Manager, IT Quality Assurance Engineering

Position Summary:

The Manager, Quality Assurance is responsible for developing, leading, and executing the test automation best practices strategy through planning, coordinating, and supervising all activities related to the design, development, and implementation of test automation. As the driver of the testing for all solutions in the enterprise, whether SaaS, COTS, or internally developed, this role defines and measures the best methods for testing the solutions and incorporate them into the development cycle. This position collaborates with one or more teams and organizations to deliver excellence for all work items within Quality Engineering across all of Ventura Foods Applications.  This individual will apply "outside of the box" thinking to understand the various scenarios and configurations that customers/users use to ensure software quality is maintained. He/She is responsible for understanding business requirements and defining and developing test cases/ test plans for packaged and custom applications.   

This individual leads a team that will include QA analysts, QA Engineers and consultants and is responsible for software quality testing and quality assurance, integration and regression testing of the systems, organizing testing activities, collaborating with development teams to resolve defects and creating and maintaining testing scripts and documentation. The QA Manager will be responsible for supervising a team of software validation / quality engineers to ensure software developed and used for Ventura Foods business processes are appropriately developed, verified, validated to meet VF’s internal policies, procedures and security requirements.

The ideal candidate will have at least 7 years of experience and a proven track record of leading quality and engineering teams to achieve operational excellence. Collaborate with cross-functional teams within and outside of the technology organization, to drive continuous improvement initiatives. He/She will ensure the delivery of high-quality releases of the Software and will be the primary custodian of software product quality and performance health metrics. 

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Leads and manages the in-house team and possibly external resources of quality analysts, quality engineers and automation engineers in test. 
• Build and mentor the careers of quality professionals, including building skills in automation. 
• Help the team with priorities and remove roadblocks to make sure releases have sufficient testing coverage.
• Direct the development of the automated test engineering strategy, methodology, discipline, and frameworks to ensure and continuously improve quality, performance, and reliability of assigned products.
• Implement process changes to scale testing efforts, including the development of robust automation systems. 
• Lead the process of building metrics to measure and monitor product performance.
• Assess the status of releases and help ensure that releases go out on time with a high quality level.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify and resolve software quality issues. 
• Create and execute comprehensive test plans and test cases. 
• Define and implement QA metrics and KPIs and monitor and report on the quality of software products. 
• Partner with the development team to conduct root cause analysis and implement corrective actions. 
• Continuously improve testing tools, techniques, and methodologies to keep up with industry trends.
• Develop and maintain software quality documentation, including test plans, test cases, and test results.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree required
• 7+ years of experience in software quality engineering, with at least 3 years in a leadership role is required
• Experience with Functional, Non-Functional, End to End, UI, and regression testing is required
• Deep understanding of how to leverage automation in testing efforts is required
• Knowledge of and experience in at least one JIRA, Test Management Tools, Katalon, Selenium, Cucumber, Gherkin is required
• Deep knowledge of SDLC methodologies (Kanban, Scrum, Iterative Development) is required
• Deep knowledge of Test-Driven Development and/or Behavioral Driven Development is required
• Hands-on experience with testing APIs, databases, and front-end/back-end systems is required
• Experience developing test deliverables like test plans, test cases, test data, traceability matrix is required
• Ability to travel up to 10% is required
• Bachelor's degree emphasis in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering is desired
• Master's degree is highly desired
• Experience in CPG/Foodservice industry preferred
• ERP (i.e. JDE EnterpriseOne, SAP, Oracle, etc.) experience preferred
• Knowledge of integration platforms (i.e. iPass, etc.) is desired

Knowledge and Skills:

• Comprehensive knowledge of the systems development life cycle in the development and/or support of production systems, conversion activities, testing methodologies, and implementation procedures  
• Knowledge of supply chain, order to cash, purchase to pay, manufacturing and/or financial processes
• Ability to communicate well and demonstrate business knowledge both verbally and in writing, strong time and work management skills and the ability to resolve critical project issues 
• Strong problem-solving skills with attention to detail
• Manage daily, weekly communication on testing status to internal and external project stakeholders
• Experience in project planning and control with strong planning and organizational skills
• Must work well under pressure, meeting multiple and sometimes conflicting deadlines
• Motivational and dynamic leader, driven individual, strong work ethic 
• Thorough knowledge of and understanding of business principles and business processes
• Excellent interpersonal skills at all levels
• Ability to effectively work with the IT management team towards the common goals of the department