QA Portfolio Manager
About The Position
Balor Games is seeking a QA Portfolio Manager to own quality assurance strategy and execution across its published portfolio. The role is accountable for QA coverage on titles developed by multiple external teams and manages the external vendors providing functional, compliance, localization, and compatibility testing. The manager sets testing strategies and standards, scopes and schedules vendor engagements around title milestones, and escalates quality issues that could put a release at risk. The position also involves hands-on testing when needed, including confirming bug severity, verifying fixes, writing actionable bug reports, and providing gameplay feedback. Working with Production, Publishing Services, external developers, and QA vendors, the QA Portfolio Manager helps ensure each title meets Balor Games' quality bar and platform certification requirements before release. The role manages vendor scopes of work, budgets, purchase orders, invoices, capacity, performance, and escalations, while maintaining scalable QA plans, workflows, documentation, and reporting across a growing portfolio.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience in QA leadership, vendor or partner management, or production within the video game industry, including direct oversight of external QA vendors.
- Demonstrated experience managing vendor SOWs and quotes for QA services.
- Strong working knowledge of FQA, CQA, and LQA methodologies, bug-tracking tools, and platform certification and compliance requirements across major consoles, PC, and mobile.
- Ability to create, review, and refine test plans for games across a range of genres and modes, including single-player and multiplayer, RPG, and FPS.
- Ability to manage QA across multiple concurrent titles and external studios, coordinating different vendor pipelines, tools, and deadlines.
- Exceptional communication skills for working with internal teams, external developer studios, and QA vendors.
- Relationship-management skills and the ability to build and maintain internal and external partnerships.
- Self-motivation and experience working independently and with a team, with comfort handling ambiguity and shifting priorities.
- Proficiency with bug-tracking and test-management tools, spreadsheets, and project-tracking tools.
Nice To Haves
- Broad knowledge of current PC, console, and mobile games.
- Existing relationships with FQA, CQA, or LQA vendors in the games industry.
- Experience with platform partner programs, such as PlayStation Partners, Xbox ID@Xbox or Partner, and Nintendo Developer Portal.
- Experience working with indie or mid-size external developer studios.
- Passion for process improvement and cross-functional collaboration.
Responsibilities
- Own QA strategy and standards across Balor Games' published portfolio, adapting scope and approach to each title's genre, platform mix, and risk profile.
- Oversee day-to-day management of external FQA, CQA, LQA, and compatibility QA vendors, including vetting and onboarding vendors as needed.
- Scope QA requirements against Production and developer-team milestones; book and track vendor Statements of Work (SOWs), quotes, and SOW end dates.
- Manage QA vendor budgets, purchase orders, and invoicing, and flag variances against approved budgets.
- Serve as the primary QA liaison to external developer teams, aligning studio build and patch cadences with vendor testing cycles.
- Perform hands-on QA testing as needed, including verifying fixes and writing clear, actionable bug reports.
- Provide detailed gameplay feedback to developer teams, benchmarked against comparable market titles.
- Review and prioritize vendor bug reports and test results; triage severity, drive fixes with developer teams, and partner with Production on milestone acceptance and ship/no-ship quality decisions.
- Provide data-driven reporting on each title's game state, quality risks, and development trajectory in partnership with Production and leadership.
- Track platform certification and compliance requirements for PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, Steam, and mobile storefronts, ensuring vendor testing plans cover them before submission deadlines.
- Maintain current information on vendor capacity, specialties, rate cards, and performance; monitor delivery and quality, manage escalations, and match vendors to titles and testing phases.
- Build and maintain QA documentation, test plans, bug-tracking workflows, and reporting templates that scale across a multi-developer portfolio.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
Education Level
No Education Listed
