LOCATION: This position is hybrid and based in Manitoba. SCHEDULE: Full-Time REPORTS TO: Manager, Business Analysis and Quality Assurance DIRECT REPORTS: Quality Assurance Engineers, Test Automation Engineers
PURPOSE OF POSITION: This position will lead and oversee the Quality Assurance (QA) team, ensuring the development and implementation of effective QA strategies and processes. This position provides guidance and support to team members, sets performance goals, and fosters a collaborative work environment. This position also coordinates with stakeholders and cross-functional teams to ensure projects meet quality standards and milestones. Additionally, this position ensures continuous improvement of QA frameworks and supports the creation and execution of test plans and scripts.
KEY RESPONSIBILITY AREAS: • Work with the Manager, Process and Business Analysis to develop and implement the QA framework, processes, and testing strategy, ensuring adherence to industry standards and best practices. • Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of QA activities, adjusting as necessary to improve quality and efficiency. • Work with the Manager, Process and Business Analysis to make informed decisions regarding QA strategies and methodologies, balancing quality with project and operational constraints • Ensure all software releases meet established quality criteria before deployment and submit relevant material to the Change Advisory Board (CAB) for approval in a timely manner. • Foster a proactive approach to identifying potential risks and implementing preventive measures. • Develop and drive the adoption of best practices and standards for test automation, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability of automation suites. • Work with Manager, Process and Business Analysis and Senior Automation Engineer to define and implement the overall automation strategy. • Lead efforts to automate repetitive testing tasks, thereby reducing manual effort and increasing test coverage and reliability. • Coordinate with stakeholders to ensure QA activities are aligned with timelines and objectives. • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to estimate the QA effort for operations and projects. • Represent the QA team in cross-functional meetings, providing updates and insights on QA progress and challenges. • Maintain open and effective communication channels with other IT practices and departments to ensure seamless integration of QA activities. • Participate in vendor discussions for clarification of questions and defect findings. • Address and resolve any issues or challenges that arise during the QA process, ensuring minimal impact on timelines. • Facilitating collaborative problem-solving sessions to address complex quality challenges, leveraging the collective expertise of the team. • Collaborate on the development of comprehensive Test Plans, Scenarios, Cases, and Scripts aligned with business requirements. • Review and ensure test coverage by evaluating test cases provided by the onshore and offshore team to ensure the overall quality and stability of products. • Identify, document, and track software defects, collaborating closely with the development team to ensure timely resolution. • Conduct defect triage meetings to ensure all defects are reviewed and triaged based on business priorities in a timely manner. • Perform manual and automated test execution. • Collaborate with both onshore and offshore team members in reviewing proposed solutions, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the requirements, and contributing to the overall quality of delivered systems via comprehensive test coverage. • Stay current on industry best practices and emerging trends in Guidewire, other enterprise applications, and quality assurance. • Apply Lean values and practices in exercising the duties of this position. • Foster a culture of quality by improving automation tooling, implementing processes and best practices, and introducing innovative approaches to the team across different phases of the SDLC • Continuously research and integrate the latest methodologies and testing tools where necessary to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the QA process.
Leadership: • Provide leadership and guidance to the QA team, fostering a collaborative and high-performance work environment. • Set clear performance goals for both the team and individuals, measuring progress towards those objectives. • Mentor QA team members, providing technical guidance and support to remove blockers, enhance their skills and knowledge. • Allocate resources effectively to meet operation and project deadlines, managing workload distribution within the team. • Identify training needs and facilitate professional development opportunities for team members. • Address and resolve conflicts effectively while maintaining a productive and healthy team culture. • Track and report on QA metrics weekly, providing insights and recommendations for improvements. • Elevate QA engineering across teams, ensuring quality software and a delightful user experience through continuous, iterative testing practices • To motivate, coach and hold accountable employees under your direction in the business. • Administer timely performance reviews, assessing needs for education, rewards and setting direction. • Embody and influence the organization to have the following leadership competencies:
Red River Mutual Competencies Definition Integrity, Ethics, and Respect Exemplifies ethical practices, professionalism, and personal integrity in dealing with both internal and external colleagues and stakeholders. Creates a respectful and trusting work environment where sound advice is valued. Encourages the expression of diverse opinions and perspectives, while fostering cooperation. Challenges biases and looks to remove them. Self-aware and seeks out opportunities for personal growth. Builds a respectful workplace. This competency is the basis for all other competencies.
Strategic Orientation Visions the future, builds plans, makes decisions, and executes to get there. Intellectually agile, leverages deep and broad knowledge, to build on diverse ideas and perspectives. Creates consensus around compelling visions to support the short and long-term goals and deliverables of the company.
Motivate and Inspire People Shows passion for the job. Committed to ongoing improvement of own skills as well as employees’ skills. Inspires and motivates the people they lead. Manages performance, provides constructive and respectful feedback and mentorship to encourage and enable performance excellence. Gives autonomy in important areas of work and involves employees when making decisions that affect them. Is self-aware and demonstrates a commitment to ongoing learning and development.
Effective Communication Fosters open communication, listens to others, speaks effectively, and prepares written communication so that messages are clearly understood. Tailors’ language, tone, style, and format to match the audience.
Accountability and Results Enables and manages resources to deliver on the priorities of Red River Mutual, to improve outcomes and add value. Takes personal responsibility for actions and outcomes of decisions and inspires others to do the same. Delivers on business results by using sound critical thinking skills and initiative. Aligns people, work, and systems with the business strategy to harmonize what they do and how they do it to meet business objectives.
Promote Innovation and Embrace Change Thinks creatively; is open to new ideas and technologies. Champions change. Is flexible and adaptable in meeting changing demands of clients and stakeholders. Uses setbacks as a valuable source of insight and learning. Takes change in stride, aligning and adjusting milestones and targets to maintain forward momentum.
Collaborate and Engagement with Colleagues and Stakeholders Works collaboratively with colleagues and stakeholders. Gathers input, genuinely values others’ ideas and expertise; willing to learn from others. Works with others to resolve conflicts, by using problem solving and communication skills. Recognizes that the leader alone cannot get the job done. Surrounds self with excellent talent. Builds successful relationships within team, as well as with internal and external stakeholders.
QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS: • A minimum of 5 years of experience in quality assurance is required. • A minimum of 2 years in a supervisory or leadership role is required. • A College or University degree in Computer Science, or related discipline is required. • Experience in the insurance industry. • Experience standardizing testing processes and creating consistency across various teams. • Skilled in test planning and execution of comprehensive test strategies. • Experience in developing test automation strategies and automation tools/frameworks. • Solid understanding of SDLC, CI/CD, and DevOps practices. • Experience using tools like Jira, Rally, SharePoint, and Teams. • Experience in quality assurance within the Guidewire environment is a strong asset. • Guidewire Certifications and exposure to Guidewire Testing (GT) framework is considered as asset. • Testing certifications, such as Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP), International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB), or Certified Software Testing Engineer (CSTE), is considered an asset. • Certification and/or experience with Agile (Scrum) methodologies; Lean experience is desirable.
We thank all applicants for their interest; however only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
Accommodation for applicants with disabilities is available upon request any time during the recruitment process. Our Accessible employment policies and practices are available on request and in accessible formats. Applicants with disabilities can request accessible formats of communication and/or request an alternative method of applying for a position by contacting humanresources@redrivermutual.com or 1-800-370-2888 (toll free).
