Director, Quality Assurance

Bridgeway is seeking a Director, Quality Assurance to join our Technology team. This leader will not only define and drive the QA strategy but will also actively engage in the design, development, and execution of testing solutions. The Director, QA will lead by example—remaining close to the code, automation frameworks, and testing practices—while building a high-performing team and ensuring delivery of high-quality software products that meet business, regulatory, and customer requirements. This role manages QA Engineers and QA Analysts, develops scalable testing strategies, and drives continuous improvement across processes, tools, and methodologies. The ideal candidate thrives in a player-coach capacity, balancing strategic leadership with direct technical contribution. This role will work closely with Product, Engineering, and Operations to embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This is a remote position, with occasional travel. East Coast candidates preferred. Key Responsibilities: Lead as a hands-on, player–coach QA leader, contributing directly to test automation design, framework development, code reviews, and the resolution of complex quality and production issues. Define, implement, and evolve the overall QA strategy, standards, and best practices across manual and automated testing, ensuring alignment with business, regulatory, and customer requirements. Architect and scale modern automation frameworks and CI/CD-integrated testing solutions, driving increased test coverage, reliability, execution speed, and long-term maintainability. Own the end-to-end test lifecycle, including test planning, test case design, regression strategy, execution, defect management, and reporting, ensuring processes are repeatable, data-driven, and effective. Ensure comprehensive quality coverage across all testing dimensions, including functional, regression, integration, performance, and security testing. Embed quality deeply within Agile, Scrum, and DevOps workflows, promoting a shift-left testing culture focused on early validation, defect prevention, and continuous feedback throughout the SDLC. Leverage metrics and insights to drive decisions, providing clear visibility into quality trends, release readiness, risks, and outcomes to technical and executive stakeholders. Continuously improve QA processes, tooling, and execution, identifying bottlenecks and risks, piloting new technologies, prioritizing initiatives effectively, monitoring execution, and adjusting course as needed. Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing QA team, fostering a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement. This includes hiring, setting and monitoring individual performance objectives, career development, performance appraisals, and providing regular feedback and coaching. Set clear expectations and create a positive work environment based on accountability, in collaboration with the engineering and management teams. Build and maintain productive relationships across departments, navigating organizational complexity and silos. Lead and/or contribute to cross-functional initiatives and change efforts. Communicate clearly and persuasively, adapting messages for diverse technical and business stakeholders across levels and functions. Qualifications: 7+ years of experience in software quality assurance, including 3+ years leading and managing QA teams delivering commercial software products (SaaS, on‑prem, and/or mobile). Proven experience leading in a hands‑on technical leadership role, balancing people leadership with direct contribution to test automation, reviews, and complex quality issues. Strong technical expertise in test automation, including designing, building, and maintaining scalable, maintainable automation frameworks and contributing production‑quality code. Proficiency in Python and working knowledge of the .NET framework. Deep experience with modern test automation tools and frameworks such as Playwright, Selenium WebDriver, TestNG, Cucumber, and SmartBear tools (TestComplete, ReadyAPI or similar). Demonstrated experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines and DevOps toolchains (e.g., Azure DevOps or comparable platforms). Hands‑on experience with test management and defect tracking tools, and ownership of test planning, execution, and reporting practices. Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, with experience using quality metrics and data to assess risk, inform release decisions, and drive continuous improvement. Extensive experience delivering software in Agile/Scrum environments with frequent release cadences. Passion for modernizing QA practices, including automation‑first strategies and movement toward cloud‑native (PaaS) architectures. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related discipline