Lead Quality Assurance Analyst

  GCI's Lead Quality Assurance Analyst  will provide professional IT Quality Assurance support by testing, evaluating, assessing, investigating, and troubleshooting IT systems and integrations. Write, revise, and verify quality standards and test procedures for program design and product evaluation. Attain quality of applications economically and efficiently resolving bugs, defects, and other potential issues.

 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT ALL LEVELS:

 

• Perform Quality Assurance and testing activities.
• Develop, document, and execute test plans and test cases in accordance with functional requirements and technical specifications. 
• Create and execute regression test plans.
• Validate system application functionality across various hosted and on prem solutions, integrations, integrated systems, operational processes, and custom development ensuring their alignment with design specifications and database updates. 
• Write clear, concise defects and/or bugs and effectively communicate with developers and project team members to isolate problems. 
• Work closely with technical resources and testers on review and resolution of issues.

 

• Review test plans and cases written by others for coverage and completeness. 
• Review requirements and design documentation and participate in design reviews. 
• Assist Project Managers and Scrum Masters in planning and estimating efforts, providing input and clarity on testing requirements and level of effort estimates. 
• Conduct QA on support processes to ensure that the application and support solution meets quality standards and business needs.
• Work collaboratively with developers, business system analysts, project managers, and scrum masters to ensure quality product development and successful project deliveries.
• Assist in developing and maintaining Quality Assurance procedures and standards.

Focus Areas (see addendum for additional details):

• IT Quality Assurance
• IT Technical Quality Assurance
  • Ability to function autonomously on assigned projects with minimal direction.
  • Ability to successfully interact and collaborate with colleagues, customers, operating and technical staff, and other GCI departments. 
  • Actively participate in sessions with business stakeholders.
  • Strong oral and written communication skills, with the ability to communicate with, and understand the needs of, non-technical internal clients are essential.
  • Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and multi-task in a dynamic, complex, and rapidly changing environment.
  • Ability to reconcile divergent demands and prioritize individual workload.
  • Technically astute, highly organized, and have a reputation for meeting deadlines and budget commitments.
  • Understanding of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) leveraging traditional Waterfall, Agile, LEAN-Agile, SAFe, and/or blended frameworks. 
  • Testing experience in internal software application and/or hosted development and systems integration. 
  • Strong analytical, problem-solving, and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to instinctively sense issues and opportunities.
  • Ability to create and execute test plans and test scripts.
  • JIRA, Zephyr or other test system software experience including planning, creating, and executing test cases.
• Experience with development of electronic presentation materials, MS Teams, Zoom, Skype and the ability to handle ad-hoc question-and-answer sessions. 

COMPETENCIES:

• Demonstrated commitment to GCI's Basic Principles, Mission Statement, Declaration of Principles and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by promoting and maintaining an inclusive and equitable work environment for all employees and contractors, and in interactions with customers, vendors, and the general public.
• ACCOUNTABILITY- Takes ownership for actions, decisions, and results; openly accepts feedback and demonstrates a willingness to improve.
• BASIC PRINCIPLES - Interacts with people in a way that builds mutual trust, confidence, and respect; adheres to GCI's Code of Conduct for Employees - the Basic Principles.
• COLLABORATION - Works effectively with others to accomplish common goals and objectives; maintains positive relationships even under difficult circumstances.
• COMMUNICATION- Conveys thoughts and expresses ideas appropriately and professionally.
• COMPLIANCE - Follows internal controls; protects confidential information; abides by GCI's Code of Business Conduct & Ethics.
• CUSTOMER FOCUS - Demonstrates commitment to service excellence; gives high priority to customer satisfaction.
• RELIABILITY - Consistently follows through on assigned tasks as expected; demonstrates timely attendance at meetings, training, and other work obligations.
• RESULTS - Uses a combination of job knowledge, initiative, sound decision making, innovation, adaptability, and problem solving.
• SAFETY & SECURITY - Supports a safe work environment by following all workplace safety rules and guidelines; complies with applicable Security policies and procedures.
• Proficient computer skills and MS Office knowledge (e.g., Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel) to complete job duties effectively. 

Additional Preferred Competencies:

• User Acceptance Test Planning and Implementation experience for hosted and/or on-premises applications and integrations.
• Test Automation or Monitoring Experience.
• Netcracker platform experience or other order to billing/CRM/Financial software package.
• Experience testing: Website development, User Experience (UX) Design, Mobile Apps, Telecom software and systems, financial systems, engineering systems and switching, mobile device design, Cloud based solutions, Next gen connected devices, E-commerce, CRM, e-payment, and/or order to cash product process development lifecycles.
• SQL scripting skills in Oracle and MS SQL.
• Testing experience in a production environment with regular and frequent code releases.
• Business analysis and/or Project Management skills.
• Ability to use and create or configure automated testing tools for testing such as scripts or other available testing tools.
• Functional testing experience.
• Familiarity with JIRA, Confluence, Kanban. 
• Functional understanding of Intranet and Internet technologies including HTTP, FTP servers, application servers, and internet protocols.
• Experience with web analytics/reporting tools.

     

Level Definition

Position Title: Lead Quality Assurance Analyst

Grade: E06

Additional Job Requirements:

This is an advanced level position functioning in a lead role under minimal supervision. Responsible for assigning tasks to team members, managing test plans, intake and prioritization, overseeing the testing of all code prior to production deployment and resolving escalation issues within the group. Monitors progress and adherence to standards, resolves issues affecting productivity, and performs testing activities.

Additional Duties:

• Develop, execute and document test plans and test cases in accordance with functional requirements and technical specifications following traditional waterfall, Agile, and/or blended methodologies.
• Create and execute regression test plans in Jira and/or Confluence.
• Record and report in detail all defects in Jira and/or NCSS, Kanban Boards, and Dashboards.
• Attend requirements and design reviews, identifying gaps in requirements, providing level of effort estimates and planned testing activities for change requests.
• Assist in developing and maintaining Quality Assurance procedures, standards and templates.
• Provide testing assistance to other groups and customers by processing data requests, usage and running billing and invoicing processes.
• Provide post-deployment validation and regression testing of requests.
• Provide input into ongoing process improvements and re-design.

Lead Duties:

• Monitor queue items from other groups and assign tasks to Quality Assurance team members. 
• Monitor and report progress of testing activities to Management.
• Resolve or escalate issues affecting Quality Assurance team member productivity.
• Ensure Quality Assurance team members adhere to defined standards and processes.
• Mentor members of the team.
• Be the point of contact for test environment impacts.
• Provide input to Management on Quality Assurance team members' performance.
• Responsible for providing data used as input to metrics.
• Coordinate availability of end-to-end testing environments.
• Point of contact for escalations related to Quality Assurance by customers.
• On-board and orient new team members on processes and procedures. 

Minimum Qualifications: 

Required: *A combination of relevant work experience and/or education sufficient to perform the duties of the job may substitute to meet the total years required on a year-for-year basis

• High School diploma or equivalent.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Technology, Computer Science or relevant field. *
• Minimum of six (6) years of experience in Quality Assurance, product/project management, configuration/development, business systems analysis, monitoring, or other related experience. *

Preferred: 

• IT Project Experience.
• Software Test Certifications.
• Project Management Professional (PMP and/or PMP-ACP). 
• Agile Certified Professional (ACP), IC Agile, LEAN Six Sigma.
• Certified Scrum Master (SAFE Certification).
• Applications, Programming, and Software certifications desirable. 
• ITIL Certification (V3 or 4), Foundation, Practitioner, Intermediate, Expert, Managing Professional, Strategic Leader, Master.
• Telecommunications experience. 
• Other telecom industry or job specific certifications

Required at ALL Levels

DRIVING REQUIREMENTS: 

• This position may require access to reliable transportation for occasional travel between retail store locations, offices, worksites, or other locations as needed.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS and WORKING CONDITIONS:  

• Work is primarily sedentary, requiring daily routine computer usage.
• Occasional business travel required.
• Ability to work shifts as assigned, work in standard office/home office setting, and operate standard office equipment.
• Ability to accurately communicate information and ideas to others effectively.
• Physical agility and effort sufficient to perform job duties safely and effectively.
• Ability to make valid judgments and decisions. 
• Available to work additional time on weekends, holidays, before or after normal work hours when necessary. 
• Must work well in a team environment and be able to work with a diverse group of people and customers.
• Virtual workers must comply with remote work policies and agreements.

The company and its subsidiaries operate in a 24/7 environment providing critical services to Alaskans and may need to respond to public health and safety matters or other business emergencies. Due to business needs employees may be contacted outside of the core business hours to respond to the immediate emergency. As such, you will be requested to provide emergency after hours contact numbers, to include your home and cell phone numbers if you have those services. EEO: GCI is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability, veteran status, or any other status or classification protected under applicable state or federal law.  DISCLAIMER:  The above information on this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification.  It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job.