QA System Testing and Quality Assurance Lead

Guidehouse•Rockville, MD

3d•$102,000 - $170,000•Hybrid

About The Position

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.

Requirements

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.

Nice To Haves

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.

Responsibilities

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.

Benefits

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