JOB DESCRIPTION

Associate Quality Assurance Manager

SUMMARY

As an Associate Quality Assurance Manager, you will support the quality control lifecycle across development, implementation, customer UAT, warranty, and post-production support phases. Working closely with the QA Manager, you will help build and execute testing protocols, contribute to the definition of quality frameworks and procedures, and ensure adherence to user and stakeholder-defined specifications. A key focus of this role is championing shift-left testing practices and leveraging AI-driven quality engineering to detect defects earlier, accelerating test cycles, and continuously improving software quality. This role serves as a developmental step toward QA management, combining hands-on technical involvement with growing leadership responsibilities.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Quality Strategy & Planning

• Assist the QA Manager in creating and managing the QA strategy, test plans, and quality roadmap
• Support the allocation of QA resources and help monitor daily progress across active projects
• Help define and optimize processes for issue identification, tracking, and resolution

Shift-Left Testing & Early Quality Integration

• Co-champion shift-left testing practices by embedding quality checks earlier in the SDLC, including requirements review, static analysis, and unit test advocacy
• Collaborate with development teams to integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines, enabling continuous validation from the earliest stages of code commit.
• Drive the adoption of test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD) approaches across QA and development teams
• Promote early defect detection by facilitating shift-left activities such as code reviews, design walkthroughs, and pre-sprint quality gates
• Track and report shift-left metrics including defect leakage rates, defect detection efficiency, and cost-of-quality trends to demonstrate value of early testing

AI-Driven Quality Engineering

• Leverage AI and machine learning tools to enhance test case generation, prioritization, and optimization across regression and functional test suites
• Evaluate and implement AI-powered testing platforms (e.g., intelligent test automation, self-healing test scripts, predictive analytics for defect hotspots) to improve testing efficiency
• Utilize AI-assisted tools such as generative AI copilots, smart code review assistants, and natural language test authoring to accelerate QA workflows
• Drive adoption of AI-based root cause analysis and log analytics to reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) for production defects
• Stay current on emerging AI/ML trends in quality engineering and present recommendations for tool adoption and process innovation to leadership

Technical Leadership

• Contribute to the delivery and implementation of quality assurance technology solutions and industry best practices
• Support the management of QA-related risk tracking processes and mitigation plans
• Participate in Agile SDLC ceremonies and help enforce quality standards within sprint cycles
• Assist in managing multiple QA workstreams simultaneously, ensuring timely and quality deliverables

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Foster partnerships with customers, stakeholders, and sponsors to understand quality expectations
• Work closely with Engineering teams and leadership to support root cause analysis, debugging, and issue resolution
• Review and contribute to functional and performance test plans and cases for internal and external-facing software systems

Team Development & Culture

• Mentor and guide QA Analysts and SDETs, helping resolve priority issues and team conflicts under the direction of the QA Manager
• Help build a strong technical culture that encourages individual growth, innovation, and solutions flexibility
• Support resource assignment decisions, recruiting efforts, training programs, and quality assurance assessments
• Drive upskilling initiatives in AI tooling and shift-left methodologies across the QA team

Operational Excellence

• Assist in performance reviews and provide inputs for talent management and upskilling initiatives
• Contribute to budgeting discussions and support the financial discipline of the department
• Research and share upcoming trends in Quality Assurance, AI-driven testing, and shift-left software practices with the broader team
• Support alignment of QA activities with Annual Operating Plan (AOP) goals and departmental objectives

EDUCATION & REQUIRED SKILLS

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field (Master’s degree preferred)
• 1-5 years of leadership experience
• 4–12 years of progressive experience in Quality Assurance or Software Testing
• Demonstrated experience with automation frameworks and tools (e.g., Selenium, Cucumber, REST Assured, Robot Framework, or similar)
• Working knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodologies and SDLC best practices
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps) and test environment management
• Hands-on experience implementing shift-left testing strategies including static analysis, early integration testing, and quality gate enforcement
• Exposure to AI/ML-powered testing tools or platforms (e.g., AI-based test generation, intelligent test maintenance, predictive defect analysis)
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to convey quality metrics and insights to leadership
• Demonstrated customer centricity and effective stakeholder management abilities
• Data-driven mindset with the ability to produce actionable insights from quality metrics, dashboards, and AI analytics
• Ability to navigate teams through high-pressure situations and competing priorities
• Track record of driving continuous improvement and quality excellence within teams
• Developing executive presence with the ability to represent the QA function in cross-functional forums
• Self-motivated with a passion for championing quality as a core organizational value
• Collaborative leadership style with a focus on coaching, mentoring, and talent development
• Growth mindset toward adopting AI tools and emerging technologies in the QA engineering space

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in the healthcare or health insurance technology domain (e.g., claims processing, Medicare/Medicaid systems)
• ISTQB, CSTE, or other relevant QA certifications
• Experience with test management tools such as Github, Azure DevOps, Jira, or similar platforms
• Familiarity with performance testing, security testing, or accessibility testing
• Prior experience in a people management or team lead capacity
• Certification or coursework in AI/ML fundamentals, prompt engineering, or applied AI for software testing
• Experience with AI copilot tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT) for test scripting, code reviews, or documentation