QA Lead

******THIS ROLE IS HYBRID IN PEORIA, IL — ONLY LOCAL OR WITHIN DRIVING DISTANCE CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED.******

6-9 months W2 contract.

Overview

We are seeking a QA Lead to act as the QA Quarterback for a large-scale modernization program. This role owns the execution of the Master Test Strategy and ensures alignment across internal teams and offshore partners. The ideal candidate brings hands-on leadership in planning, coordination, and governance across all testing phases.

Responsibilities

• Interpret and enforce Master Test Strategy and quality governance across all testing phases (Smoke, FET, Integration, UAT, Performance).
• Act as liaison between internal QA and offshore testing teams.
• Review and approve test plans, test suites, test cycles, execution traceability matrices, and exit criteria documentation.
• Drive automation strategy using Playwright, Postman, and Beyond Compare.
• Oversee test data management and validate integration points with external systems.
• Lead defect triage and resolution workflows.
• Prepare and present test execution reports, quality metrics, and risk assessments.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to QA Analysts and cross-functional teams.
• Own the Software Test Life Cycle (STLC), including planning, execution, and reporting.
• Ensure risk-based prioritization of test scenarios and adherence to quality gates.

Skills

• Strong understanding of functional and integration testing for modernization projects.
• Expertise in Azure DevOps test and defect management features.
• Familiarity with automation frameworks (Playwright, Selenium) and API testing tools (Postman, SoapUI).
• Solid knowledge of SQL Server, data migration validation, and comparison tools.
• Excellent coordination and communication skills across distributed teams.
• Strong understanding of relational databases, distributed architecture, and web application concepts.
• Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle; Agile experience is a plus.
• Excellent reasoning and research skills with the ability to see the big picture while managing details.
• “Test to break” mindset with the ability to understand complex business processes.
• Meticulous and detail-oriented with experience in collaborative, team-based environments.
• Intermediate SQL skills with data migration project experience preferred.
• Experience with scripting or programming languages (JavaScript, Perl, Ruby, Python, Java, C#), API testing, and automation frameworks is a plus.
• Insurance domain experience is a plus.

Experience & Qualifications

• 7 years of Quality Assurance experience, with at least 3 years in a lead role.
• Experience supporting large-scale modernization or migration projects.
• ISTQB Foundation Level certification (Advanced Level preferred).

Preferred Qualifications

• Insurance domain experience.
• Familiarity with mainframe-to-modern platform migrations.
• Experience coordinating offshore teams and managing vendors.