As a Software Quality Analyst III, you will lead test strategy and execution across multiple features and cross-functional projects, take ownership of release-readiness recommendations, and mentor other Software Quality Analyst.

Location - Cupertino, CA. Candidates must be available to work onsite.

In this role, you will:
• Lead test planning, strategy, and test case development across multiple features and cross-functional projects (manual and automated).
• Assess quality risks, prioritize testing efforts, and provide recommendations that directly influence release readiness.
• Lead quality validation across multiple concurrent projects, balancing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Identify opportunities to improve testing processes, tooling, documentation, and automation efficiency across the team.
• Lead quality efforts for client platforms, end-to-end customer workflows, and integrated user experiences across OS operating systems and hardware.
• Perform comprehensive black-box testing of software, hardware, and integrated customer experiences.
• Drive exploratory testing - going beyond documented requirements to surface edge cases, useability concerns, and high-risk, customer-impacting scenarios.
• Analyze complex test failures, debug difficult issues, isolate root causes, and produce high-quality defect reports with clear reproduction steps and supporting evidence.
• Lead testing of personal assistant features and conversational experiences, including natural language interactions, contextual understanding, speech recognition, multilingual scenarios, and real-world customer workflows.
• Evaluate whether assistant responses sound natural and appropriate to U.S. English-speaking customers, including regional phrasing and everyday conversational patterns.
• Partner with engineering, program management, product, and design teams to drive issue resolution and improve product quality.
• Mentor Software Quality Analysts through technical guidance, test plan reviews, and best practice sharing.
• Provide regular quality assessments, metrics, and executive-ready status reports.

What you need to have to be considered:
• 5+ years of professional work experience as a Software Quality Analyst or in a related quality engineering role.
• Experience in test planning, strategy, design, and execution of manual and automated test cases.
• Strong experience in black-box testing of software, hardware, and integrated customer experiences.
• Strong experience testing client platforms - operating systems, applications, hardware, peripherals, and end-to-end workflows.
• Demonstrated expertise in exploratory testing, with the ability to uncover issues beyond documented requirements.
• Experience testing personal assistant features or conversational interfaces, including natural language interactions and real-world scenarios.
• Strong analytical, debugging, and troubleshooting skills, with experience isolating complex or intermittent defects and determining root causes.
• Proven experience leading complex testing efforts and mentoring team members, including influencing technical decisions, assessing quality risks, and driving quality initiatives with minimal guidance.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
• Strong attention to detail and a customer-first mindset.

These will help you stand out:
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent industry experience.
• Experience testing mobile devices, consumer hardware, smart home technologies, wearables, Bluetooth accessories, or connected ecosystems.
• Experience validating voice assistants, conversational AI, NLP, speech recognition, or localization across diverse customer scenarios.
• Experience developing test strategies and reviewing test plans across complex, cross-functional projects.
• Experience collaborating with Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, Program Management, Human Interface Design, Localization, and Product teams.

Salary and Other Compensation:
The annual salary for this position is between $89,000.00 - $94,000.00 depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate. This position is also eligible for Cognizant's discretionary annual incentive program, based on performance and subject to the terms of Cognizant's applicable plans.

At Cognizant, beyond a competitive compensation package, we offer excellent benefits such as

Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:
• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance
• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The hourly rate, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable law.