QA Architect at Digital Outsource Services (Pty) Ltd

Job description

Purpose:

The Test Architect will provide technical guidance for all aspects of testing, driving the design and development of our test architecture including the test automation framework, as well as being responsible for implementing latest technology, driving towards our continuous integration and delivery goal. This position will report into the Product Development Manager.

You will be working closely with the other Test Architect’s whilst leading a team of your own to achieve testability, maintainability and scalability of our software products. You will act as a mentor to your direct reports and offer coaching and guidance throughout.
You will work with the Head of QA to drive the strategy for the department and be the voice of your direct reports, as well as the test architecture when in conversation with stakeholders.

Duties will include, but not limited to:

The position will involve the following areas of responsibility:

• Collaborate with test and development team members on application & testing architecture, to ensure that the approaches and technologies applied to the current implementation are sound and fit for purpose
• Design / architect and implement regular robust full build / deploy / test automation process across both web and windows based product teams
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to members of the test team
• Ensure there is collaboration with test team members to ensure that the team inspect, adapt and continuously improve performance
• Coach, mentor, and develop staff, including overseeing new employee on boarding and providing career development planning and opportunities
• Empower employees to take responsibility for their jobs and goals. Delegate responsibility and expect accountability and regular feedback
• Analyses competitive products and technologies with appropriate suggestions (may use demos, pocs) to influence product / technology direction
• Pro-actively analyses current processes and practices with the ability to drive improvements Involved in recruitment process and maintainability of this

Essential Requirements:

• High level and understanding on industry-wide quality, TDD/BDD/ATDD, agile testing processes and practices, tools and techniques
• Ability to write integration and UI tests
• Experience mentoring / coaching
• Educated to degree level or equivalent
• Proficient in building automation frameworks in C# or Java
• Environment / Test Automation – Hands on experience using industry wide tools (Selenium Webdriver, Coded UI, Ranorex) to achieve Test Automation coverage across multiple environments
• Extensive experience in Web and / or Windows Testing
• Continuous Integration / Delivery – Hands on experience using industry wide tools (Jenkins, Bamboo) to ensure quick & risk-free releases
• A great deal of maturity, accountability, high degree of integrity, highest levels of pro-active behaviour, and ability to take initiative and lead by example

Advantageous Requirements

• Experience using Team City / Octo Deploy / Stash / Jira / Visual Studio
• ISTQB Advanced Level Technical Test Analyst Certification
• Experience of Release Management
• Experience using Test Complete
• Understanding of Infrastructure / Dev Ops

Personal Competencies:

• MUST have a passion for achieving excellence in product quality and reliability
• Ability to multi-task continuously, handling major stress when required
• Capable of working independently and as part of a team
• Be very organized and able to define and follow processes strictly
• Strong with methodologies, tools, best practices and processes within specific area of responsibility
• Proficient in utilizing quality improvement tools and techniques
• Be extremely detail-oriented with respect to documentation and communication
• Ability to embrace change & help enable Agile working practices
• Ability to work and communicate with senior positions to affect process change
• Key attention to detail
• Ability to lead through influence & coaching (Transformational)
• Determined and resilient
• Excellent soft skills