QA Lead

dentsu•Time, IL

1d•$78,000 - $110,000•Remote

About The Position

Merkle is seeking a QA Lead to own quality assurance strategy, execution, and oversight for a major digital platform modernization engagement. You'll lead a client QA team of four, establish testing infrastructure (Chromatic, Storybook), and drive quality across component-level, functional, accessibility, and integration testing. This is a strategic + hands-on hybrid role: you will be leading the QA strategy and also troubleshoot failing integration tests on any given day.

Requirements

7+ years of QA / Quality Assurance Engineering experience
2+ years in test automation or automation engineering
Hands-on experience with visual regression testing tools (Chromatic, Percy, or similar)
Hands-on experience setting up, configuring, or maintaining Storybook in a production environment
Accessibility testing: experience testing to WCAG 2.2 or 2.1 AA standards; familiarity with axe-core, Lighthouse, or manual audit techniques
CI/CD troubleshooting: comfortable reading/debugging GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or equivalent pipeline configurations
Strong communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to tailor messages for both technical and non-technical audiences
Experience mentoring or managing 5-10 team members, or demonstrated readiness to lead
Component-level testing: experience testing design systems, component libraries, or isolated UI elements
Integration testing: understanding of front-end–backend contracts, API testing, and debugging integration failures

Nice To Haves

Agency or client services background
Experience with SCAPI or Salesforce Commerce Cloud integrations
Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) testing or integration experience
Accessibility audit experience beyond automated tools
Performance testing or monitoring experience
Experience mentoring QA teams across time zones or distributed teams

Responsibilities

Develop and own the QA strategy and comprehensive test plan across all Merkle workstreams as deemed appropriate for the client project.
Define testing approach for component isolation (Storybook), visual regression (Chromatic), functional coverage, cross-browser testing, accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.2 AA), and integration testing.
Establish test environment requirements and coordinate with client engineering for setup and maintenance.
Document acceptance criteria for what passes/fails at each test level.
Configure and own Chromatic (visual regression) and Storybook (component testing) integration.
Set up CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions or equivalent) to automate visual regression and component testing.
Troubleshoot configuration issues (design tokens, viewport sizing, addon conflicts, etc.).
Establish baseline snapshots and review workflows for visual changes.
Maintain and iterate on tooling as the codebase evolves.
Oversee component-level testing: design system components tested in isolation before page integration.
Oversee functional and regression testing across all page types and device classes (desktop, mobile, tablet).
Oversee cross-browser compatibility testing against an agreed matrix (to be confirmed during kickoff).
Oversee accessibility testing: WCAG 2.2 AA compliance validation across all delivered components and pages.
Oversee integration testing: front-end to SCAPI, front-end to AEM, and design token propagation.
Define test scope and prioritize coverage based on risk and business impact.
Lead and mentor the client's four QA resources; direct testing activities and ensure quality standards are met.
Partner with dev team on test data preparation and environment readiness.
Communicate quality metrics, defect trends, and blockers to Merkle and client stakeholders.
Manage scope creep; push back on out-of-scope requests with clear rationale.
Establish defect logging, triage, and tracking process.
Triage and prioritize bugs based on severity and business impact.
Track resolution and retesting to closure.
Provide clear bug summaries (reproducible steps, root cause analysis where possible).
Focus for initial deployment: home page, header, footer, navigation, plus one additional page (PDP/PLP).
Plan for phased expansion post-launch.