QA Lead

Job Title: QA Lead

Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid)

Employment Type: W2 Only

Duration: 12+ Months

Job Summary

We are looking for an experienced QA Lead to oversee our quality assurance processes and lead a team of QA engineers. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in test automation, manual testing, and QA best practices, with expertise in designing test strategies for complex software systems. You will be responsible for ensuring product quality, implementing testing frameworks, and driving continuous improvement in our QA practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and implement end-to-end QA strategies for web, mobile, and API testing
• Lead and mentor a team of QA engineers, providing technical guidance and performance feedback
• Establish QA metrics, KPIs, and reporting to track test coverage, defects, and release readiness
• Collaborate with Dev, Product, and DevOps teams to integrate QA into CI/CD pipelines
• Design and maintain test automation frameworks (Selenium, Cypress, Appium, RestAssured)
• Develop and execute performance, security, and load tests (JMeter, Gatling, OWASP ZAP)
• Oversee manual testing efforts for exploratory, regression, and UAT testing
• Implement shift-left testing to identify defects early in the SDLC
• Optimize test case management (TestRail, Zephyr, Xray) and defect tracking (Jira)
• Drive adoption of BDD/TDD methodologies (Cucumber, SpecFlow)
• Ensure compliance with accessibility (WCAG) and security testing standards
• Stay updated with emerging QA tools and trends (AI testing, codeless automation)

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 13+ years of QA experience, with expertise in a leadership role
• Expertise in test automation frameworks (Selenium WebDriver, Playwright, or similar)
• Strong knowledge of API testing (Postman, RestAssured) and mobile testing (Appium, XCUITest)
• Experience with CI/CD integration (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps)
• Proficiency in programming/scripting (Java, Python, JavaScript, or C#)
• Deep understanding of SDLC, Agile/Scrum, and QA best practices
• Excellent problem-solving, communication, and team management skills
• ISTQB or similar QA certification preferred

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Experience with performance testing tools (JMeter, LoadRunner, k6)
• Knowledge of security testing (OWASP, Burp Suite, SAST/DAST tools)
• Familiarity with cloud testing platforms (BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, AWS Device Farm)
• Exposure to AI/ML-based testing tools (Testim, Applitools)