Testing Lead / Manager

Description

Spatial Front, Inc. (SFI), a two-time USA Today Top Workplaces awardee and Washington Top Workplaces honoree, is seeking a Testing Lead / Manager to oversee testing activities for enterprise application projects. This role requires someone who understands testing frameworks, QA processes, test lifecycle management, automation testing concepts, and structured delivery environments.

The Testing Lead / Manager will be responsible for coordinating testers, assigning and tracking testing work, verifying the quality and completeness of test execution, managing defects and risks, and communicating testing status to project managers, technical teams, and client stakeholders. This is a leadership and coordination role, but the successful candidate must also be able to get hands-on when needed. The ideal candidate should have enough technical understanding to review testing work, ask the right questions, identify gaps, validate results, understand system behavior, and support the team when issues require deeper investigation.

The candidate should have strong communication, management, analytical, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to work effectively with testers, developers, business analysts, project managers, and client stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage testing activities across enterprise application projects.
• Develop and maintain test plans, test schedules, testing processes, and execution tracking.
• Coordinate testing work across functional testers, technical testers, automation testers, developers, business analysts, project managers, and client stakeholders.
• Assign testing tasks, monitor progress, follow up on open items, and ensure testing deadlines are met.
• Review and verify test cases, test scripts, test results, supporting evidence, and completion status.
• Validate that testing work is accurate, complete, properly documented, and aligned with project requirements.
• Step in to support hands-on testing, issue analysis, documentation review, or validation activities when needed.
• Understand system workflows, data flows, integrations, interfaces, reports, and application behavior at a high level.
• Track testing progress, pass/fail results, defects, blockers, risks, and overall release readiness.
• Lead defect triage meetings and coordinate retesting, validation, and defect closure.
• Work with developers and analysts to understand defects, clarify expected behavior, and verify fixes.
• Review automated test results, identify potential gaps, and coordinate with automation resources when needed.
• Identify testing gaps, risks, and quality concerns, then communicate them clearly to project leadership.
• Prepare and present testing status reports, dashboards, metrics, and go/no-go recommendations.
• Support functional, regression, integration, user acceptance, system, automated, and end-to-end testing activities.
• Help improve testing processes, standards, templates, reporting methods, and quality controls.
• Ensure testers follow defined QA processes, testing frameworks, and project documentation standards.
• Work onsite or in a hybrid capacity in Crystal City, VA, based on project and client needs. 

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, Business, or a related field (or equivalent work experience) 
• 5+ years of experience in software testing, quality assurance, or enterprise application testing 
• Experience leading testing efforts, managing testers, or coordinating QA workstreams 
• Strong understanding of testing frameworks, QA methodologies, and the software testing lifecycle 
• Experience with test planning, test case development/review, execution tracking, defect management, and release readiness reporting 
• Familiarity with automated testing tools and frameworks such as Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Cucumber, TestNG, JUnit, Postman, SoapUI, Tricentis, Tosca, or similar 
• Ability to oversee testers while maintaining sufficient technical depth to validate their work 
• Experience reviewing test artifacts, including test cases, results, defects, logs, screenshots, and supporting documentation 
• Ability to provide hands-on support for testing, validation, and issue analysis when needed 
• High-level technical understanding of enterprise applications, including workflows, data, integrations, interfaces, and defect analysis 
• Strong communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders 
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including project managers, developers, business analysts, testers, and client stakeholders 
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, risks, and blockers simultaneously 
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills 
• Close attention to detail and commitment to enforcing quality standards 
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office tools (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams) 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a QA leadership role (e.g., QA Lead, Test Lead, Test Manager, UAT Lead, SIT Lead, or Release Testing Lead) 
• Experience testing enterprise systems, including business applications, case management, financial, HR, or government systems 
• Experience working in Agile, Scrum, SAFe, or hybrid delivery environments 
• Ability to review and interpret technical documentation, including user stories, requirements, acceptance criteria, interface specifications, and system design materials 
• Experience coordinating both manual and automated testing efforts within the same release cycle 
• Experience reviewing automated test execution results, including failure reports, logs, screenshots, and supporting test evidence 
• Experience leading or coordinating User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with business users or client stakeholders 
• Experience developing testing dashboards, metrics, executive summaries, and release readiness reports 
• Experience supporting federal government projects 
• Active Secret clearance or ability to obtain one 
• Relevant certifications such as ISTQB, CSM, SAFe, PMP, or similar

Desired Skills and Competencies

• Strong leadership and coordination skills to effectively guide testing efforts across teams 
• Ability to manage testing activities without needing to execute every task directly 
• Willingness and capability to step in and provide hands-on support when needed 
• Solid understanding of testing frameworks and their application within structured project environments 
• Clear, professional, and proactive communication skills 
• Ability to evaluate and validate the quality and completeness of testing deliverables 
• High-level technical understanding to collaborate effectively with developers and technical teams 
• Ability to review manual and automated test results and identify gaps, risks, and inconsistencies 
• Strong analytical skills to identify weaknesses and areas for improvement in testing processes 
• Ability to ask insightful technical and functional questions during defect triage and validation

Work Environment/Location

This is an onsite/hybrid position based in Crystal City, VA. The Testing Lead / Manager will work closely with project managers, technical teams, testers, business analysts, automation resources, and client stakeholders. The role requires regular communication, meeting facilitation, documentation review, testing coordination, status reporting, and hands-on support when needed. The candidate must be comfortable working in a structured project environment with deadlines, dependencies, formal reporting, and client-facing communication.

Additional Information:

• Clearance: Must be a U.S. Citizen with an active Secret security clearance or the ability to obtain/maintain one.
• This is a full-time, W2 position.
• Ability to work onsite or in a hybrid environment in Crystal City, VA 
• No agencies, third parties, or Corp-to-Corp submissions.
• Spatial Front Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer — all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status.
• SFI participates in E-Verify.

About Spatial Front, Inc.

Spatial Front, Inc. is a technology solutions company that supports federal, state, and commercial clients with IT services, software development, data management, systems integration, and digital transformation solutions. We are committed to delivering high-quality solutions that help our clients achieve their mission objectives.