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SalaryQuality Assurance Manager
Kipsu is rooted in a simple, yet profound goal: Elevate service professionals to the center of the customer experience, transforming transactional interactions into fully-developed relationships. As one of the Twin Cities’ leading tech companies, Kipsu has cultivated a reputation for strong company culture, providing exemplary service to its customer partners, and investing in the growth of their team members. Kipsu was recognized by Star Tribune as a top small company workplace for 2021 and 2022. This role is crucial to the significant, sustainable growth and continued global expansion forecasted for Kipsu’s near future.
THE OPPORTUNITY
You’ll join and help shape our Engineering team of 35 as the leader of our QA function, a team of 5. We value creativity, collaboration, and curiosity. We put a lot of effort into our team culture and will value your contribution to how we build and grow a healthy, productive, and respectful environment of growth and challenge. You’ll be empowered to lead a team and maximize results of a group of talented and engaged Quality Analysts and Engineers.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Kipsu is rooted in a simple, yet profound goal: Elevate service professionals to the center of the customer experience, transforming transactional interactions into fully-developed relationships. As one of the Twin Cities’ leading tech companies, Kipsu has cultivated a reputation for strong company culture, providing exemplary service to its customer partners, and investing in the growth of their team members. Kipsu was recognized by Star Tribune as a top small company workplace for 2021 and 2022. This role is crucial to the significant, sustainable growth and continued global expansion forecasted for Kipsu’s near future.
THE OPPORTUNITY
You’ll join and help shape our Engineering team of 35 as the leader of our QA function, a team of 5. We value creativity, collaboration, and curiosity. We put a lot of effort into our team culture and will value your contribution to how we build and grow a healthy, productive, and respectful environment of growth and challenge. You’ll be empowered to lead a team and maximize results of a group of talented and engaged Quality Analysts and Engineers.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Participate in strategic planning of QA efforts, collaborating closely with your peers who manage the Software Engineering squads as well as with our Product team and executives.
- Leverage your experience to build upon our existing QA practices and take our QA function to the next level.
- Define and track metrics to measure quality across all stages of our software development life cycle and drive improvements both within and beyond the QA team.
- Lead standups and working group meetings, fostering an environment of critical thinking and constructive collaboration.
- Provide review, advice and mentoring to team members regularly, through one on ones, peer collaboration, or other means.
- Think intentionally about what makes an inclusive, positive, and productive culture and work as part of a leadership team within Engineering to reinforce, reassess, and improve how we operate as a team.
- Manage projects effectively, driving accountability through effective planning and monitoring through execution.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
- 4+ years of experience as a Quality Analyst and/or Engineer.
- 2+ years of experience in a leadership role of some kind, formal or informal.
- Thorough understanding of the software development lifecycle and how QA fits into the various phases.
- Ability to see the big picture beyond the Engineering team, taking into account customer expectations, company goals and external pressures while maintaining a commitment to delivering high quality software.
- Ability to collaborate with Engineering, Product and customer-facing teams to deliver critical new capabilities into the field.
- Strong technical and business communication skills; comfortable engaging with stakeholders at all levels of the business, as well as external customers and partners when needed.
- Demonstrated capability to parse complex problems and work through tricky situations; not afraid to learn new skills or systems and not above "getting your hands dirty" to fully understand the issue.
- Ability to estimate / forecast work efforts and track effectiveness in executing to delivery deadlines (typically in increments of two week sprints).
- Enjoy stepping up to challenges and helping others overcome obstacles to achieve their goals, both in terms of delivering day-to-day work as well as long-term professional development.
WHAT MAKES KIPSU DIFFERENT
- We’re a solid, stable company, and we enthusiastically embrace our founding startup spirit– everyone pitching in and working to the same goals.
- Our culture– We have a team of highly motivated colleagues who are all in it together. We all succeed as one, and we all learn from our mistakes holding our interdependence in high regard.
- Our unique philosophy– we bootstrapped this company ourselves and are in it for the long-term. There is a distinct sense of purpose and ownership at Kipsu as we do things on our own terms.
- Remarkable growth– with nearly a decade of advancement, we continue to accelerate. It’s an exciting time to be here.
WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT HERE
- Unity– Everyone here is committed to the same mission. Our core values are not platitudes but our pact. We believe in the best in each other while always reaching to be better.
- Transparency– Our leadership gets into the details. We all gather for weekly space to discover how each team is doing so that we have a full understanding of the business and think like a CEO.
- Trust– Our team members are given the trust and license to excel at their jobs, and are supported along the way to continuously grow.
- Mentorship - We all have more to learn and something to teach. The lessons are beyond technical. We celebrate our busy hive of shared growth.
- Respect– Our success and future as an industry leader depend on actionable commitment to cultivating a diverse and equitable team. Everyone here has a voice that is heard and respected. We seek open and honest conversation on our journey to be active stewards of our shared communities.
- Purpose– Everyone here is closely connected to the result of their work. Every day our team gets to see the impact of what they do enhancing the value of our customers’ work in their own professions. Our goals are explicitly tethered to our mission of building relationships.
One last thing – At Kipsu, we believe that our values, success, and future as a leader in our industry require a vibrant and diverse workforce. This is one of the many challenges we seek to solve, and we are intentional and active in recruiting talent of all identities and building an environment that is inclusive of all backgrounds. We need your contribution to our team. Please consider rolling up your sleeves and joining us on our journey.
