Senior Testing Consultant

Tasks:

• Contractor s Key Person shall:
• Review and analyze project requirements, user stories, process flows, and acceptance criteria for clarity, completeness, and testability.
• Maintain and update the requirements traceability matrix (RTM).
• Create, update, and maintain comprehensive test cases, test scenarios, and test suites.
• Develop and update test plans that outline scope, approach, schedule, resources, and risks.
• Execute manual UAT test cases, log test results, and ensure proper validation of functional and non-functional requirements.
• Participate in test case review sessions; identify candidates for automated testing as needed.
• Conduct regression testing to validate system stability and verify fixes.
• Support and sometimes lead bug hunts, exploratory testing, and ad hoc validation activities.
• Log defects with clear reproduction steps, evidence, and expected behavior; retest defects and confirm resolution.
• Conduct integration testing across systems, services, and interfaces.
• Perform or support load, performance, security, integration and accessibility testing activities.
• Prepare, request, or curate test data required for UAT.
• Validate UAT readiness (requirements, data, environments, tools).
• Participate in defect triage discussions; assist in determining priority, severity, and business impact.
• Provide UAT guidance and support to business SMEs/testers during testing cycles and contribute to training, documentation, and testing best practices.
• Develop and maintain testing best practices, training materials, templates, and documentation.
• Provide daily/weekly test metrics, summaries, and status reports to stakeholders.
• Participate fully in Scrum ceremonies (if applicable) including planning, refinement, standups, demos, and retrospectives.
• Contribute to release readiness assessments and go/no go recommendations.
• Apply knowledge of test automation concepts to identify automation candidates, support automation coverage planning, and collaborate with automation engineers on automated regression and smoke testing as needed.
• Continuously identify opportunities for improving testing processes, tools, documentation, and collaboration.
• Define testing approach, entry/exit criteria, quality gates, and release-level test strategy.
• Escalate quality risks, blockers, and unresolved defects with clear recommendations.
• Assess test coverage and identify gaps across requirements, integrations, workflows, data, roles, and edge cases.
  Recommend testing scope adjustments based on project risk, timeline, and release objectives.
• Monitor defect trends, aging defects, recurring issues, and root causes to support quality improvement.
• Identify and escalate environment issues that may impact test execution or release timelines.
  Define test data needs, validate data quality, and coordinate data refreshes, masking, or setup as needed.
• Support sprint, release, and project planning by providing QA/UAT estimates and testing assumptions.
• Participate in/lead release readiness discussions.

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Required Skills & Experience:

• Strong understanding of UAT processes, SDLC, and agile methodologies.
• Experience designing and executing complex test scenarios.
• Skill in using test management and defect tracking tools (Azure DevOps, Jira, etc.).
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Strong communication skills for working with both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to prioritize tasks and work independently with minimal direction.
• Understanding of accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG), security testing fundamentals, and performance considerations.
• Ability to identify risks and propose mitigation strategies.
• Collaborative mindset and strong interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated experience leading QA/UAT activities for complex, cross-functional projects.
• Experience creating test strategies, test plans, RTMs, test cases, defect reports, test summaries, and release readiness documentation.
• Ability to influence stakeholders, challenge unclear requirements, and advocate for quality
• Strong understanding of defect lifecycle, test coverage analysis, risk-based testing, and release quality criteria.
• Ability to work across business, technical, product, vendor, and project management teams.

In addition, the ideal candidate will have skills and experience in:

• Experience in a government or regulated environment.
• Familiarity with test automation concepts (Selenium, Playwright, Robot Framework, etc.).
• Experience preparing or managing test data.
• Background in business analysis or QA beyond UAT.