QA Lead

About the role

The QA Lead will provide senior technical leadership supporting Air Force IT systems across development and operational environments. This role is responsible for establishing and executing quality assurance strategies, ensuring the delivery of secure, reliable, and high-performing systems.

The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of Air Force IT processes and technology stacks, including DevSecOps CI/CD pipelines, Cloud One, Oracle-based systems, and Java applications. Air Force systems operate across both classified and unclassified environments, leveraging DISA and cloud-based infrastructure, requiring strict adherence to security, compliance, and operational standards.

The QA Lead will define and oversee test strategies, quality standards, and validation processes across the system lifecycle, including functional, integration, regression, performance, and security testing. This role will drive test automation, continuous testing within CI/CD pipelines, defect management, and release quality governance, ensuring mission-critical systems meet performance, security, and reliability expectations.

The QA Lead plays a critical role in enabling shift-left testing, continuous improvement, and data-driven quality metrics, partnering closely with development, infrastructure, and program leadership to support stable operations and successful system modernization.

What you'll do

• Define testing strategies, integrate security tools into CI/CD, and ensure compliance with DoD/DISA STIGs and RMF
• Integrate automated testing (unit, functional, regression, security scanning) directly into CI/CD pipelines.
• Lead the secure design, automation, and execution of CI/CD pipelines, incorporating automated security scanning and QA checks (SAST/DAST, dependency scanning).
• Develop, document, and execute automated testing strategies within Agile DevSecOps frameworks, ensuring compliance with functionality, reliability, and security standards.
• Ensure all systems comply with DoD/DISA STIGs, Risk Management Framework (RMF), and NIST 800-53 standards.
• Experience in coding/scripting for automation (e.g., Python, Java).
• Integrate, maintain, and optimize automated test suites (functional, integration, regression, smoke) into DevSecOps pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Develop and maintain the Quality Control Plan (QCP) and Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) tracking KPIs and SLA performance ensuring all deliverables meet contract requirements.
• Lead internal compliance assessments and audits, ensuring adherence to CMMI-SVC, ISO 9001:2015, or AS9100 standards.
• Conduct root cause analysis (RCA) and risk mitigation to reduce recurring defects in high-visibility military systems.
• Lead a QA team, providing technical guidance on test script creation, database queries (SQL), and performance load testing.
• Cook up coordination with program management, contractors, and government customers to report on SLA and KPI performance metrics.
• Work with developers, security engineers, and DevOps to enable continuous, secure delivery.
• Active mentoring of junior engineers on DevOps methodologies.

Required Qualifications

• US Citizenship Required
• Ability to obtain and/or maintain a Secret Clearance
• DoD 8140 intermediate certification or DoD 8570 IAM Level II certifications or higher
• 10+ years of QA/Test Automation Engineering experience, with 5-7 years in DevSecOps environments.
• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field; master’s degree preferred.
• Hands-on experience with modern test automation tools (SonarQube, SAST/DAST) and CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with Agile development teams of 20+ FTEs and be familiar with Agile methodologies.
• Knowledge of Government Quality Requirements, Performance Work Statements (PWS), and Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs).
• 5+ years of software QA experience, with recent experience in a DoD Agile environment.
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP cloud services.
• DoD Domain Knowledge: Strong knowledge of DoD software acquisition policies, ATO (Authorization to Operate) requirements, and RMF.