Lead Software Engineer, Quality Assurance

At ACT, Your Work Makes a Difference

Education has power – a power that changes lives forever. It creates opportunities that lift up individuals, their families, and sparks societal change that echoes through generations to come. From our grassroots we have fought the good fight for equity in education, and we remain devoted to helping anyone who struggles to access that power. This is what matters to us and we must do better -- we’ve never been more sure of our purpose.

ACT team members are part of an organization dedicated to a mission that has never been more important: Helping people achieve education and workplace success. Advancing that mission within our organization, by helping our team members achieve education and workplace success of their own, is core to our values. ACT values a diverse workplace and is committed to fostering an inclusive, equitable environment in which every team member has an opportunity to grow.

We want our team members to have the well-being and confidence they need to do their best work, in an environment where both they and ACT thrive.   To support this, our total rewards include company paid life insurance, medical, dental, vision, flexible health and dependent spending accounts, 401(k) retirement savings with company match, paid holidays, paid time off, and so much more.  You can find a comprehensive list of our benefits here .

We are seeking a Lead Software Engineer, Quality Assurance to help us fulfill that mission.

The Lead Software Engineer in Quality Assurance upholds and continually improves ACT’s Software Quality Assurance and Engineering standards and processes. The role is responsible for ensuring the highest quality of our products by designing, developing, implementing, and supporting solutions to support the quality assurance and testing processes, especially in test automation. The Lead Software Engineer will have significant expertise with the tools, technologies, systems, strong knowledge of industry trends and will be forward thinking. This position will lead the work of cross functional teams and contractors to drive efficiencies and foster a growth mindset through building, maintaining and enhancing a test automation framework that will be used across ACT’s software Product suite and internal back-office systems.

The Lead Software Engineer in Quality Assurance ensures QA and Test activities and deliverables are completed on-time and on-budget. This position will report and work closely with VP of Quality Assurance and Engineering to develop the technology strategic timeline for automation.

The finalist will be hired at the salary and level commensurate with their qualifications. For this position, we anticipate offering an annual salary in the range of $108,750 to $135,000. ACT manages salaries within the range based on relevant factors including, skills, experience, and internal equity.

Location: This is a remote position, based in the United States.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for visa sponsorship.

What You Will Be Working On

• Independently plan and execute ACT’s Software QAE Strategy within one or more scrum teams. Proactively own all testing activities related to Scrum team execution.
• Lead and mentor one or more Software Engineer-QAs and monitor/guide progress of tasks related to QAE Strategy as well as ACT’s Strategic Goals.
• Independently develop, automate and execute test plans to meet and increase automated testing coverage in our pipelines.
• Identify, document, triage, and resolve issues found during test execution.
• Report QA metrics and status to product and scrum teams.
• Ensure compliance for version control for automation scripts and other related artifacts.
• Propose and implement solutions related to test data management.
• Lead and actively participate in design/architectural discussions, user story grooming, sprint demos, and daily Scrums to help establish a Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) approach.
• Ensure compliance for version control for automation scripts and other related artifacts
• Assist in deployment verification activities.
• Monitor product reliability, consistency, and performance.
• Independently collaborate with Scrum team to support all testing activities.
• Recommend product, infrastructure, or design changes to ensure quality and performance standards.
• Initiative and lead conversations about tool selection, organizational standards, best practices and process improvements and make recommendations based on industry standards and understanding of ACT needs through test automation, Robotic Process Automation or AI.
• Lead the work of contractors and serve as point of contact with vendors.

At The End Of 1 Month, You Will

• Have your development and testing environments set up (hardware, software, tools).
• Have learned about existing projects, codebase, and the current testing processes via KT sessions.
• Be familiar with the team's QA standards, documentation, and test frameworks.
• Have met with stakeholders and shadowed QA team members to understand the testing processes, tools.
• Have performed simple tasks such as writing and executing test cases.
• Begin performing manual testing on smaller modules or components.

At The End Of 3 Months, You Will

• Take ownership of well-defined testing tasks (manual/automation/performance testing).
• Begin leading the work of other Software Engineers across one or more scrum teams.
• Continue learning about and start to apply best practices for test case creation, execution, and bug reporting.
• Begin performing full module testing (both manual and automated).
• Write, execute, and review test cases for new features and bug fixes.
• Shadow and document smaller and previously solved INC resolutions with the help of the team. members/existing KT articles.
• Collaborate with developers and other teams to reproduce and resolve issues when necessary.
• Understand all the tools and technologies that the team uses (AWS, RedLine13, JMeter etc.) and how they are utilized.

At The End Of 6 Months, You Will

• Lead all testing activities (planning to execution) for multiple scrum teams for UI and backend.
• Lead functional and performance testing to ensure system efficiency and scalability.
• Independently write, review and approve comprehensive test cases to cover various scenarios and edge cases for scrum teams.
• Consistently complete own and team assigned tasks and stories independently, ensuring quality and meeting deadlines.
• Contribute to the creation/updating confluence pages when needed for others to use.
• Develop a solid understanding of the applications owned by the team, including their functionalities, and be routinely using them.
• Actively collaborate both within the QA team and with other teams to ensure seamless integration of testing into the development.

This could be the job for you if you have (minimum requirements):

* A minimum of 7 years of progressive IT experience in software development, focusing on quality assurance and engineering that includes experience with the following:

• Coding in Java, Javascript, Python, Selenium, TOSCA QTest (TOSCA Certified preferred)
• API test automation tools using Postman or RestAPI
• CI/CD automation using Jenkins
• IDE like Visual Studio, Eclipse, or IntelliJ
• Performance and Load Testing using tools like Jmeter, Redline, LoadRunner
• Data Analysis Tools like Datadog or Splunk
• SQL and Database platforms like MySQL, MongoDB, or Postgressql
• Version Control Tools like GIT
• Application Lifecycle Management tools like Jira or Rally
• Experience in architecting software solutions, and technical design in continuous integration environment required.
• Experience leading the work of cross functional teams.
• Experience leading and managing third party vendors.
• Experience working in an Agile development environment required.
• Develop and lead planning and execution of ACT’s Software QAE Strategy within one or more scrum teams.
• Lead 1 or more SE-QAs and monitor progress of tasks related to QAE Strategy
• Understanding of automated testing frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to learn new technologies quickly and effectively.
• Ability to work as part of a Scrum team.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Results-oriented and able to work across the organization.
• Comfortable working in a rapidly transforming organization.
• Skills and knowledge required for success in this position attained through experience and education (Bachelor’s Degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, information systems, or related field of study), or a combination of both.

About ACT

About ACT

When ACT was founded in 1959, it disrupted the assessment industry with a new approach to helping students better understand their readiness so they could take steps to improve it. By leveraging our expertise and authority in assessment and research, we will again disrupt the industry—helping more people learn, better measure their progress, and improve their navigation through life’s transitions.

More than ever before, ACT is fulfilling its mission of helping people achieve education and workplace success. We’re doing it by pushing the boundaries of learning innovation through the work of our people, who we call team members because we’re all in this together.

We know transformation does not come without challenge. That’s why ACT invests in a variety of experiences for team members to strengthen their connections, explore ideas, learn from customers, and celebrate success.

Learn more about working at ACT at act.org !

ACT is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. ACT values diversity in people and ideas and participates in E-verify. ACT's online position announcements are intended only to provide general descriptions of employment opportunities; none of the information provided for any position should be interpreted as a commitment by ACT to specific terms and conditions for employment. Application FAQs

If you have received an ACT employment-related communication from an email address that is not affiliated with @act.org and/or that requests personal or financial information, please do not reply. Instead, reach out to us at careers@act.org with the details. ACT's recruitment team appreciates your interest in working with us to transform college and career readiness pathways for all learners and wishes you the best of luck in your career journey.