Project Assistant Syracuse Box OP-, OP

Project Assistant (2 Positions)

New York State Education Department’s Office of the Professions Modernization Program is seeking Project Assistants to serve as Technical QA Engineers. The role will specialize in designing and executing the technical test strategy and quality assurance plan for the Office of the Professions Modernization Program at the Syracuse, NY location.

• Perform software engineering and quality assurance tasks within complex development environments, applying best practices from related technology fields.
• Lead test planning, execution, and validation activities across the software development lifecycle, including functional, regression, back-end, and end-to-end testing.
• Conduct data validation through SQL queries and assist in verifying application and data integration across Oracle and related systems.
• Leverage tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Bit Bucket, and Postman; experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, and test automation frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Selenium, Visual Studies, mabl) preferred.
• Apply Agile or Scrum delivery methodologies to plan, execute, and iterate on development and testing work.
• Provide feedback and retrospective demos to developers and stakeholders regarding usability and functionality.
• Establish and enforce validation criteria for deliverables (Definition of Done), track key testing decisions, trace requirement completion through testing artifacts, and secure commitment and approvals from project participants.

• Minimum:
  Bachelor’s degree (any field) with at least 4 years of software testing experience, including development and execution of test cases for web-based applications; hands‑on experience with automated testing tools; familiarity with functional, end‑to‑end, and back‑end testing; exposure to Agile or Scrum methodologies; basic SQL knowledge for testing relational databases.
• Alternative:
  Bachelor’s degree (any field) with 5 years of professional experience in computer science‑related roles; or Associate degree (15 semester credit hours in computer science) with 6 years of professional experience; or 8 years of professional experience in computer science‑related roles, including software testing as outlined above.
• Preferred:
  Four years of experience testing, including functional, regression, integration, and UAT of applications, business processes, and data validations;
  Four years of experience coordinating or managing end‑to‑end testing across multiple applications, data flows, and teams;
  Four years of experience managing/coordinating large testing projects spanning multiple applications, data, and teams;
  Four years of experience with automated and manual tests needed to ensure the operation and precision of new product features and overall system behavior (e.g., regression testing);
  Test APIs using Postman or similar tool;
  Test functionality and performance of software applications before release;
  Execute multiple phases of functional and non‑functional testing to guarantee the quality of software releases from design to implementation;
  Ensure software applications meet technical and functional requirements;
  Create detailed, comprehensive, and well‑structured test plans and test cases;
  Provide testing estimates and manage the testing schedule and activities;
  Review user stories and confirm acceptance criteria to support required test steps;
  Write positive and negative test cases covering all opportunities to break software per acceptance criteria;
  Proactively track both functional and regression testing status for each release;
  Review other test engineers’ code and test plans for accuracy, completeness, and style;
  Analyze business requirements, assign tasks to subordinates, perform code reviews, and oversee releases;
  Develop, maintain, and troubleshoot Java 8 code using Intelli
  
  J IDE;
  Build and enhance Java‑based web applications leveraging Spring technologies, including Spring Boot and Spring MVC, with front‑end integration using Vue.js and Vuetify.

• Thirteen (13) paid holidays annually.
• Thirteen (13) days of paid vacation leave in year one, increasing to 20+ days with additional years of service.
• Five (5) days of paid…