Quality Assurance Lead

ISMG's Athena Group is seeking an experienced and highly skilled Quality Assurance Lead to drive our QA function, ensuring the delivery of flawless software products. In this role, you will be at the forefront of maintaining exceptional quality standards throughout the software development life cycle. An excellent QA Lead has eyes like a hawk and solid experience in quality control. This role requires a strategic thinker with a strong background in QA methodologies, test automation, and a track record of leading high-performing QA teams. This opportunity is ideal for someone who thrives in lean, high-tempo environments and wants to own the end-to-end QA strategy for cutting-edge products. You'll have direct impact on product releases, user trust, and platform stability. Responsibilities Operating in a dynamic, startup-like environment, leading QA efforts in a hands-on capacity. Conducting front-end testing as well as back-end testing, including testing large data sets. Developing data validation processes and tools, managing a reference data set that will be used to test ongoing changes to a core application. Establishing and implementing comprehensive QA strategies, processes, and guidelines on best practices to drive consistency and reliability across all projects, ensuring the highest level of software quality. Collaborating closely with cross-functional teams, including Development, Product Management, and Design, to establish quality standards and metrics for projects. Overseeing the design and execution of test cases, test scripts, and test scenarios to validate software functionality, performance, and security. Implementing and maintaining test automation frameworks and tools to optimize testing efficiency and accuracy. Monitoring and analyzing test results, identifying and prioritizing defects/areas for improvement, and ensuring timely and accurate bug reporting. Staying abreast of industry trends, emerging technologies, and advancements in QA methodologies to continually improve the QA function. Monitoring all QA activities, test results, leaked defects, etc. and conducting root-cause analysis to identify areas of improvement and implement steps required to improve the processes. Collaborating with stakeholders to understand customer feedback and issues and implement solutions to enhance product quality and user experience. Qualifications Bachelors or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field (Certification in software quality assurance is a plus.) 5-7+ years of experience as a QA Team Lead or in a similar role with a strong background in software quality assurance. Demonstrated expertise in QA methodologies, test planning, test case development, and test execution. Strong experience with test automation, CI/CD integration, and manual testing best practices. Intermediate proficiency in SQL or alternative query building tools and proven experience in web technologies. Solid understanding of Agile methodologies and the software development life cycle. Experience in fast-paced, high-growth environments—ideally startups or scaleups. Ability to operate independently, create clarity from ambiguity, and drive process innovation. Collaborative spirit with a builder's mindset—comfortable navigating evolving product needs. Experience with versioning control and Docker is a plus. Ability to install and configure relevant testing tools is a plus.

At Athena, we operate at startup speed inside the established media and tech ecosystem that is ISMG. Our mission is to redefine how content, data, and AI drive modern business decisions. We're builders, movers, and catalysts—looking for teammates who thrive in high-energy environments where innovation meets execution.