Senior Quality Assurance Analyst
Company Description
Alair Homes is a premium custom home building and large-scale renovation/remodeling company with over 90 franchise locations across Canada and United States.
Alair Homes is a fast-growing, energetic company that is continuously looking for driven and enthusiastic individuals to join our ever-growing team. Successful candidates are hungry to learn and take on new responsibilities. Our diverse organizational culture focuses on people coming together to help build and support the most valuable, lowest risk, highest reward construction companies in the world!
‘Living Better Starts Here’ runs through all aspects of our business and focuses not only on our esteemed clients but all members of our team. Alair Homes thrives on a unique service delivery system combining custom contracting with a franchise business model and is the largest North American home building franchise.
Alair Team members are engaged, determined, and disciplined in helping develop our franchise partners’ businesses to new heights and successes. Since being founded in Nanaimo in 2007, we have grown exponentially across North America, while maintaining our family-oriented, collaborative style of business.
Learn more about Alair at https://www.alairhomes.com/discover/
Job Description:
This position is within the Information Systems department for the home office.
This position is remote and will be interacting with a team spread across Canada and United States.
Reporting to the Product Manager, the Senior Quality Assurance Analyst is responsible for improving and maintaining product and process quality. This position works with other team members to develop and establish quality assurance standards and measures for the Information Systems Department within the organization. The primary responsibility of this position is to perform all the tasks within the Quality Assurance lifecycle of information systems within the established standards and best practices. This position will also provide occasional project management and leadership on information system projects as assigned by the Product Manager. This position can manage all areas of responsibility independently within the parameters of specific assignments provided by the Product Manager,
The Senior Quality Assurance Analyst requires a high level of expertise in all phases and aspects of the QA and support of information systems, including the planning and estimating of resources and timelines.
Excellent communication skills in both written and verbal forms are essential as are facilitation and presentation skills. The Senior QA Analyst works under minimal supervision with latitude for independent action and decision and guide junior staff in day-to-day activities.
The Senior Quality Assurance Analyst impacts the supported business units, all branches of IT, and works in unison with other departments. This position supports the business area in assuring that products are thoroughly tested prior to production release. This position also interacts with external vendors, stakeholders, and contractors.
Key Objective:
The incumbent will apply proven analytical and problem-solving skills to help validate the implementation of products against functional and technical specifications and assist other members of the Information Systems Team through testing activities. The goal is to successfully implement systems and processes which will improve the lives of all stakeholders and embody our motto; Living Better
Starts Here!
Specific Job Responsibilities:
Quality Assurance
- Assist the Product Manager with the development of strategic and tactical plans including the definition and forecasting of high-level requirements, schedules, resource plans, training, budgets, and priorities for software, and data conversion.
- Make decisions on a project-to-project basis as to what components of the QA methodology apply recognizing that not all projects will require the same approach.
- Prepare and/or review project plans for QA projects, product evaluations, pilot projects, and research projects.
- Create test plans and scripts for managing defects and fixes in product development.
- Execute testing activities to ensure applications meet business requirements, functional requirements, non-functional requirements, technical specifications, and architectural guidelines.
- Analyze formal test results to discover and report any defects, bugs, errors, configuration issues, and interoperability flaws to team leads and management. Create and formalize test reports.
- Assist in the development of change control processes, practices, and guidelines for new and existing technologies.
- Participate in developing, distributing, and coordinating in-depth end-user reviews for new and modified systems and applications.
- Develop, establish, and regularly review quality assurance measures, standards and best practices for new and enhanced applications and products throughout the development and product lifecycles.
- Conduct internal audits to measure and assure adherence to established QA methodologies and standards for software development, application integration, system performance, and documentation.
- Cultivate and disseminate knowledge of Quality Assurance best practices.
- Maintain a working knowledge of the business programs, policies, and politics for all business areas supported.
- Maintain a working knowledge of trends and developments in Quality Assurance and Information Technology.
Project Support
- Gather and analyze data in support of business cases.
- Validate business and technical requirements.
- Estimate resource requirements and schedules for projects of all magnitudes.
- Conduct and/or participate in meetings and interviews with clients and project staff to define project variables including scope, deliverables, roles and responsibilities, and the project plan.
- Identify impacts to project deliverables, schedules, and/or costs and escalate to Product Manager.
Application and Client Support
- Provide support to clients and application support teams in areas of domain expertise.
- Provide after-hours on-call support for production systems.
Team Mentoring and Development
- Recommend the allocation of available resources to projects.
- Develop and foster an environment of solid teamwork and communication within the team and with other teams and clients.
- Assist the Product Manager with the development of training plans for junior staff.
- Design assignments to challenge and develop skills and abilities of junior staff.
- Review assignment progress and results with junior staff and Product Manager.
- Mentor junior staff and others in QA tasks and corporate knowledge.
- Assist the Product Manager in the preparation of performance appraisals for junior staff and actively participate in the review meeting when required.
Change Management
- Lead change management activities by applying a structured methodology.
- Assess the change impact.
- Resolve issues and determine schedules.
- Support communication and training efforts.
- Follow all current and applicable standards.
Administration
- Represents the IT division in cross divisional committees and teams.
- Coaches and mentors junior Quality Assurance Analysts and other IT staff where appropriate.
Core Competencies and Required Qualifications:
University degree in computer science or a college diploma in information systems or related field is required. An equivalent combination of experience and education will also be accepted. The incumbent must have a minimum six (6) years of progressively responsible experience in software quality assurance/testing, requirements refinement and systems analysis.
Knowledge of the construction industry and related processes is an asset.
The following qualifications are considered an asset:
- Quality Assurance certification from a recognized institution.
- Certified ScrumMaster, Certified Scrum Product Owner.
- Project Management Professional (PMP).
- Software development experience.
- Ability to create & interpret financial statements, thorough understanding of accounting process.
- Accounting certification or bookkeeping experience.
- QuickBooks or Sage experience.
Job Type: Full-time
Benefits:
- Extended health care
- Profit sharing
Schedule:
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree (preferred)
Experience:
- quality assurance: 5 years (required)
Work Location: Remote
