QA Automation Supervisor

PURPOSE

We are looking for a highly skilled & hands-on QA/Automation Supervisor to drive our quality assurance efforts and ensure the delivery of high-quality software products. In this role, you will lead a team of QA engineers, define automation practices and enable automation across different solutions/domains.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

Quality Assurance Oversight

• Define and enforce QA standards across all stages of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
• Lead and mentor QA team members, ensuring alignment with testing strategies and goals.
• Develop and maintain test plans, test cases, and test scripts for functional, regression, and integration testing.
• Track and manage defect life cycles, ensuring timely resolution and verification.
• Ensure product quality through manual and automated testing, code reviews, and risk analysis.

Test Automation

• Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks and scripts
• Identify test automation opportunities to improve test coverage, efficiency, and speed of release cycles.
• Monitor and optimize automated test execution, including performance and reliability of test suites.
• Collaborate with developers to ensure testability of applications and support test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD) practices.

Release Management

• Plan and coordinate software releases, hotfixes, and patches across multiple environments (dev, QA, staging, production).
• Maintain release calendars and communicate timelines, status, and risks to stakeholders.
• Ensure that all releases follow change management policies and that pre-release testing and sign-offs are completed.
• Collaborate with development and product teams to ensure smooth deployment and rollback strategies.
• Document release processes, including post-release analysis and continuous improvement actions.

Continuous Improvement

• Evaluate and recommend QA and automation tools, processes, and best practices.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives in testing strategies, team skills, and release processes.
• Promote a quality-first mindset across cross-functional teams.

Communication & Coordination

• Act as the main point of contact between the QA team and cross-functional teams (Dev, Product, DevOps).
• Facilitate daily stand-ups, QA syncs, and status meetings.
• Communicate risks, blockers, and quality concerns to stakeholders.

Team Leadership & Management

• Provide daily supervision and guidance to QA analysts, testers, and automation engineers.
• Assign tasks, projects, and priorities based on team strengths and project needs.
• Set clear goals, expectations, and deliverables for QA team members.

Resource Planning & Allocation

• Evaluate workload and allocate resources to meet testing and release deadlines.
• Manage time-off scheduling, ensure adequate coverage, and handle workload balancing.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, and training of new QA team members.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

Technical Skills

• Quality Assurance Tools: Proficiency with test management tools (e.g., Jira, TestRail, Zephyr, HP ALM).
• Automation Tools: Experience with Selenium, Cypress, JUnit, TestNG, or other automation frameworks.
• Release Management Tools: Familiarity with CI/CD tools
• Version Control: Solid understanding of Git and branching strategies.
• Environment Management: Experience managing staging, pre-production, and production environments.
• Basic Scripting/Programming: Ability to understand and modify scripts (e.g., Bash, Python, PowerShell).

Leadership and Supervisory Competencies

• Team Management: Ability to supervise and mentor QA analysts or testers; assign and track tasks.
• Resource Planning: Effective allocation of QA resources for testing and release activities.
• Performance Monitoring: Conduct QA staff performance reviews and provide coaching/feedback.
• Conflict Resolution: Strong skills in handling disagreements within or across teams.

Process & Methodology Knowledge

• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): In-depth knowledge of Waterfall, Agile, and/or DevOps methodologies.
• Testing Lifecycle: Expertise in planning and executing functional, regression, integration, and user acceptance testing.
• Documentation: Ability to create/review test plans, test cases, release notes, and quality metrics reports.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., ISTQB, PMP, ITIL, Certified ScrumMaster, SAFe Release Train Engineer).
• Experience in regulated industries (e.g., healthcare, finance) may be a plus.

ASSETS

• French language skills would be an additional asset.

WORK LOCATION

Candidates in Eastern time zones with the flexibility to travel to the Montreal office on an as-needed basis will be given preference.

The role requires understanding requirements, asking relevant questions during meetings with employees, suppliers, and outsourced developers outside Quebec, and providing clear written descriptions of any issues in English to ensure effective communication.