Quality Assurance (QA) Analyst

Sargent & Lundy•Chicago, IL

62d•Hybrid

About The Position

The QA Analyst will play a critical role in ensuring software quality and business alignment by developing, implementing, and executing comprehensive test strategies—with an emphasis on User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and a variety of test platforms. The ideal candidate will thrive in Agile environments, collaborate across teams, and support the entire software development lifecycle through to production release.

Requirements

3-5 years proven experience in software QA, including hands-on experience developing and executing UAT cycles and working with various test platforms.
Solid understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and test management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps, HP Quality Center).
Proficiency in SQL for validating data
Experience in Automation tools –Selenium, Test Sigma, Test Rigor, TestIM, QTP, Postman, SOAPUI, JMeter, Load Runner
Comfortable writing clear, traceable test cases, mapping them to user stories, and updating them throughout the project lifecycle.
Demonstrated ability to coordinate and facilitate UAT with internal users and business stakeholders, ensuring thorough documentation and sign-off.
Familiarity with test automation principles and CI/CD processes.
Ability to write/Develop scripts to automate test cases and build test frameworks.
Experience with defect lifecycle management, from logging through resolution, using modern test and project management platforms.
Strong communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills—capable of working effectively in cross-functional Agile teams.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field.
Experience with both manual and automated testing approaches across web and cloud-based applications.
Exposure to multiple test environments (Dev, QA, Stage, UAT, Prod) and their configuration requirements.
Certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, or Agile certifications are a plus.

Responsibilities

Test Planning & Strategy - Develop, review, and implement detailed test plans and strategies mapped to business requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
Design UAT processes in close collaboration with business stakeholders, ensuring user needs and business goals are fully validated before software release.
UAT Management - Coordinate with business users and product owners to define, organize, and execute UAT cycles.
Drive creation and maintenance of UAT test cases, identifying necessary test data, and ensuring alignment with acceptance criteria.
Facilitate UAT sign-off, capture user feedback, and ensure all defects or issues are logged, tracked, and resolved before production deployment.
Test Execution & Automation - Execute functional, integration, regression, Performance, and exploratory testing across multiple test environments (Dev, QA, Stage, UAT).
Utilize relevant test platforms, such as Jira, Azure DevOps, and HP Quality Center, for managing test cases, defect tracking, and traceability.
Prioritize and automate high-value test cases, working with CI/CD pipelines where appropriate.
Database Testing: Perform backend testing using SQL and Oracle to validate data accuracy, integrity, and consistency across systems. Write and execute complex queries to verify business logic, data transformations, and stored procedures. Validate data migration and ensure referential integrity across environments.
Defect Management - Identify, log, track, and retest defects found during all phases of testing.
Prepare and distribute test summary reports, including defect logs and closure status.
Collaboration & Continuous Improvement - Partner with product owners, business analysts, developers, and release managers, ensuring clear user story and acceptance criteria definition.
Participate in Agile ceremonies—sprint planning, stand-ups, demos, retrospectives—offering feedback and suggesting quality improvements.
Support root cause analysis and postmortem for defects found in production environments.