Software Quality Engineering Manager

Sphera is a leading global provider of enterprise software and services that enables companies to manage and optimize their environmental, health, safety and sustainability. Our mission is to create a safer, more sustainable and productive world.

Sphera is a portfolio company of Blackstone, a U.S.-based alternative asset investment company that focuses on private equity, technology and innovation, and more. Blackstone businesses succeed through strong partnerships, a personalized approach and a commitment to exceptional performance with uncompromising integrity. Sphera and Blackstone are leaders in the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) space.

We are guided by our core values of Customer Centricity, Accountability, Bias to Action, Innovation, and Collaboration. These values help us recruit the right talent to join our rapidly expanding team of around the globe. It is important to us that each and every Spherion is not only eager to challenge themselves and knows how to get work done but is an awesome addition to our company culture.

Sphera is seeking a QA Manager to lead quality assurance across multiple product lines and concurrent projects. This role owns QA execution and team leadership, ensuring high-quality releases while driving consistent testing practices and continuous improvement across squads.

This is a hands-on management role: you'll lead a team of QA engineers, coordinate closely with Engineering Managers, Product Owners, and cross-functional stakeholders, and be accountable for the quality outcomes of your product lines' releases.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Leadership

• Manage and mentor a team of QA engineers across multiple product lines, providing coaching, performance feedback, and career development
• Allocate QA resources across concurrent projects and sprints based on release priorities and risk
• Foster a culture of quality ownership and continuous improvement within the team

Quality Strategy & Execution

• Own the QA strategy and test planning across your assigned product lines, including functional, regression, and release testing
• Define and maintain risk-based test coverage that balances thoroughness with delivery speed
• Ensure test automation is appropriately invested in and maintained, avoiding over-reliance on UI/E2E tests where lower-level coverage is more effective
• Drive clarity on QA vs. Engineering ownership boundaries within squads

Automation & AI-Driven Quality Transformation

• Lead the transition from manual to automated testing across your teams, building automation into sprint delivery rather than treating it as a post-sprint add-on
• Assess, prioritize, and manage automation investment across squads with differing tech stacks and maturity levels
• Build and grow team capability in automation practices through coaching, upskilling, and hands-on guidance
• Champion the organization's move toward an AI-driven development lifecycle (AI DLC), identifying where AI-assisted testing, test generation, and quality tooling can accelerate coverage and reduce manual effort
• Partner with QA leadership to pilot and scale AI-assisted QA practices within your product lines, balancing innovation with reliability and maintainability

Release & Process Management

• Manage QA activities across the full release lifecycle for your product lines, including regression cycles and release sign-off
• Partner with Engineering Managers to ensure developer involvement in testing activities, particularly during regression windows
• Identify and address structural gaps in QA process (e.g., automation tasks planned as sprint deliverables, not post-sprint additions)
• Support incident and defect triage, ensuring timely resolution and root-cause follow-up

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as the primary QA point of contact for your product lines, working closely with Product Owners, Engineering Managers, and other stakeholders
• Communicate quality status, risks, and release readiness clearly to stakeholders at varying levels of technical depth
• Collaborate with QA leadership on company-wide initiatives (e.g., automation standards, shift-left practices) and ensure consistent adoption across your product lines

Reporting & Metrics

• Track and report on quality metrics (defect trends, test coverage, regression outcomes) for your product lines
• Escalate risks and blockers proactively, with clear, non-blaming, solution-oriented communication

What You'll Need

• 5+ years of experience in software QA, including 2+ years in a QA leadership or team management role
• Experience managing QA across multiple products or projects simultaneously
• Demonstrated experience leading a team's transition from manual to automated testing, including planning, tooling decisions, and change management
• Strong understanding of test automation principles and the test pyramid; ability to guide teams away from over-indexing on UI/E2E automation
• Working knowledge of or genuine interest in AI-assisted development and testing practices, with an eye toward adopting AI DLC (AI-driven development lifecycle) approaches
• Experience working with heterogeneous or legacy tech stacks (a plus, given Sphera's mix of acquired-company platforms)
• Familiarity with risk-based testing and regression planning for enterprise SaaS products
• Excellent stakeholder communication skills — comfortable presenting quality status to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience with Azure DevOps or similar test/work management tooling
• Domain familiarity with risk management or compliance software is a plus, but not required

What Sets This Role Apart

• Direct ownership of quality outcomes across multiple active, evolving product lines
• Close collaboration with senior QA leadership driving a broader shift-left quality transformation across Sphera
• Opportunity to shape team structure, automation direction, and testing practices for growing squads

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Sphera is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all colleagues.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understanding the scope of the job and the general nature and level of work performed by job holders within this job. This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of qualifications, skills, efforts, duties, responsibilities or working conditions associated with the position.