Quality Engineering Manager

American Innovations LTD•Austin, TX

About The Position

The Quality Engineering Manager is responsible for defining and executing the company's quality engineering strategy across software, hardware-integrated, cloud, and mobile products. This role leads the transition from traditional quality assurance to modern quality engineering by driving automation, continuous integration, AI-assisted testing, and system-level quality practices. The Quality Engineering Manager leads a team of test engineers and contractors while partnering closely with Software Development, Product Management, Architecture, DevOps, and Support teams to ensure quality is built into every stage of the development lifecycle. This leader establishes testing standards, owns quality metrics, drives continuous improvement initiatives, and ensures products are released with confidence and predictability.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field.
8+ years of experience in software quality engineering, test automation, software development, or a related discipline.
3+ years of experience leading Quality Engineering, Test Engineering, or Software Quality teams.
Demonstrated experience building and maintaining automated testing frameworks from the ground up.
Hands-on experience with test automation tools such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Appium, or similar technologies.
Hands-on experience configuring and maintaining CI pipelines using Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI, or equivalent platforms.
Proficiency in at least one programming language including C#, Python, Java, JavaScript, or TypeScript.
Experience implementing and utilizing AI-assisted testing tools and practices.
Strong understanding of modern software development lifecycle practices.
Deep knowledge of test automation architecture and quality engineering methodologies.
Experience with Agile development environments and CI/CD workflows.
Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
Excellent communication and cross-functional leadership abilities.
Ability to influence quality outcomes across teams without direct authority.
Experience balancing strategic leadership responsibilities with technical execution.

Nice To Haves

Experience testing products that integrate hardware and software components (BLE, Cellular, Satellite, IoT)
Experience coordinating system integration testing across multiple product teams.
Experience managing test laboratories, hardware test rigs, and testing environments.
Demonstrated track record of improving automation coverage and reducing defect escape rates.
Experience within regulated industries or products supporting safety, compliance, or critical infrastructure.
ISTQB, CSTE, or equivalent quality engineering certification.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the enterprise test automation strategy across all product lines.
Establish automation priorities across unit, integration, API, end-to-end, mobile, and hardware-in-the-loop testing layers.
Build, maintain, and improve scalable test automation frameworks and automated regression suites.
Select, implement, and govern test automation tools and technologies appropriate for software and hardware-integrated products.
Drive migration of manual test cases to automated solutions based on risk, frequency, and business impact.
Establish standards for test code quality, maintainability, reliability, and coverage.
Own quality metrics including automation coverage, defect density, defect escape rate, and field quality trends.
Lead release readiness assessments and quality go/no-go recommendations.
Own quality-related CI pipeline configuration and automated testing execution.
Define and enforce quality gates including code coverage thresholds, automated test pass rates, static analysis requirements, and performance benchmarks.
Partner with Software Development and DevOps teams to integrate testing into the development workflow.
Monitor and improve CI pipeline performance, reliability, and feedback cycles.
Reduce flaky tests and improve automation stability through continuous optimization.
Support both software-only and hardware-integrated testing environments.
Lead, mentor, and develop Quality Engineers and Test Engineers.
Conduct performance reviews, coaching conversations, career development planning, and succession planning.
Foster a culture of quality ownership across Engineering.
Partner with Development Managers to improve testability, coverage, and quality practices.
Coordinate testing efforts across multiple products and development teams.
Identify quality risks and proactively drive mitigation strategies.
Promote shift-left testing and continuous quality practices throughout the organization.
Define and maintain system integration testing strategies across interconnected products.
Coordinate integration testing activities across multiple engineering teams.
Ensure coverage of product interactions involving BLE, cellular, satellite, cloud, mobile, and IoT technologies.
Own test lab environments, hardware test rigs, and provisioning processes.
Drive resolution of cross-product integration issues and interoperability defects.
Establish and maintain integration test plans, ownership models, and testing standards.
Champion the adoption of AI-assisted testing tools and practices.
Implement AI-driven approaches for test generation, intelligent test selection, defect prediction, automated triage, and self-healing automation.
Measure and report the impact of AI adoption on testing efficiency, quality, and delivery metrics.
Lead quality retrospectives and continuous improvement initiatives.
Evaluate emerging quality engineering technologies and recommend adoption strategies.
Establish quality KPIs and regularly communicate progress to leadership.