Guidehouse

QA System Testing and Quality Assurance Lead

Guidehouse$102K — $170K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree or 4 additional years of relevant experience in lieu of degree.
  • 6+ years in software quality assurance or related roles, including 2 years in a leadership role.
  • Experience developing QA strategies and test plans for software projects.
  • Proven track record of leading and mentoring QA teams in agile environments.
  • Hands-on expertise in application, integration, and regression testing, both manual and automated.
  • Ability to analyze QA metrics and present findings to stakeholders clearly.
  • Strong understanding of SDLC, CI/CD, and DevSecOps practices.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and communicate program-level QA strategy and quality standards.
  • Lead and mentor QA analysts and testers, balancing workloads and providing guidance.
  • Review project requirements and designs to ensure testability and coverage.
  • Oversee execution of manual and automated tests, including regression and user acceptance.
  • Provide direct testing support for complex scenarios and troubleshoot defects.
  • Direct comprehensive system testing for new and legacy application functions.
  • Manage test automation frameworks and integration with CI/CD pipelines.

Benefits

  • Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
  • Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
  • Parental Leave
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Tuition Reimbursement and Learning Opportunities
  • Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
  • Employee Assistance Program
Full Job Description
Job Family:
Testing

Travel Required:
Up to 10%

Clearance Required:
Ability to Obtain Public Trust

What You Will Do:

We are seeking a QA System Testing and Quality Assurance Lead with strong software testing, test automation, quality governance, and team leadership experience to support the GrantSolutions software delivery environment. This role will partner with developers, Product Owners, Scrum Masters, integration engineers, data teams, DevSecOps engineers, vendors, and Federal stakeholders to define quality standards, align testing priorities, and ensure that new software capabilities and supported legacy functionality are reliable, secure, accessible, data-consistent, and ready for incremental release.

The QA System Testing and Quality Assurance Lead will provide leadership across the SDLC by establishing test strategies and plans, reviewing requirements and technical designs for testability, assigning and monitoring testing activities, overseeing defect resolution, and governing automated regression testing within CI/CD pipelines. This individual will guide QA team members, report quality metrics and risks to program leadership, drive continuous improvement, and strengthen release confidence across new application components, existing legacy functionality, and system integrations.
  • Develop, maintain, and communicate the program-level QA strategy, test approach, quality standards, testing scope, estimates, schedules, entry and exit criteria, and release-readiness requirements.
  • Lead and coordinate QA analysts and system testers by assigning work, balancing priorities, reviewing test artifacts, monitoring execution, removing impediments, and providing technical guidance and mentoring.
  • Participate throughout the software development lifecycle by reviewing user stories, acceptance criteria, technical designs, data mappings, interface specifications, and release plans to ensure testability and complete, traceable coverage.
  • Oversee the design, execution, and maintenance of manual and automated tests for application features, integrations, workflows, reports, database changes, regression scenarios, smoke testing, and user acceptance testing.
  • Provide hands-on testing support, as needed, for complex development work, including developing and executing test scenarios, validating technical solutions and integrations, troubleshooting failures, and partnering directly with developers to identify and resolve defects.
  • Direct end-to-end system testing across new application components, supported legacy functionality, data exchanges, background jobs, user workflows, reporting outputs, and role-based access paths.
  • Establish and govern test automation practices, frameworks, reusable test data, and regression suites, including integration with CI/CD pipelines and consistent execution across development, test, staging, and release environments.
  • Lead defect management activities, including triage, severity and priority assessment, root-cause coordination, retesting, closure validation, trend analysis, and escalation of quality risks.
  • Define, monitor, and report QA metrics and key performance indicators, including test coverage, execution status, defect trends, automation effectiveness, escaped defects, and release risk.
  • Coordinate accessibility, security, performance, data quality, and operational-readiness testing with specialized teams and ensure results are incorporated into release decisions.
  • Provide objective go/no-go recommendations, quality status updates, risk summaries, and corrective-action plans to program leadership and Federal stakeholders while continuously improving testing processes, tools, and standards.


What You Will Need:
  • Bachelor's degree . Additional four (4) years of exp is needed in lieu of degree.
  • Minimum of Six(6) years of experience in software quality assurance, system testing, application testing, test automation, or related software development lifecycle roles, including at least TWO (2) years leading QA activities, teams, or complex testing efforts.
  • Demonstrated experience developing QA strategies, test plans, estimates, schedules, quality gates, entry and exit criteria, traceability approaches, and release-readiness recommendations.
  • Experience leading, coordinating, mentoring, and reviewing the work of QA analysts or system testers across concurrent agile delivery efforts.
  • Hands-on experience designing, executing, and overseeing tests for application features, integrations, database changes, workflows, regression testing, smoke testing, and user acceptance testing.
  • Hands-on experience developing and governing automated test scripts, frameworks, reusable test assets, and code-based testing approaches integrated with CI/CD pipelines.
  • Experience testing web-based applications, data integrations, interfaces, reports, background processes, and end-to-end business workflows across multiple software environments.
  • Experience leading defect triage, root-cause coordination, risk escalation, test management, requirements traceability, evidence capture, test data preparation, release validation, and defect retesting.
  • Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle, agile delivery, DevSecOps practices, version control, branching and merging concepts, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release management.
  • Ability to define and communicate quality metrics, analyze defect and coverage trends, assess release risk, and present concise status and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Ability to troubleshoot test failures, isolate defects, analyze logs and data, validate fixes, and facilitate resolution across development, integration, data, security, and operations teams.
  • Strong documentation skills, including the ability to maintain QA strategies, test plans, test cases, test scripts, traceability matrices, defect records, test evidence, dashboards, and release-readiness summaries.
  • Strong leadership, problem-solving, facilitation, collaboration, and communication skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and influence quality outcomes in a fast-paced delivery environment.
  • Must be able to OBTAIN and MAINTAIN a Federal or DoD "PUBLIC TRUST"; candidates must obtain approved adjudication of their PUBLIC TRUST prior to onboarding with Guidehouse. Candidates with an ACTIVE PUBLIC TRUST or SUITABILITY are preferred.


What Would Be Nice To Have:
  • Experience leading QA for software development initiatives that combine new application capabilities with ongoing validation of legacy system functionality in enterprise or government environments.
  • Experience supporting federal or government IT programs involving shared services, interoperability, cloud environments, data governance, system integrations, accessibility, security controls, or phased capability delivery.
  • Experience establishing or improving test automation frameworks using Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Cucumber, Postman/Newman, REST Assured, JUnit, TestNG, or similar tools.
  • Experience administering or governing test management, defect tracking, and agile delivery tools such as Jira, Subject 7, Confluence, or similar platforms.
  • Familiarity with AWS cloud environments, SQL/database validation, data integration testing, accessibility testing, security testing, performance testing, logging, monitoring, or observability tools.
  • Experience presenting QA metrics, risk assessments, defect trends, and release-readiness recommendations to program leadership or Federal stakeholders.
  • Quality, agile, testing, automation, cloud, or security certification preferred, such as ISTQB Test Management, Certified ScrumMaster, SAFe, AWS Cloud Practitioner, Security+, or similar credentials.


The annual salary range for this position is $102,000.00-$170,000.00. Compensation decisions depend on a wide range of factors, including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, security clearances, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs.

What We Offer:

Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace.

Benefits include:
  • Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
  • Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
  • Parental Leave
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Group Term Life and Travel Assistance
  • Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance
  • Health Savings Account, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Transit and Parking Commuter Benefits
  • Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
  • Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development, Certifications & Learning Opportunities
  • Employee Referral Program
  • Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
  • Care.com annual membership
  • Employee Assistance Program
  • Supplemental Benefits via Corestream (Critical Care, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance and ID theft protection, etc.)
  • Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus


About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is a management consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The firm provides consulting services to clients in the public and commercial sectors, with a focus on energy, financial services, healthcare, national security, and aerospace and defense. Guidehouse was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from PwC. The firm has over 7,000 employees and operates in more than 50 locations worldwide.
Learn more about Guidehouse
Size
8,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2018

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