Role overview

Responsibilities:

Provides advice on the testing strategy, test plans, the selection of testing tools, and the identification of resources required for testing.
Plans and organizes testing efforts for large systems in Graphical User Interface (GUI) and non-Graphical User Interface (GUI) environments, including the execution of systems integration tests, specialized tests, and user acceptance testing (e.g., stress tests).
The Quality Assurance Specialist is responsible for the development of test plans, test scripts and test cases and executing these against the various components. The tester will work with the testing lead and IT lead of each project as well as the project team members in the analysis, design, development, implementation and ongoing support of the required systems.
Executes functional, integration, system, and regression tests.
Validates that the system behaves as expected under various conditions.
Identifies, document, and track software defects using tools like ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, and Azure DevOps.
Works closely with developers to reproduce and resolve issues.
Develops and maintains automated test scripts using tools like Micro Focus, OpenText UFT, Selenium, TestComplete, or Postman.
Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines.
Conduct performance, stress, and load testing to ensure the system can handle expected user traffic and data volumes.
Knowledge and understanding of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) and related regulations and standards.
Collaborate with developers, business analysts, and project managers to clarify requirements and ensure quality.
Participate in Agile ceremonies like sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
Maintain detailed documentation of test results, test coverage, and quality metrics.
Provide input for user manuals and release notes.
Ensure testing processes comply with industry standards and regulatory requirements.

General Skills:

Experience in planning, organizing and implementing testing efforts at the specified experience level
Knowledge of structured methodologies for the development, design, implementation and maintenance of applications
Knowledge and experience in the use of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools and data query tools to aid in the development of test cases
Knowledge and experience in the use of automated test tools and version control systems on one or more platforms
Experience executing functional tests, non-functional tests and systems level integration tests
Experience supporting user acceptance testing and participating in UAT activities
Experience with quality assurance principles, practices, tools and structured methodologies
Experience creating testing strategy documentation, test plans, test cases and test data for various types and phases of testing, including technical and business functional validation
Experience in quality assurance and testing, including unit testing, integration testing, load testing, performance testing, etc.
Knowledge and experience in all phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle
Excellent analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills; organizational, creativity and perseverance skills; verbal and written communication skills; and interpersonal skills
A team player with a track record for meeting deadlines
Knowledge of one or more automated testing tools
Knowledge of system, integration, regression, and acceptance testing.
Familiarity with Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall methodologies.
Demonstrated ability to write clear, comprehensive test cases and execute them effectively.
Experience with tools like ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, TestRail, Zephyr, etc.
Familiarity with tools like Selenium, Cypress, or Postman for API testing.
Understanding of scripting languages (e.g., Python, JavaScript, Bash) for automation or test data setup.
Demonstrated ability to write queries to validate data and perform backend testing.
Clear grasp of the software development and testing life cycles.
Experience conducting basic security testing and collaborating with security specialists for deeper penetration testing.
Experience developing and managing robust test data strategies, including generating realistic and sufficient test data, ensuring data privacy, and managing test data environments.
Validates data integrity, consistency, and accuracy across various system components and databases, performing data migration and transformation testing as needed.
Experience developing and executing performance test scripts using tools like JMeter or LoadRunner, and analyzing performance bottlenecks and system scalability.

Desirable Skills:

Knowledge and experience in at least one programming language
Experience in the use of information retrieval packages
Knowledge and understanding of testing methods in an object-oriented environment
Knowledge and understanding of Information Management principles, concepts, policies and practices.
Knowledge and understanding of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act (AODA) and related regulations and standards
Experience planning and organizing testing efforts for both large and small systems
Experience coding automated test scripts to produce sets of automated test cases
Experience testing Commercial Off-the Shelf Applications (COTS)

Requirements

Experience and Skill Set Requirements:

Must Haves:

10+ years of experience in software testing in enterprise-level IT environments and large-scale systems
Hands-on working experience in manual testing and automated testing tools and frameworks.
Extensive experience with AODA testing and compliance
Experience in test automation tools such as Selenium or Postman for API testing.
Experience with performance testing tools like JMeter, LoadRunner, or similar.
Experience with defect tracking tools like JIRA, Azure DevOps, or similar.
Knowledge of cloud technologies such as Azure, AWS.
Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and integration tools like Jenkins, Git, or GitLab.

Skill Set Requirements:

Core Skills and Experience:

10+ years of experience in software testing in enterprise-level IT environments and large-scale systems
Hands-on working experience in manual testing and automated testing tools and frameworks.
Deep understanding of Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall testing methodologies.
Extensive experience with AODA testing and compliance
Experience creating and maintaining test strategies, test cases and scripts, as well as test reports.
Experience in test automation tools such as Selenium or Postman for API testing.
Experience with performance testing tools like JMeter, LoadRunner, or similar.
Experience with defect tracking tools like JIRA, Azure DevOps, or similar.
Proven expertise in end-to-end testing of complex systems, ensuring coverage of all functional and non-functional requirements.
Knowledge of QA compliance standards and security testing best practices.

Technical Skills and Experience:

Strong understanding of databases such as SQL, Oracle.
Knowledge of cloud technologies such as Azure, AWS.
Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and integration tools like Jenkins, Git, or GitLab.

Soft Skills:

Strong communication skills; both written and verbal
Excellent interpersonal relations and demonstrated ability to work with others effectively in teams
Demonstrated ability to work with functional and technical teams Demonstrated ability to participate in a large team and work closely with other individual team members
Proven analytical skills and systematic problem solving
Strong ability to work under pressure, work with aggressive timelines, and be adaptive to change

Public sector Experience:

OPS quality assurance standard and practices.