Quality Engineering Manager
About The Position
The Quality Engineering Manager is a technical leader and people manager responsible for a team of quality engineers validating UNOS software across multiple product pillars. The role contributes directly to quality engineering work, mentors engineers, and upholds team standards while driving an automation-first, engineering-driven approach. UNOS software supports the national organ transplant system, where defects can directly affect patient outcomes. The manager adapts priorities to delivery demands and applies industry best practices to advance departmental objectives. Decisions are made within department policies and operational plans, under moderate direction from management. The Quality Engineering department owns practices, tooling, and standards for release readiness. Its scope includes functional test automation across UI, API, integration, and data layers; automation frameworks and test-data strategy; performance and load testing; Azure DevOps CI/CD integration for functional, performance, and security testing; and quality practices for AI-enabled features and AI-assisted testing. The department also maintains test evidence and traceability supporting HIPAA, NIST-based frameworks, and federal contract obligations. The manager leads engineering delivery, quality strategy, performance testing, and team development. The role sets and reports quality metrics, develops team roadmaps, oversees estimates and resource allocation, supports security testing and compliance assessments, and manages testing vendors and licenses. The position is based at Fourth Street in Richmond, Virginia, with negligible travel.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of progressive experience in quality engineering, software testing, or software engineering, including at least 3 years building or maintaining modern test automation.
- At least 2 years of people management experience leading technical teams.
- Working knowledge of automated test development and the ability to read, review, and troubleshoot automation code; C# and .NET are strongly preferred, while Java or TypeScript are considered.
- Experience with UI automation using Playwright or a comparable framework, BDD with Gherkin, API testing with tools such as Postman, and SQL-based data validation.
- Experience designing and interpreting performance and load tests using Azure Load Testing, JMeter, or equivalent tools.
- Strong understanding of automation design and regression health, including test-layer selection, test isolation, and test-data management.
- Experience working in environments subject to regulatory or compliance requirements, such as HIPAA, NIST, or federal contracts.
- Working knowledge of Software Engineering, DevOps, and Architecture practices sufficient to understand dependencies, risks, and escalation paths.
- Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills, including the ability to use quality metrics and release-readiness data to communicate risk and influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience.
- Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) certification required.
Nice To Haves
- At least 5 years of people management experience leading technical teams is preferred.
- Experience supporting automation modernization or migration, such as Selenium to Playwright or .NET Framework to current .NET.
- Experience with cloud-native observability and security monitoring tools such as Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Grafana, and Microsoft Sentinel.
- Experience with Azure DevOps Test Plans, OAuth 2.0, or OpenID Connect.
- Familiarity with Agile/Scrum or Kanban delivery practices.
- ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) or ISTQB Advanced Level Test Management (CTAL-TM) certification preferred.
Responsibilities
- Lead the team in delivering across the department scope, provide technical direction, exercise sound technical judgment, and contribute directly to quality engineering work where it has the greatest impact.
- Cultivate an automation-first culture, with automated coverage at appropriate test layers and deliberate, documented, risk-based manual testing exceptions.
- Use department tooling to review code and pull requests, debug tests, query databases, exercise APIs, and unblock engineers.
- Execute within the architecture, standards, and shared tooling owned by the Principal Quality Engineer, escalating systemic or platform-level issues.
- Review quality strategies and coverage for high-risk features and releases, ensuring dependencies and residual risks are understood before release decisions.
- Direct performance and load testing, establish baselines, test high-risk releases, and partner with Software Engineering and Enterprise Technology to resolve issues.
- Keep regression suites reliable and efficient, and lead resolution of moderately complex test failures and escaped defects using pipeline results, logs, telemetry, and database evidence.
- Drive responsible use of AI-assisted testing tools and establish quality practices for AI-enabled features, including evaluation criteria, testing of non-deterministic output, and regression testing when models or prompts change.
- Partner with Software Engineering, Product, Architecture, DevOps, and PMO to shift quality earlier in delivery, improve testability, and resolve dependencies.
- Manage and develop Quality Engineers and Senior Quality Engineers, providing technical guidance and coaching grounded in direct engineering experience.
- Build and sustain an engineering-first team culture, assess technical capability, and develop depth in automation, debugging, and test strategy.
- Conduct performance management with clear expectations, ongoing feedback, and directness when addressing issues.
- Recruit, develop, and retain quality engineering talent with the required coding, automation, and analytical skills.
- Set targets for and report on quality metrics such as automation health, escaped defects, and change failure rate; communicate release readiness and residual risk.
- Develop and execute team quality roadmaps aligned to department objectives, including automation modernization and technical-debt reduction.
- Oversee testing estimates, capacity, and resource allocation within department policies, budgets, and the operating plan; escalate delivery constraints with practical options.
- Partner with Information Security and GRC teams to integrate security testing into pipelines and support compliance assessments and audits, keeping test evidence audit-ready.
- Manage testing tool vendors and licenses, partnering with procurement and finance on budget tracking.
- Perform other duties and support additional administrative priorities as assigned, consistent with the general scope and level of the position.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
