Software QA Technical Lead

IDEALFORCE has a Contract-to-Hire position available immediately for a Software QA Technical Lead to join our customer in Phoenix Arizona. This is an Hybrid position. Please find below additional details about this job. Kindly respond with your most up to date resume if you would like to pursue this opportunity. The Impact Lead the quality platform behind mission-critical software at Client. Partner directly with architects to fix today’s framework pain, modernize our stack, and hard-wire a true shift-left culture—while piloting AI-assisted testing to boost coverage, speed, and confidence. What You’ll Do • Own the quality platform: Set strategy, architecture, and standards for automation—Java today, with pragmatic evolution to modern UI/API automation where it improves reliability. • Embed quality early: Drive PR-level tests, contract/API checks, and CI/CD quality gates for rapid, trusted developer feedback. • Apply AI where it counts: Use AI/LLM-assisted test generation, self-healing locators, flake triage, and test-impact analysis to reduce toil and raise signal. • Simplify the SDLC: With DevOps, streamline pipelines, test data management, environment provisioning, and release guardrails for faster flow. • Solve hard problems with architects: Tackle cross-cutting issues (auth, data, performance, flakiness) and retire tech debt with durable solutions. • Build the right tests: Expand reliable web/UI, API, and integration coverage; harden environments and test data. • Coach and elevate: Mentor QA engineers, review automation code, and set standards for readability, reliability, and maintainability. • Measure what matters: Stand up live dashboards (coverage, pass/fail, flakiness, MTTR) to inform decisions and continuously raise the bar. • Own root cause: Lead deep-dive debugging across test and prod, driving prevention—not just fixes. Your Toolbox (What We Use & Value) • Languages/Frameworks: Java, JUnit, Maven; BDD with Cucumber/Gherkin. • Automation: Selenium WebDriver (today); informed experience with Playwright (Java/TypeScript) a plus. • CI/CD & SCM: Jenkins, GitHub Actions; GitHub for collaboration. • Observability & Metrics: Grafana (quality and performance dashboards). • Backend/Platform context: Spring Boot/Spring Security; Oracle DB; FileNet/content systems. • Scripting: PowerShell or similar for utilities. • Quality practices: Testing pyramid, risk-based design, code reviews, and environment parity. Where We’re Headed (And Where You’ll Lead) • GitHub-native CI/CD: Standardize on GitHub pipelines for frequent, automated deployments—define branch strategy, environment promotions, and reusable workflows that make shipping safe by default. • Reliable testing for high velocity: Build a strategy that scales with cadence—PR checks, contract/API tests, fast UI smoke suites, test-impact analysis, deterministic data & ephemeral envs, parallelization, and rigorous flake control. • AI-assisted, data-driven quality: Apply LLM-assisted test generation/self-healing and enforce quality gates backed by live dashboards (coverage, flakiness, MTTR, DORA) to boost signal and confidence. • Framework evolution (tool-agnostic): Evaluate and pilot modern UI/API automation options against clear criteria (reliability, speed, parity, maintainability, ROI) and recommend phased adoption that protects delivery. What You Bring • 10+ years in QA/automation with 5+ years leading/architecting frameworks. • Proven success embedding automated quality gates into CI/CD for high-velocity releases. • Track record mentoring engineers and raising the bar on code quality and test design. • Comfort collaborating with architects and senior engineers on systemic quality problems. Nice-To-Have • Experience introducing AI tooling (e.g., Copilot, test-gen, self-healing) into real teams. • Performance, security, or contract-testing exposure. Required Skills • 3+ years in a technical leadership or lead automation engineer role. MUST have Leadership experience • Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) using Gherkin or Cucumber • JavaScript, PowerShell, Python, Bash, or Ruby experience • Experience with Spring Framework Preferred Skills • Grafana experience • Container Architecture: Docker or Kubernetes • Experience with Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform • Maven • AI experience • Jira • Confluence THIRD PARTY CANDIDATES: Email your candidate/s resume to jb dot resumes at idealforce.com along with the following details: Rate, Current location and Availability. Disclaimer : The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.