Job Title Quality Assurance Centers of Excellence (QA CoE)
Location Dallas TX
Duration 12 months
Our client is seeking an experienced Quality Assurance Centers of Excellence (QA CoE) Lead to establish and govern enterprise-wide testing standards, frameworks, and quality practices across the software delivery lifecycle. This role sits at the intersection of technology strategy and quality engineering, partnering closely with Agile delivery teams, architects, product owners, and business stakeholders to drive consistent, scalable quality outcomes. Success in the first 90 days means a QA governance model is in place, automation best practices are documented, and at least one cross-team quality initiative is actively underway.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and implement an enterprise QA governance model — defining testing standards, release readiness criteria, quality metrics, and compliance guardrails adopted consistently across all delivery teams.
- Lead a hybrid TCoE model that maintains centralized oversight of tools, frameworks, and quality policies while embedding QA capacity directly within Agile squads for decentralized, rapid execution.
- Drive shift-left testing by integrating automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines and establishing quality checkpoints at every phase of the SDLC, from requirements through production.
- Build and maintain scalable test automation frameworks for functional, regression, API, and performance testing; evaluate, select, and standardize tools across the organization.
- Define and track KPIs, quality dashboards, and maturity assessments to measure testing effectiveness and communicate progress, risk, and improvement initiatives to senior leadership.
- Partner with developers, product owners, architects, and business analysts to make quality a shared responsibility embedded in every sprint cycle.
- Author and maintain testing playbooks, SOPs, and governance documentation to enable process repeatability and support regulatory or audit requirements.
- Mentor, coach, and upskill QA engineers and analysts across teams — building capability and driving a culture of continuous improvement in quality practices.
Required Qualifications
- 7+ years of software QA/testing experience, including 3+ years in a CoE leadership, QA practice lead, test architect, or quality governance role.
- Demonstrated experience establishing or scaling a QA Center of Excellence, shared testing function, or enterprise quality governance program.
- Hands-on expertise designing and implementing test automation frameworks using tools such as Selenium, Playwright, or Cypress.
- Deep knowledge of CI/CD integration and DevOps toolchains (Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI) and how quality gates are embedded in delivery pipelines.
- Strong command of Agile/Scrum methodologies, shift-left quality principles, and cross-functional team collaboration.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field; ISTQB Advanced Level (Test Manager or Test Analyst) or equivalent certification required.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with AI-augmented testing platforms and intelligent test generation or self-healing automation tools.
- CSTE, CMST, or ISTQB Expert-level certification demonstrating advanced quality leadership credentials.
- Hands-on experience with performance and load testing tools such as JMeter or LoadRunner.
- Familiarity with cloud testing environments (AWS, Azure) and containerized test execution pipelines.
- Prior experience in a consulting, managed services, or professional services environment delivering TCoE engagements for enterprise clients