes audit/compliance mechanisms

• Conducts periodic quality audits across teams

• Define controls for validating data integrity across environments (test vs production)

• Owns release quality sign-off

7. Continuous Improvement

• Introduce metrics and KPIs to measure quality and testing effectiveness

• Conduct root cause analysis on defects and recommend improvements

• Promote a quality-first mindset across teams

• Keep QA processes lightweight while maintaining discipline and rigor

Qualifications Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

• 5+ years of experience in software QA

• Experience building or maturing QA processes

Skills & Competencies

• Strong understanding of modern quality engineering practices (automation, CI/CD, shift-left)

• Experience defining quality strategy in complex system environments

• Experience with enterprise systems (ERP, SaaS platforms, integrations, and data platforms)

• Experience with automated testing frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Selenium, etc.)

• Experience with API and integration testing

• Understanding of SDLC and Agile methodologies

• Strong analytical and investigative skills

• Excellent communication and stakeholder coordination skills

• Highly independent and self-motivated

Preferred

• Experience implementing QA in growing or transforming organizations

• Familiarity with CI/CD tools

• 2+ years in a lead or senior QA role

• ISTQB or equivalent certification

Success Factors

• Increases release confidence and predictability

• Improves system reliability and uptime

• Reduces production defects and incident severity

• Decreases cycle time for testing and release validation

• Improves early defect detection (shift-left effectiveness)

• Establishes measurable quality KPIs tied to business outcomes, including:

• Defect leakage rate

• Escaped defects (production)

• Test coverage by layer (unit/API/UI)

• Release readiness score

• Mean time to detect defects

• % automation coverage of critical workflows

• Improves defect detection early in the lifecycle

• Ensures testing effort is aligned to business and technical risk

Benefits of Employment

ECPI University provides a comprehensive benefits program designed to help our faculty and staff stay healthy, feel supported, and maintain a work/life balance. To learn more about benefits at ECPI University, click HERE.

Committed to excellence and innovation, ECPI University is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.