Senior Test Lead

We are seeking a highly accomplished Senior Test Lead for an enterprise-level contract opportunity based in Toronto. In this role, you will take on a premier quality assurance leadership, test strategy architecture, and delivery enablement capacity, specializing in directing end-to-end testing lifecycles for complex digital and enterprise solutions.

As a Senior Test Lead, you will bridge the gap between business stakeholders, software developers, solution architects, cybersecurity specialists, and operational teams. Operating fully onsite in Toronto, you will define overall quality management approaches, develop comprehensive test plans, coordinate test environments and data, lead defect triage workflows, and direct both manual and automated testing execution. This position demands a technical quality management authority with broad expertise across functional, integration, regression, accessibility, performance, and security testing who can evaluate solution quality and provide evidence-based recommendations on release readiness.

Location:

Toronto, ON

Assignment Type:
Onsite (5 days per week)

Contract Duration: 11-month contract

Advantages
End-to-End Strategic QA Leadership:
Define comprehensive test strategies and quality-management approaches for complex enterprise applications.

Full-Spectrum Testing Scope:
Lead functional, integration, system, regression, accessibility, performance, security, and user acceptance testing.

Hybrid Automation Integration:
Drive efficiency by identifying automation opportunities across user interfaces, APIs, and database layers.

Release Readiness Governance:
Guide executive decision-making by establishing traceability metrics, defect dashboards, and production readiness assessments.

Responsibilities
Define, establish, and maintain the overall test strategy, schedules, entry/exit criteria, and quality-management approach across the delivery lifecycle.

Develop comprehensive test plans, test scenarios, execution procedures, test scripts, and completion reports for enterprise solutions.

Lead and coordinate multidisciplinary testing activities using both manual and automated testing approaches where appropriate.

Identify and implement test automation opportunities to maximize test coverage and improve execution efficiency across UI, API, and database layers.

Establish and coordinate test environments, test data management strategies, user accounts, and supporting tooling resources.

Maintain strict requirements traceability matrices (RTM) and test coverage reporting to ensure complete functional and non-functional validation.

Direct defect management workflows, including defect identification, severity prioritization, daily triage meetings, retesting, and defect closure.

Evaluate testing risks, single points of failure, cross-team dependencies, and technical constraints, developing robust mitigation strategies.

Report testing progress, quality indicators, key performance metrics, outstanding defect trends, and release risks to project leadership.

Provide evidence-based recommendations on overall solution quality, residual risk assessments, and production deployment readiness.

Qualifications
Core Requirements & QA Leadership Expertise
Test Leadership

Experience:

Proven track record serving as a Test Lead or QA Lead managing testing lifecycles for large, complex digital or enterprise solutions.

Test Strategy & Planning:
Extensive experience authoring end-to-end test strategies, master test plans, execution schedules, quality criteria, and completion reports.

Comprehensive Testing Scope:
Demonstrated expertise leading functional, integration, system, regression, accessibility (AODA/WCAG), performance, security, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

Manual & Automated Testing:
Strong hands-on experience utilizing both manual testing methodologies and automated testing tools for UI, API, or database layers.

Defect & Traceability Management:
Direct experience establishing requirement traceability, managing defect triage, and monitoring defect resolution through closure.

Environment & Data Setup:
Experience coordinating test environment configuration, test data generation, and tool selection across complex IT ecosystems.

Preferred Technical Assets & Skill Sets
Tooling & Framework Selection:
Experience selecting and applying specialized testing tools, frameworks, and quality best practices.

Cross-Functional Coordination:
Proven ability to coordinate business users, development leads, solution architects, and security specialists…