Director, Quality Assurance and Testing

The Director will help establish the QA practice, define testing governance, introduce best practices, and drive consistent testing standards across major initiatives. Initially as an individual contributor, the Director will lead through influence and coordinate testing activities across internal resources, contractors, vendors, system integrators, and business teams.

The Director will also provide strategic leadership across test management, test automation, performance testing, defect management, reporting, governance, and quality assurance standards, working closely with business stakeholders, IT leadership, system integrators, vendors, contractors, and project teams, to ensure that all testing activities are planned, executed, measured, and reported effectively.

The Director will operate at both strategic and project delivery levels, establish best practices, assess and implement best-in-class testing tools, and drive a culture of quality across global technology initiatives.

Key Responsibilities (other duties may be assigned):

1. QA and Testing Strategy

• Work directly with the VP of Program Management to build and mature global QA and Testing practice.
• Build and lead a lean global Quality Assurance and Testing framework that can be adopted across regions, business units, and major programs.
• Define testing standards, governance models, entry and exit criteria, metrics, reporting templates, and quality gates.
• Establish a scalable approach for testing SAP S/4HANA on the SAP Public Cloud, integrations, data migration, reporting, security, and business process validation.
• Partner with executive leadership, program leadership, IT, business teams, vendors, and implementation partners to embed quality throughout the project lifecycle.
• Lead through influence across project and business teams, recognizing that the role will not have direct reports initially.

1. SAP S/4HANA and SAP Public Cloud Testing

• Lead testing strategy and execution for the deployment of SAP S/4HANA on the SAP Public Cloud program.
• Oversee functional testing, integration testing, regression testing, user acceptance testing, data migration testing, security testing, cutover testing, and production readiness validation.
• Ensure end-to-end business processes are fully tested across SAP and non-SAP systems.
• Work with SAP functional, technical, and business teams to validate solution quality and readiness.

1. Test Management and Governance

• Own the overall test plan, testing roadmap, test cycles, test scope, resource planning, risks, issues, and dependencies.
• Define and manage test governance across project teams, workstreams, vendors, system integrators, contractors, and business stakeholders.
• Drive defect triage, prioritization, resolution tracking, and quality risk management.
• Ensure testing progress, defects, risks, and readiness are clearly communicated at both project level and Steering Committee level.

1. Project Status Reporting

• Prepare and deliver testing status reports for project teams, program leadership, and executive steering committees.
• Provide clear reporting on test progress, defect trends, automation coverage, performance testing results, risk areas, test readiness, and go-live confidence.
• Translate complex testing information into concise executive-level insights and recommendations.
• Escalate critical quality risks and provide mitigation plans.

1. Test Automation and Performance Testing

• Introduce and establish a practical Test Automation and Performance Testing capability as part of the global QA and Testing framework.
• Define the strategy, roadmap, and governance model for adopting test automation across key business processes, regression testing, integration testing, and release validation.
• Identify where automation can reduce manual testing effort, improve repeatability, increase coverage, and support faster release cycles.
• Assess, recommend, and help implement best-in-class test automation tools and frameworks suitable for SAP S/4HANA, SAP Public Cloud, and integrated enterprise platforms.
• Introduce a structured performance testing approach for critical business processes, interfaces, batch jobs, reports, and high-volume transaction scenarios.
• Partner with technical, infrastructure, integration, and business teams to define performance benchmarks, testing scenarios, success criteria, and remediation plans.
• Ensure automation and performance testing results are incorporated into project-level and Steering Committee-level reporting, including risks, trends, readiness, and improvement opportunities.

1. Tooling and Best Practices

• Evaluate, select, and implement best-in-class tools for:
  • Test management
  • Defect management
  • Test automation
  • Performance testing
  • Reporting and dashboards
• Ensure testing tools integrate effectively with project delivery, DevOps, SAP, and enterprise reporting processes.
• Define reusable templates, dashboards, metrics, and testing assets.
• Drive continuous improvement across testing methods, tools, reporting, and governance practices.

1. Leadership and Stakeholder Management

• Lead and coordinate testing resources across internal teams, contractors, vendors, system integrators, and business stakeholders to ensure clear ownership, alignment, and accountability across all testing activities.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, governance routines, and communication channels across all testing participants.
• Drive collaboration between technical teams and business users to support effective test preparation, execution, defect resolution, and go-live readiness.
• Promote a culture of quality, accountability, transparency, continuous improvement, and business readiness across global programs.
• The Director will be responsible for defining a lean, scalable QA and testing framework that can be rolled out across global programs, with an initial focus on SAP S/4HANA, SAP Public Cloud, enterprise transformation, and large-scale business process testing.

Qualifications:

Required

• 10+ years of experience in Quality Assurance, Testing, or Enterprise Program Delivery.
• 5+ years in a senior QA/Test leadership role on large-scale ERP or business transformation programs.
• Strong experience leading testing for SAP S/4HANA programs.
• Experience with SAP implementations and testing approaches, preferably Public Cloud.
• Proven experience defining and managing enterprise-level test strategies and test governance.
• Strong background in test management, defect management, test planning, test execution, and reporting.
• Experience reporting testing status, risks, defects, automation progress, performance testing outcomes, and readiness to Steering Committees and executive leadership.
• Experience implementing or optimizing test management tools and test automation solutions.
• Experience introducing or scaling test automation and performance testing capabilities.
• Experience leading cross-functional testing teams through influence, including internal resources, contractors, system integrators, vendors, and business stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end business process testing across finance, supply chain, sales, procurement, manufacturing, distribution, or related functions. 

Preferred 

• Experience building a QA/testing capability or Center of Excellence.
• Experience creating a lean, reusable global testing framework.
• Experience working in a matrixed environment without direct reporting authority.
• Experience with tools such as Tricentis, Tosca, qTest, ALM, Jira, Zephyr, Azure DevOps, Worksoft, Selenium, LoadRunner, JMeter, NeoLoad, or similar platforms.
• Experience with Agile, hybrid, and waterfall delivery models.
• Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, automated regression testing, and release quality management.
• Experience in global SAP rollouts.
• Experience in retail, consumer products, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, or related industries. 

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, Computer Science, Business, Engineering, or a related field required.
• Master’s degree a plus.
• Relevant certifications a plus, such as ISTQB, SAP, Agile, PMP, SAFe, or test automation/tool-specific certifications.

EEOE

Annual Salary Range:  $150,000.00 - $175,000.00