Software QA Team Lead

Software QA Team Lead About Staizen At Staizen, we live and breathe transformation. We support and guide our clients through the toughest and nitty-gritty parts of building, modernizing, and running digital products and platforms. Transformation is not easy and to be the best partners, we challenge ourselves to constantly practice what we preach in the way we do, build and lead.The name Staizen is short for "State of Kaizen", inspired by the Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement. We are all about getting 1% better every day because sustainable transformation is not about the big bang but manifests in the daily choices that we commit to do every single day.What we offer Get the chance to work on transformation at scale missions for complex industries such as banking, e-commerce, insurance Be part of our internal product development and build the next generation of productivity tools for customers Be part of exciting communities where you can collaborate, grow and learn across the board We are remote-first with global operations across Belgium, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Lille, Singapore, and Cyprus, with optional co-working spaces for the team Perks & Benefits 1% better yearly budget - your personal growth & learning fund Co-working spaces - for the times when you want to spice up and change environments Remote set-up budget - to get you up and running wherever you decide to work Team-up budget - Monthly lunch/dinner budget for physical or virtual team bonding Good medical coverage - so you don't have to worry about your health Flexitime - We follow the standard business hours, but we trust you to find your most productive time Key Responsibilities Quality Leadership: Lead the QA function within the squad, defining quality standards, processes, and automation strategies across frontend, backend, and cloud-based systems. Team Management & Mentorship: Manage and mentor QA engineers; provide technical direction, career guidance, and ensure continuous team growth. Test Strategy & Planning: Design and maintain test plans that cover functional, regression, performance, and security aspects for all product components. Automation Framework Ownership: Build, optimize, and maintain automated test frameworks for web and API testing using modern JavaScript-based tools (e.g., Cypress, Playwright, or Jest). Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Developers, Product Owners, and DevOps teams to integrate testing seamlessly into the SDLC and CI/CD pipelines. Quality Governance: Establish and enforce QA metrics (test coverage, defect leakage, automation rate) and ensure consistent reporting and visibility of test outcomes. Cloud & Environment Management: Oversee testing environments hosted on AWS, coordinating with DevOps to ensure stability, performance, and scalability during release cycles. Risk & Issue Management: Identify potential quality risks early, provide mitigation plans, and support root cause analysis and continuous improvement initiatives. Release Readiness: Define clear "Definition of Done" and release criteria, ensuring all deployments meet functional, performance, and compliance standards. Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Champion automation, shift-left testing, and new quality practices to enhance product reliability and reduce time to release. Requirements Experience: 8+ years in Software Quality Assurance, including 4+ years in a QA Lead or Development Lead capacity. Technical Expertise: Strong command of manual and automated testing for web and API layers. Hands-on experience with JavaScript, Node.js, and test automation tools such as Cypress, Playwright, Postman, or Rest Assured. Solid understanding of CI/CD, DevOps, and AWS-based environments (e.g., EC2, S3, CloudWatch, Lambda). Domain Knowledge: Exposure to or interest in the investment, securities, or financial technology industry is a strong plus. Process Knowledge: Deep understanding of Agile/Scrum, test lifecycle management, and QA integration within development squads. Soft Skills: Excellent communication, documentation, and coordination abilities with distributed teams. Leadership mindset focused on collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning. So, what do you think? Are you ready to drive impact and grow with us?We're looking for forward thinkers who thrive in an international environment. We have openings across our various communities - Frontend, Backend, DevOps, UX/UI, Quality Assurance, Data & Analytics, Delivery (Project Management & Facilitation) and Engineering Management. We can't wait to meet you, drop us a message, and let's chat