Geared toward candidates comfortable with structured testing and cross-functional collaboration, working in a hybrid office environment in San Jose.
Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.
Original posting from Critical Mass via Greenhouse
Quality Assurance Specialist
Role
The Quality Assurance Specialist is responsible for ensuring quality assurance (QA) standards and client satisfaction are consistently delivered across digital projects. This role executes structured, well-defined QA activities with speed, accuracy, and high quality to support the overall agility and effectiveness of the QA team.
Working closely with QA Leads, QA team members, project managers, designers, and developers, the Quality Assurance Specialist helps ensure that project requirements, design specifications, and quality standards are met throughout the project lifecycle.
Responsibilities
Quality Assurance & Testing
Ensure project quality aligns with business requirements and design specifications.
Analyze project requirements, user stories, tickets, and technical documentation to identify testing needs.
Identify gaps, ambiguities, and risks within project requirements and communicate findings to stakeholders.
Create, maintain, and execute comprehensive test plans, test cases, test scripts, checklists, and traceability matrices.
Perform functional and non-functional testing across digital products and platforms.
Execute regression testing to validate system stability following updates and releases.
Apply industry-standard testing methodologies, strategies, and QA best practices.
Defect Management & Reporting
Identify, document, and track defects through resolution using defect management tools.
Communicate test results, quality issues, risks, and recommendations to project teams, project managers, and QA leadership.
Create quality reports and metrics to support project and organizational performance tracking.
Provide clear, concise, and actionable feedback to stakeholders.
Collaboration & Communication
Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams to achieve shared project goals.
Participate in project meetings, status updates, planning sessions, and QA reviews.
Provide timely communication regarding testing progress, risks, blockers, and project status.
Support onboarding and knowledge-sharing efforts for new QA team members.
Continuous Improvement
Contribute to QA estimation activities and project planning efforts.
Continuously expand knowledge of QA processes, testing methodologies, automation tools, accessibility standards, and emerging technologies.
Support process improvements that enhance quality, efficiency, and team effectiveness.
Promote best practices related to software quality, usability, accessibility, and performance.
Professional Competencies
Demonstrate proficiency in QA principles, practices, and Agile software development methodologies.
Communicate effectively with individuals and groups across varying levels of the organization.
Adapt communication style to suit different audiences and situations.
Show resilience under pressure and maintain a positive, solution-oriented approach.
Demonstrate continuous learning, professional growth, and commitment to self-development.
Experience
Required Qualifications
Minimum of 2 years of experience in Software Quality Assurance.
Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Working knowledge of Agile software development methodologies.
Experience collaborating with both local and offshore teams.
Experience using task management and defect-tracking tools such as Jira or similar platforms.
Strong working knowledge of Windows and/or macOS environments.
Preferred Qualifications
ISTQB Certification or equivalent QA certification.
Additional quality assurance, testing, or software quality certifications.
Experience with collaboration and project management tools such as Jira, Confluence, and Box.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio, and MS Project.
Language Requirements
English proficiency at approximately B2 level or higher in reading, writing, and verbal communication.
What we offer:
Maternity and parental leave extra days
Competitive benefits packages
Vacation, compassionate leave, sick days, and flex days
Access to online services for families and new parents
Diversity and Inclusion Board with 12 affinity groups
Internal learning and development programs
Enterprise-wide employee discounts
And more…
At Critical Mass, we value our employees and offer competitive compensation and benefits packages. If you’re looking for a challenging and rewarding opportunity to make a significant impact on the lives of our employees, we encourage you to apply for this exciting position today!
The Talent Team at Critical Mass is focused on ensuring we provide the best training, onboarding, and employee experience possible! Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization, and we want to set you up for long-term success. In an effort to do so, we expect our team to work from an office a minimum of 3 days a week.
The ask stems from our want to:
Strengthen opportunity for continuous learning
Improve collaboration and team relationships.
Increase employee engagement
This work model balances the need for individual flexibility while maintaining the relentless customer focus we provide at CM. We understand that not everyone may feel comfortable with this expectation, so we ask that you please let us know immediately if there are any concerns so we can help navigate accordingly.
Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer.
Critical Mass uses artificial intelligence in our recruitment process to enhance job postings, filter keywords during the review of prospective candidates, and, in some cases, transcribe interviews with our recruiters. Human review remains central to the process, and all hiring decisions are ultimately made by our team.
The Critical Mass Talent Acquisition team will only communicate from email addresses that use the URLs criticalmass.com, omc.com and us.greenhouse-mail.io. We will not use apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Google Hangouts for communicating with you. We will never ask you to send us money, technology, or anything else to work for our company. If you believe you are the victim of a scam, please review your local government consumer protections guidance and reach out to them directly.
If U.S. based: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams#avoid
If Canada based: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/finance/consumer-affairs.html
If U.K. based: https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights
If Costa Rica based: https://www.consumo.go.cr/educacion_consumidor/consejos_practicos.aspx