Staff Quality Assurance Lead

We’re hiring a Staff QA Lead to help us elevate the quality bar across the entire product and engineering org. This is a foundational role: you’ll be the first dedicated QA hire at Helcim, with the opportunity to shape our tools, processes, and testing strategy from the ground up. You’ll lead the charge in designing and implementing automated test frameworks, defining a mobile testing strategy, and expanding test coverage across our platform. You’ll enable development teams to improve their test coverage by using your tools. You’ll also take ownership of key testing domains—including API testing, end-to-end testing, load testing, and security testing—and ensure they're tightly integrated into our SDLC and CI/CD practices. You’ll collaborate cross-functionally with software engineers, DevOps, DevEx, security, and product teams to embed testing at every layer of development and release. This is a high-impact, hands-on role with both strategic and technical influence. * The Architect’s Mindset: You have 8+ years of experience in software quality, with a proven track record of building testing departments from the ground up in high-growth environments. You don't just "test"; you build systems that make testing invisible and automatic for other engineers. * PHP & Laravel Expert: You are deeply familiar with the Laravel ecosystem. You understand how to handle service container mocking, and utilize tools like Pest or PHPUnit to ensure backend reliability without sacrificing speed. * AI Native: You don't see AI as a gimmick. You are proficient in using LLMs (Gemini, Claude) and AI-assisted IDEs (Windsurf, Cursor, or JetBrains AI) to generate boilerplate tests, refactor legacy test suites, and analyze logs for pattern-based bug detection. * Modern Frontend and Backend Proficiency: You have extensive experience testing reactive frontend frameworks like Vue 3, using tools such as Cypress, Playwright, or Vitest to ensure seamless user experiences. You also understand the importance of modern interfaces and are comfortable building tools for API testing. * Infrastructure & CI/CD Fluency: You speak the language of DevOps. You have experience working within GCP environments and integrating quality gates into automated pipelines (GitLab CI/CD preferred). * Mobile Strategist: You have successfully navigated the complexities of mobile QA, from managing real-device farms to implementing automated cross-platform testing for iOS and Android. * Fintech Rigor: You understand the stakes of moving money. You have experience validating systems against PCI DSS or similar compliance frameworks, ensuring that security and data integrity are never compromised. * Coach and Mentor: You raise the capabilities of the whole department through knowledge transfer and mentoring of individuals. You have experience helping more junior developers grow and get promoted. * Strategic Communicator: You can translate complex quality metrics into actionable insights for leadership. You are comfortable advocating for "Quality Assistance" as a philosophy, coaching developers to take pride in their own tests Bonus Points: The Tooling & Automation Edge * Custom Tooling & Plugins: Experience developing custom plugins or "Skills" for IDEs (Windsurf, VSCode, or JetBrains) to automate company-specific boilerplate or test-case generation. * Agentic QA Workflows: Proven experience building or implementing "Agentic" workflows—using LLMs to autonomously browse the app, identify UI regressions, or write initial draft test scripts based on Jira ticket descriptions. * Advanced Laravel Testing: Deep familiarity with specialized Laravel testing tools like Laravel Dusk for browser automation or Pest’s higher-order expectations to write more readable, maintainable tests. * Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Experience using Terraform or similar tools to provision ephemeral testing environments within GCP, ensuring that every pull request can be tested in an isolated, production-like state. * Performance Engineering: Proficiency in k6 or Locust for building "performance-as-code" suites that run within CI/CD to catch latency regressions before they reach production. * Open Source Contributor: You have contributed to open-source testing frameworks or maintain tools that the broader engineering community uses to improve code quality. ✨ Not checking every box? Please apply anyway! We know that candidates have different experiences that may make them a great fit for this position and for Helcim. We believe that diversity and having an inclusive culture is not only the right thing, but key to our long-term success. Diversity brings more experience, view-points, knowledge and insight about our future. We also want to provide an accessible interview process, so if there’s any accommodations that would make your experience more comfortable, please let us know. * Self-Service Testing Infrastructure: Architect and maintain a high-performance testing environment that engineers can trigger locally within their IDEs (Windsurf/JetBrains) or automatically within our CI/CD pipelines. * AI-Enhanced Automation: Lead the integration of AI tools (Gemini 3/Claude) to accelerate the creation of test suites, automate synthetic data generation in MySQL, and perform predictive risk analysis on new feature branches. * Full-Stack Framework Design: Design and scale robust automated testing frameworks specifically optimized for our Laravel PHP and Vue.js ecosystem, ensuring deep integration with GCP-based workflows. * Automated Quality Gates: Build and own the "Quality Gates" within our deployment pipeline to ensure that reliability and security standards are met before code reaches production. * Mobile Strategy & Execution: Define and manage the end-to-end mobile testing strategy, including the orchestration of real device management and automation for our Android and iOS applications. * Strategic Engineering Coaching: Act as a force multiplier by coaching software engineers on modern testing patterns, helping them write better tests faster and fostering a culture of shared quality ownership. * Staging & Load Optimization: Establish SOPs for our staging environments and lead performance initiatives, including load testing requirements to ensure system resilience during peak transaction periods. * Compliance & Security Validation: Partner with our Security and DevOps teams to automate the validation of critical systems, ensuring continuous alignment with PCI DSS, HIPAA, and other fintech standards. * Quality & Velocity Metrics: Take full ownership of key performance indicators, specifically tracking and improving Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) and Change Failure Rate to measure the health of our engineering output. * Continuous Innovation: Proactively scout and implement emerging QA technologies and scalable approaches to keep Helcim at the forefront of engineering excellence. Helcim was founded with a mission at heart: to be the world’s most loved payment system. From the very start, we knew that we wanted to be different from every payment processor out there. We want the merchants we serve to feel supported and see us as a trusted partner rather than simply just another “cost of doing business.” We are relentless in our pursuit to provide a radically transparent and honest payments solution that flat out saves business owners money, all while treating them like human beings. At Helcim, we build a team of engaged, caring and intelligent people. In return we provide an environment where you can be excited to come to work each day and tackle these challenges with an amazing team. Learn more in our culture book; The Way of the Helcim [https://www.helcim.com/theway/]. The Helcim Culture: How We Work * We Are Builders: We don't wait for solutions; we create them. * The Harder Path: We choose what’s difficult because it’s more rewarding. * Creating Trust: We earn it every day by being our best selves. * Company of Many: We’re a collective force. Great teams do great things. The Perks: Why You’ll Love It Here 🎁 * Ownership: Every single team member gets Stock Options. You own a piece of what you build! 📈 * Health First: Comprehensive benefits + a Health Spending Account (HSA) starting on Day 1. 🦷 * Flexibility: Hybrid life! We’re in-office Mon/Wed/Fri and remote Tue/Thu. 🏠 * Family Support: Top-ups for maternity leave and "bonding breaks." 👶 * Rest & Recharge: Paid vacation + a full company break in December. ❄️ * Growth: $500 annual training budget to keep your skills sharp. 📚

You will lead the design and implementation of automated testing frameworks and define the mobile testing strategy to ensure high product quality. Additionally, you will collaborate cross-functionally to embed testing into the SDLC and mentor engineering teams on modern quality practices.

The role requires 8+ years of experience in software quality with a strong background in building testing departments from the ground up. Proficiency in the Laravel ecosystem, reactive frontend frameworks, and modern CI/CD practices within GCP environments is essential.

• Stock Options • Comprehensive benefits • Health Spending Account • Maternity leave top-ups • Bonding breaks • Paid vacation • Company break in December • Training budget

• CI/CDSouhaitée
• Tests automatisésSouhaitée
• Assurance qualitéSouhaitée
• Vue.jsSouhaitée
• PHPSouhaitée
• Google CloudSouhaitée
• LaravelSouhaitée

Relevées dans la description du poste. Confirmez les exigences importantes ci-dessus.

• Quality Assurance
• Automated testing
• PHP
• Laravel
• Vue.js
• CI/CD
• GCP
• Mobile testing
• API testing
• Load testing
• Security testing
• PCI DSS
• Mentoring
• Performance engineering
• Infrastructure as Code
• AI-assisted development
• Inventory Staging
• Test Tools
• Influencing Skills
• Playwright (Software Testing)
• Locust
• Full Stack Development
• Pipelines
• Infrastructure Architecture
• Financial Technology (FinTech)
• Synthetic Data Generation
• Mobile Strategy
• Influencing Without Authority
• Pull/Merge Requests
• Workflow Management
• Resilience
• Advocacy
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Knowledge Transfer
• Grafana k6
• GitLab CI/CD
• API Testing
• Quality Gate
• JetBrains IDE
• PHP (Scripting Language)
• Artificial Intelligence
• Android (Operating System)
• Apple IOS
• JIRA
• Automation
• Test Automation
• Building Performance
• Code Coverage
• Data Integrity
• DevOps

• Technology
• Software
• Engineering
• Finance & Accounting
• Management & Leadership
• Staff Quality Assurance Engineer
• Quality Assurance Manager
• Management and Organization Analysts
• Quality Control Systems Managers
• Industrial Production Managers

Expérience minimale

10+ ans

Langue de l’offre

anglais

Heures de travail

40 heures par semaine

Présence au bureau

3 jours par semaine