Reporting to the VP, Application Development in a multi-faceted, multi-location academic setting, the Senior Manager, Quality Assurance leads the QA strategy and execution across American Career College (ACC), West Coast University (WCU), and Administration value streams. Leads the end‑to‑end QA function across American Career College (ACC), West Coast University (WCU), and Administration in a multi‑campus, multi‑system academic environment. You will build and scale a blended onshore-offshore QA organization that safeguards quality for AI‑enabled experiences, modern web applications, and enterprise integrations spanning student, academic, and administrative value streams. This role is both strategic and hands‑on as you will set the QA vision and standards, implement automation and CI/CD quality gates, establish AI safety and evaluation practices, and deliver measurable improvements in reliability, accessibility, performance, and cost‑to‑serve. You will partner closely with product owners, engineering leaders, academic stakeholders, data/AI teams, Security and Compliance, and external vendors to turn institutional priorities into release‑ready outcomes. Success looks like predictable delivery across multiple concurrent initiatives, transparent quality metrics, Responsible AI guardrails in production, and a high‑performing, inclusive QA team operating effectively across time zones.
Responsibilities:
- Quality Strategy & Governance
- Own the QA strategy and roadmap across ACC, WCU, and Administration; align with institutional goals, portfolio priorities, and release calendars. Define risk‑based testing approaches, entry/exit criteria, and go/no‑go standards; establish OKRs/KPIs and publish executive‑ready scorecards. Standardize test plans, traceability, defect taxonomy/severity, and root‑cause analysis across value streams.
- AI/LLM Quality & Safety
- Lead QA for AI features (student services chatbot/copilot, RAG policy/catalog search, document intake/extraction, content generation). Implement evaluation methods, partner with Security/Compliance to operationalize Responsible AI guardrails (Azure AI Content Safety, PII controls, approval workflows) and model telemetry.
- Test Automation & Tooling
- Scale automation for UI, API, contract, and integration testing. Build CI/CD quality gates in Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions; maintain stable, versioned test environments and synthetic test data. Drive shift‑left quality with component/contract tests, mocking, and testability guidelines for engineers.
- Performance, Reliability, & Observability
- Establish SLIs/SLOs and load/performance practices (k6/JMeter, Azure Load Testing) to ensure peak‑enrollment readiness. Integrate observability (Application Insights/OpenTelemetry) for release health, error budgets, and regression detection; lead incident and post‑incident quality improvements.
- Accessibility, Privacy, & Security
- Ensure accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.2/Section 508) via automated checks (axe/Pa11y) and targeted manual audits. Champion FERPA‑aligned test data management, secrets management, and secure SDLC (SAST/DAST, dependency scanning).
- People Leadership & Onshore–Offshore Delivery
- Hire, lead, and coach a blended onshore–offshore QA team (managers and ICs); define roles, career paths, and quality standards. Implement follow‑the‑sun operations, overlap hours, and disciplined handoff playbooks; track productivity and quality with transparent dashboards. Foster an inclusive, collaborative, high‑accountability culture focused on outcomes.
- Vendor & Partner Management
- Lead QA engagement with vendors/partners; define SOWs, SLAs, acceptance criteria, and governance cadences (weekly checkpoints, QBRs). Validate third‑party deliverables and integrations meet functional, performance, security, privacy, and accessibility standards.
- Portfolio, Value Streams, & Stakeholder Communication
- Coordinate QA delivery across multiple concurrent initiatives and value streams (Student Experience, Enrollment/Financial Aid, Academics/LMS, Administration/Shared Services). Translate technical quality topics into business terms; present risks, mitigations, and go/no‑go recommendations to executives and academic leaders. Collaborate with Architecture, Data/AI, and Operations to align scope, timelines, and success metrics.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor degree in computer science, information systems, electronics engineering, voice/data communications, public/business administration, or a related field required; Master's degree preferred.
- 7+ years of progressive QA experience, including 3+ years managing teams and running QA across multiple concurrent initiatives/value streams.
- Hands-on expertise with Web stacks: React/TypeScript & Azure Services.
- Test automation: Playwright or Cypress; SpecFlow/NUnit/xUnit; Postman/Newman; contract testing with Pact.
- CI/CD and environments: Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions; familiarity with IaC.
- Demonstrated QA leadership for AI, including safety and evaluation practices.
- Experience leading onshore–offshore QA delivery and managing vendors/partners.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills; ability to influence executives, academic leaders, and technical teams.
- Working knowledge of FERPA, accessibility (WCAG 2.2), and secure test data practices.
- Experience with CampusVue, Salesforce CRM, Oracle HCM and Great Plains preferred.
- Previous experience with higher education strongly preferred.
- Demonstrates a high level of understanding of enterprise architecture discipline. Has in-depth knowledge of current and planned Information Technology systems portfolio.
- Demonstrates a high level of business knowledge.
- Ability to manage and work effectively in a highly ethnic and culturally diverse student and associate community.
- Excellent analytical and organizational skills.
- Strong communication skills, both written and verbal. Must be able to communicate technical matters into messages that can be broadly understood across the organization.
- Strong customer service skills.
- Ability to self-direct, self-pace, multi-task, and function well under pressure of deadlines and conflicting priorities.
- Willingness to work a flexible schedule.
- Ability to travel/drive locally on a weekly, daily and/or on an as needed basis.
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