Quality Assurance Engineer Lead

Company Description
Founded in 2014, APDS’s mission is to prepare every justice-impacted individual for a living wage job. APDS is the career readiness platform for all justice impacted individuals to attain a living wage job. APDS has proven success through its “Whole Human Framework” which is a proprietary curriculum delivering assessments and plans that motivate, engage, educate, and equip these individuals in their pursuit to empower themselves and strengthen society. APDS leverages innovative technology to create a managed learning environment that fosters growth and certifies career-readiness.

APDS is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) and certified B-Corporation, with a business model that never charges incarcerated individuals or their friends and families for its technology or services. Currently, APDS products and services are deployed in over 150+ facilities across 17 states -- and growing.
You can learn more about APDS work by visiting: www.apds.works.

The Opportunity
The Quality Assurance Engineer Lead will be responsible for the overall quality of APDS Product offering. They will have an opportunity to manage and mentor junior QA engineers. In addition, this person will work heavily with our infrastructure and development teams to give input to operationalizing automation testing into our CI/CD environment. This role reports to the Vice President of Technology.

Responsibilities

• Lead the QA function in APDS and ensure our Product is of the highest quality
• Write automated testing scripts leveraging software packages to automate testing (Selenium, Appium, Cucumber, etc…)
• Manage and mentor junior QA Engineers
• Act as a final quality assurance check for product development releases, ensuring success in different technology environments, such as different tablet types, different connection types and other scenarios that represent the APDS install base
• Leverage JIRA/Confluence to document testing requirements, results, and official sign-off on functionality
• Participate in daily standup meetings to report on escalated customer issues
• Understand sprint and release timelines, and when to schedule Quality Assurance Reviews
• Assist in training Support and Operations staff on all aspects of configuration and updates
• Write testing scripts and document all regression testing scenarios for APDS’s proprietary software platform
• Communicate systemic, critical issues to the development team for immediate resolution
• Propose appropriate changes to the Software Development Lifecycle to better facilitate testing
• Evaluate and resolve escalated technical support requests that require a higher level of technical tablet hardware and software expertise. Follow set procedures for further escalating technology issues through the product development team on agreed upon prioritization rules
• Perform higher-level configurations that require advanced security access such as site whitelisting and other configurations in the web filter
• Act as subject matter expert on all product configurations for the Operations team

Qualifications and Experience

• 4+ years of experience in demonstrating ability to lead a Quality Assurance program
• Strong knowledge of scripting in Python or Java
• Familiarity with hardware and software development process and lifecycle(SDLC)Ability to write database queries (SQL) to investigate issues
• Ability to communicate in technical terms effectively with engineers
• General technical fluency with technology and mobile devices, including tablet computers. Technologies utilized by this role include: Salesforce, Airwatch, MS Excel, learning management systems, and APDS-developed systems
• Advanced knowledge of Linux/Unix experience is plus
• Load testing with Jmeter experience is plus
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot difficult technical issues
• Strong organizational skills, with meticulous attention to detail, able to manage multiple simultaneous projects and issues through to successful completion Fast learner, self-starter, and independent worker Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment
• Strong verbal and written communication; Communicate effectively with a dispersed team and convey a strong customer-service orientation
• Willingness to operate in correctional environments with incarcerated individuals and correctional staff

Location and Travel

• Remote; Eastern Time working hour preferred
• Travel: 2-4 times per year (post-COVID). Additional travel may be required for applicants outside of NYC.

Salary and Benefits

• Salary Range $80-90k
• APDS offers competitive compensation commensurate with experience and a generous benefits package.

Basic Expectations for all APDS Employees

• Belief in APDS’s mission to reduce recidivism and improve the life chances of incarcerated learners and returning citizens
• Honesty
• Responsibility
• Be on time for work; notify appropriate people if you will not be at work during your regular schedule.
• Be on time for meetings with staff and clients.
• Follow up on things on your plate; don’t expect others to remind you. Trust others to do the same.
• Take initiative if you realize something needs to be taken care of. We are a team; either do it yourself or communicate with someone else about it.
• Communication
• Clear, concise, and timely communication is essential.
• Respond to emails and voicemails promptly.

Equal Opportunity Employer
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, APDS is committed to creating a workplace that respects and values diversity of cultural, ethnic and experiential backgrounds. We strongly encourage candidates who represent the communities we serve to apply.