Sr. Director, Quality Assurance Engineering

About the Position:

DDM is seeking a highly experienced, capable Director of Quality Assurance Engineering to join its Digital Product & Technology team. This role will define and enforce high standards of excellence for our burgeoning Quality Assurance Engineering department, and will ensure an optimal experience for the consumers of our iconic media brands, including People, AllRecipes, InStyle, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens, and dozens more.

At DDM, quality assurance plays an integral part in our software-development life cycle. We have multiple teams of committed QA engineers who test a variety of products and services. As a seasoned veteran with more than a decade's experience with automated and manual testing methodologies, you will galvanize our QA resources and oversee Meredith Digital's first-ever centralized QA Engineering department. Extending the Consumer Engineering group, you will collaborate with directors and managers from Engineering, Product, and Project Management teams to gauge and fulfill testing needs, employing leading-edge techniques and technologies, and you will promote QA as a first-class citizen in the creation and deployment of Meredith Digital products.

This Senior Director will develop a global vision for QA at Meredith Digital while plotting strategies tailored to individual product types, which include highly trafficked Web sites, native mobile applications, Web-based internal tools, and back-end APIs. You will establish and document best practices, and you will train and motivate our excellent staff of QA managers and testing engineers, building a trusted, centralized QA culture within Meredith Digital.

You are passionate about quality-assurance, particularly in the areas of Web, mobile, and other consumer-facing experiences. You have extensive experience with automated testing frameworks, and you are continuously monitoring trends and developments in the QA engineering community for new insights. You are cognizant of business goals, and you understand and can articulate QA's contributions to Meredith's bottom line.

You are a leader and a seasoned manager who will coax the best performance from your team of QA managers and engineers. You desire and enjoy the responsibilities of a supervisory role, but your career was built on a foundation of quality-assurance testing, and you are still capable of being hands-on, should circumstances require your skills and experience.

Furthermore, you are:

• A communicator: Whether written or oral, your communication skills are outstanding in any context. Your interactions with stakeholders and coworkers move business forward in a dynamic, exciting, entrepreneurial working environment. You are as good – maybe better – at listening as you are at talking and writing.
• A problem-solver: You’re a results-oriented multi-tasker who runs toward a challenge. You’re able to work on multiple projects simultaneously and think independently. You are personally committed to completing a project with a conscientious attitude and good follow-through. You see to it that all assignments are completed correctly and uphold department and company standards.
• A leader: As a member of the technical leadership team, you are respected, and your counsel is sought by both technical and nontechnical partners. You advise senior management and help socialize business and technical strategic decisions to your direct reports and the individual contributors in your organization. You are an evangelist for QA as a discipline, and you are a passionate enforcer of best practices. You are an effective manager of people and embrace all responsibilities – pleasant and otherwise – associated with performance management and ensuring your team has what it needs to succeed.
• You are the greatest critic of what you deliver. You are proud of your work, and you stand by it. You are humbled but not defeated by failure and accept it as a critical part of learning. You are honest and never blame or project frustrations onto others.

Hybrid 3x a week- (list out city) 

In-office Expectations: This position is hybrid in-office, with the ability to work remotely for up to 2 days per week. We will focus on the tri-state area. 

About The Team: | The Team and/or Brand.

As a member of the Home brands team you will have a direct and immediate impact on improving the user experience for Better Homes & Gardens, The Spruce, Martha Stewart, Southern Living and Real Simple, among others.

About The Positions  Contributions:

Weight % Accountabilities, Actions and Expected Measurable Results

70%

Leadership

30%

Engineering Automation/QA Processes.

30%

Define Quality Assurance standards and practices: Document QA department guidelines and processes. Develop strategies for deploying automated and manual testing solutions for Web sites, Web tools, mobile applications, and APIs. Collaborate with engineering, product, and project-management leaders to assign QA resources and embed them in the software life cycle.

30%

Monitoring and feedback reporting: Keep track of output from automated and manual testing efforts. Develop systems for delivering test results back into the software-development pipeline. Determine metrics and continuously evaluate efficacy of QA department's efforts.

25%

Staff management: Regularly meet with direct reports to discuss job performance and goals. Effectively prioritize and delegate tasks. Conduct annual performance reviews.

15%

Strategy and Innovation: Keep abreast of technology trends and tools. Encourage and foster a climate of innovation within the QA team. Be future-focused, and devise and execute short- and long-term plans to continuously improve quality assurance throughout the Meredith organization.

About Your Qualifications:

Education:

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Masters in Engineering.

Experience:

10 years

12+ years of professional experience in digital quality assurance

7+ years of managing direct reports

7+ years of hands-on experience with automated and manual Web and mobile testing

Specific Knowledge, Skills, Certifications and Abilities:

Web Application Automation;Java and Javascript Programming language

• Ability to clearly articulate the strategies to Engineering leadership and Other stakeholders in direction of the QA organization.
• Develop and implement strategic quality management system processes that support the company’s growth objectives.
• Responsible for development of key high-level processes to ensure products meet expected strict quality expectations.
• Develop and execute a robust quality assurance strategy aligned with organizational goals and industry best practices.
• Manage multiple QA leaders, providing leadership and guidance to ensure effective team management and alignment.
• Extensive knowledge on CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices to better Test Orchestration platforms.
• Drive the multiple initiatives in implementation of cutting-edge automated testing frameworks and tools to enhance efficiency, increase test coverage, and reduce manual efforts.
• Identify potential quality risks and proactively develop comprehensive risk mitigation plans, preventing issues before they impact timelines across various initiatives.
• Deliver clear and transparent communication on the status of QA efforts, risks, and recommendations to leadership.
• Lead, mentor, and empower a high-performing QA team, fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, and continuous growth.
• Ability to clearly articulate the strategies to Engineering leadership and Other stakeholders in direction of the QA organization.

III. Minimum Qualifications and Job Requirements | All must be met to be considered.

Specific Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Thorough knowledge of and experience with all testing types, e.g. functional, regression, etc.
• Thorough knowledge and experience with automated testing solutions, e.g. Selenium. Particular experience with Katalon Studio is a major plus.
• Familiarity with software-development and continuous-integration conventions and tooling, including Git, Github, CircleCI, and Jenkins.
• Experience integrating QA into an agile development methodology, using JIRA or similar management tools.
• Experience with testing APIs is a plus.
• Knowledge of and experience with Amazon Web Services is a plus.
• Intermediate to advanced grasp of Web technologies (HTML, CSS, javascript, HTTP) , and comfort using and teaching others to use Web debugging strategies, like browser developer tools and consoles.
• Outstanding management skills and natural leadership qualities
• Outstanding communication, analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to parse input efficiently, make good decisions quickly, and have courage of convictions
• Ability to be flexible, negotiate in good faith, compromise where needed, and find paths forward
• Sharp focus on leveraging technology to improve business’ bottom line