Senior QA Test Lead / Senior Test Lead

Senior QA Test Lead

Location: Downtown Toronto, ON

Work Arrangement: Onsite

Contract Duration: November, 2026 – October, 2027

Job Summary

We are seeking an experienced Senior QA Test Lead to lead quality assurance and testing activities throughout the delivery lifecycle of complex digital and enterprise solutions. The successful candidate will be responsible for defining the overall test strategy, developing and executing comprehensive test plans, coordinating testing activities across business and technical teams, and ensuring effective defect management and quality reporting.

The ideal candidate has strong experience leading both manual and automated testing, managing testing risks, and providing evidence-based recommendations on solution quality and production readiness.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the overall test strategy, testing framework, and quality-management approach.
• Develop comprehensive test plans, schedules, scenarios, scripts, procedures, and completion reports.
• Lead end-to-end testing activities, including functional, integration, system, regression, accessibility, performance, security, and user acceptance testing.
• Apply manual and automated testing approaches to improve test coverage, efficiency, and reliability.
• Identify opportunities to implement test automation for user-interface, API, and database testing, where appropriate.
• Select and apply appropriate testing tools, programming languages, frameworks, and quality practices.
• Coordinate test environments, test data, access requirements, tools, and supporting resources.
• Establish testing entry and exit criteria, requirements traceability, and test-coverage measures.
• Lead defect triage, prioritize issues, and monitor defects through resolution, retesting, and closure.
• Develop and maintain test metrics, dashboards, traceability reports, and quality assessments.
• Identify testing risks, dependencies, constraints, and mitigation strategies.
• Coordinate testing activities with business stakeholders, developers, architects, security, privacy, and operational teams.
• Communicate testing progress, quality indicators, outstanding defects, and release risks to project leadership and senior stakeholders.
• Provide evidence-based recommendations regarding release readiness and production deployment.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Demonstrated experience leading testing for large, complex digital or enterprise solutions.
• Proven experience developing and managing comprehensive test strategies, test plans, schedules, scenarios, scripts, procedures, and completion reports.
• Strong experience leading multiple testing disciplines, including functional, integration, system, regression, accessibility, performance, security, and user acceptance testing.
• Hands-on experience with both manual testing and test automation methodologies.
• Experience applying automation tools and frameworks to UI, API, or database testing, as appropriate.
• Experience selecting and implementing testing tools, programming languages, frameworks, and quality-assurance practices.
• Experience establishing test environments, preparing test data, and defining testing entry and exit criteria.
• Demonstrated ability to manage defects, requirements traceability, test evidence, and test coverage.
• Experience developing quality metrics, dashboards, reports, and assessments to support informed decision-making.
• Proven ability to assess release readiness, identify residual quality risks, and provide actionable recommendations.
• Experience coordinating testing across multidisciplinary business and technical teams.

Core Competencies

• Strong leadership and team coordination skills.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder-management abilities.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and risk-assessment skills.
• Ability to communicate complex technical issues and quality risks clearly to senior stakeholders.
• Strong organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple testing activities, priorities, and dependencies.
• A quality-focused approach with an emphasis on test coverage, risk mitigation, and continuous improvement.

Areas of Focus

• Test Leadership and Strategy (40%): Lead end-to-end testing for complex solutions, establish testing strategies and quality criteria, and coordinate multidisciplinary testing activities.
• Test Execution and Defect Management (35%): Oversee testing execution, defect resolution, requirements traceability, test coverage, and release-quality assessments.
• Communication and Reporting (25%): Provide clear reporting, facilitate collaboration across business and technical teams, and communicate quality risks and release recommendations to senior stakeholders.

Work Location

This is an onsite contract opportunity based in downtown Toronto, Ontario.

Note: We use AI tools to: obtain basic information, detect plagiarism, false employment history or references, categorize your skills, and do an initial match with job postings.

Note: Background checks needing to be completed for successfully hired candidates.

Note: Third parties need not apply