Staff Quality Engineer

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

Responsibilities

Primary Responsibilities

• Spearheads the design and implementation of end-to-end and exploratory testing strategies, ensuring comprehensive coverage of software solutions.
• Works with engineering teams to integrate testing into the SDLC, leveraging manual and automated testing techniques while aligning with performance, security, and scalability goals.
• Collaborates with infrastructure teams for performance and infrastructure testing, UX/UI teams for usability and accessibility testing, security teams for security and penetration testing, and DevOps teams for CI/CD pipeline integration ensuring that testing is automated, continuous, and scalable.
• Ensures that automation testing efforts are consistently happening, measured for effectiveness, and continuously improved.
• Analyzes testing metrics and performance data to optimize strategies and identify areas for improvement.
• Clearly articulates testing strategies, results, and plans to cross-functional teams, particularly regarding infrastructure, security, and system architecture.
• Provides guidance and training across the organization on best practices, tools, and technologies to elevate testing maturity and technical capability beyond just the QA team.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.
• This job description includes a general representation of job requirements rather than a comprehensive inventory of all required responsibilities or work activities.  The contents of this document or related job requirements may change at any time, with or without notice.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to adjust to changing priorities and work in a fast-paced environment.
• Solid critical thinking skills to identify issues and propose effective solutions.
• Team-oriented mindset with the ability to work effectively with diverse teams.
• Ability to understand team members' perspectives to foster a supportive and productive work environment.
• Keen eye for detail to ensure thoroughness in testing and documentation.
• Excellent organizational skills to balance multiple projects and deadlines effectively.
• Proficiency in end-to-end and exploratory testing methodologies.
• Comprehensive understanding and substantive expertise in various testing types, including  Functional Testing, Regression Testing, Performance Testing, Security Testing, Usability Testing, Integration Testing, Unit Testing, User Acceptance Testing, and Accessibility Testing.
• Expertise in programming or scripting languages commonly used in automation (e.g., Java, Python, JavaScript).
• Knowledge of performance testing tools (e.g., LoadRunner, JMeter).
• Strong understanding of SDLC, Agile methodologies, and experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).
• Excellent analytical skills for data-driven decision-making.
• Advanced communication skills for articulating complex technical concepts to stakeholders in easy-to-understand methods.
• Demonstrated ability to manage and prioritize multiple testing initiatives simultaneously.
• Proven track record of driving quality improvements across cross-functional teams.
• Advanced understanding of the application testing landscape and advantages/disadvantages of competing tools.

Education          

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.

Experience

• 9 years of experience in quality assurance or Software Engineering with a strong emphasis on automation and technical testing.
• Experience with widespread testing and test management tools (e.g., Selenium, JIRA, TestRail).
• Experience in leading QA teams or projects, focus focusing on mentoring and developing team members.

Experience in lieu of education

• Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements.  Generally, equivalent r