[Remote] Lead, Software Quality Assurance- Contract-to-Hire

Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Lirio is a technology/software company that specializes in behavioral science, data science, and machine learning. The Software QA Lead Engineer is responsible for quality strategy and execution across Lirio’s cloud-native platform, leading a shift-left quality approach and mentoring QA engineers. Responsibilities • Lead the design, implementation, and execution of comprehensive test strategy across APIs, services, event-driven workflows (Kafka), and UI surfaces • Own and evolve automated test coverage (unit, integration, contract, end-to-end) and maintain a risk-based manual test strategy where automation is not practical • Ensure test coverage for functional, regression, integration, performance, and reliability testing (timeouts, retries, idempotency, failure modes) • Advocate for quality engineering practices (TDD where appropriate, CI quality gates, code review standards, and testability in design) • Define and maintain quality gates in CI/CD (e.g., minimum coverage thresholds, contract test pass, critical path E2E pass, vulnerability scan pass where applicable) • Partner with Cloud/SRE to validate release readiness via observability (logging, metrics, tracing) and operational dashboards • Embed quality and testability considerations into feature and system design by reviewing application logic, APIs, data models, event contracts, and UI workflows in partnership with engineers • Establish and enforce standards for automation quality, including flakiness reduction, stabilization practices, clear ownership, and expectations for timely remediation of broken or unreliable tests • Define and document QA processes and best practices • Collaborate with product owners and developers to clarify requirements and acceptance criteria • Participate in backlog refinement and sprint planning to ensure testability of features • Facilitate agile ceremonies as needed • Build and maintain shared QA practices, documentation, and knowledge-sharing mechanisms (playbooks, training, cross-coverage) to avoid single points of failure across squads and releases • Standardize testing approaches for event-driven systems, including message schema validation, backward compatibility, replay scenarios, idempotency, ordering assumptions, and failure handling (Kafka and similar messaging technologies) • Stay current with industry trends, tools, and technologies in software testing • Promote continuous improvement and innovation within the QA team • Evaluate and adopt tooling that improves cycle time (local test environments, ephemeral environments, test data management) • Support production releases, participate in incident triage, and drive root cause analysis with Engineering, SRE/Cloud, and Customer Operations • Track defect escape trends and drive corrective actions (test additions, gating changes, process improvements) • Triage and resolve defects, collaborating with development and support teams Skills • 5-7 years of related experience • Bachelor's degree in related field • Experienced with test automation for APIs/services (e.g., JUnit/TestNG for JVM services, PyTest for Python services) • UI automation experience (e.g., Cypress or Playwright, Jasmine) where applicable • Performance testing (e.g., Gatling, k6, JMeter) and contract testing (e.g., Pact or equivalent) experience • Observability tooling familiarity (Datadog/OpenTelemetry concepts) • Familiarity with CI/CD tools and processes • Experience with version control (e.g., Git) • Cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure) • Scripting and programming languages (e.g., Java, TypeScript, Groovy, Python) • Agile methodologies (e.g., Scrum, XP, SAFe) • Experience with Databases/SQL, Kafka, and Kubernetes • Leadership and coaching skills • Ability to operate in ambiguity and improve systems iteratively (not waiting for perfect process) • Strong judgment around risk-based testing and release decisions • Strong organizational and time management skills • Excellent communication and collaboration abilities • Adaptability and problem-solving skills • Ability to translate complex technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders Benefits • Medical (HSA available) • Dental • Vision • Short-term & long-term disability (company-paid) • Life & AD&D (company-paid) • 401K with company match • 10 paid holidays, quarterly company closure dates, + holiday week company closure • Flexible time off policy • Work from home • 6 weeks paid parental leave Company Overview • Lirio is a behavior change AI platform that delivers behavioral engagement solutions for organizations. It was founded in 2016, and is headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, with a workforce of 51-200 employees. Its website is https://lirio.com.