At the Technology Innovation Department (TID), our mission is to apply modern principles of research, design, and technology to make our transit system easy for all riders to use. Effective and equitable public transit is essential to the social, economic, and environmental progress of Greater Boston.
The MBTA Technology Innovation team is working to transform how people get around the Boston area.
We are a team of designers, engineers, product and content specialists charged with bringing novel ideas, modern standards and a user-centered approach to technology at the T. As the MBTA works to reinvent itself, we have a rare opportunity to craft the future of transportation for Boston and communities all around Eastern Massachusetts, as well as pioneer innovations for other transit agencies around the country.
Do you want to improve the daily transportation experience for 4.7 million people in the Boston region? Ready for the challenge? Then read on.
About the MBTA and the Fare Transformation Project
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is America’s fifth largest transit system offering multi-modal transportation services to 175 member cities and towns and 4.7 million residents across a 3,200 square mile area. It is a public authority and political subdivision of the Commonwealth. The MBTA operates heavy rail, light rail, commuter rail, bus, and commuter boat services.
The MBTA’s new fare payment system will make paying for transit services in Massachusetts easier and more convenient with a full replacement of the MBTA’s automated fare collection system (the ‘CharlieCard’ system). The new system will include new hardware in stations, on vehicles and at other locations throughout the MBTA service network and will be supported by a new back office. It will improve how the MBTA currently collects fares and enable the sort of changes the T wants to make in the future. More information about the project and its benefits to customers is available at www.mbta.com/fare-transformation. About the Position
The Fare System Quality Assurance Lead – Fare Transformation will have overall responsibility for compliance demonstration, quality assurance, and defect resolution for the new MBTA fare system. They will lead test strategy, monitor vendor’s progress towards demonstrating compliance with contractual requirements, manage QA activities, oversee test development and execution, manage the prioritization and handling of defects, and hold the vendor accountable for maintaining test equipment in the test lab. They will work across all technical components including fare collection devices, fare vending machines, payments technology, website and mobile app, customer support software, retail solution, APIs, integrations with other internal and external systems, tap processing, and information security.
Primary Responsibilities
- Lead test strategy, balancing priorities such as test coverage, test quality, competing demands, and project schedule.
- Track, measure, and report on progress identifying, writing, and executing tests, and resolving defects.
- Identify systemic problems, inefficiencies, risks, and opportunities for improvement; work with functional leads and vendor to develop and implement plans to address.
- Work with functional leads and with vendor to set overall testing approach for different functional areas.
- Manage review of test scripts and witnessing of test execution by the vendor.
- Plan, coordinate, and conduct ad hoc testing independently from the vendor in both the lab and the field.
- Evaluate completeness of test coverage.
- Collaborate with functional leads on implications of design changes to test scripts and implications of test findings to design.
- Monitor progress of vendor’s compliance with contractual requirements.
- Evaluate ways to demonstrate compliance with a requirement.
- Review certifications and test waiver requests.
- Manage the compliance matrix, which tracks vendor progress toward meeting over 7,000 contractual requirements.
- Notify stakeholders of updates to compliance matrix, coordinate their review of changes, and manage preparation of comments and their transmittal to vendor.
- Manage defect handling, including reporting, prioritization, tracking, and validating resolution.
- Provide written and verbal explanations of technical issues non-technical stakeholders, clearly conveying information about impact to users and agency operations.
- Work with vendor to track, communicate, and validate deployment of features and bugfixes to lab environment.
- Hold vendor accountable for lab hardware and software availability.
Minimum Requirements
- Five (5) years of experience in quality assurance, vendor management, and/or technology design/testing/implementation/operation.
- Experience with developing, implementing and/or overseeing test plans and test reports.
- Ability to understand, interpret, and apply rules, regulations, policies, procedures, contracts and technical requirements.
- Effective organizational, analytical, time management, interpersonal and multi-tasking skills; attention to detail.
- Experience using online collaboration and tracking tools (e.g. Slack, Asana, Basecamp, Jira, etc.)
- The ability to work effectively with a diverse workforce.
Preferences
- Strong knowledge of software QA methodologies, tools and processes.
- Experience with software testing, including front-end, back-end and integrations.
- Experience with quality assurance for specialized devices/hardware.
- Experience working with the output of a development team who you do not directly supervise and cannot directly control.
- Experience with performance and/or security testing.
- Experience working in transportation, with a government agency, or with payment technology.
- Experience with defining, writing and enforcing technical requirements.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:
TID is dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive environment—it’s essential to the work we do. In order to effectively partner with MBTA departments and do our best work for riders, our team must reflect the wide variety of people who use the MBTA’s services. We welcome people with different strengths, experiences, and backgrounds who share a passion for improving people’s lives. Our team is deeply committed to diversity, inclusion, and continual learning. We strive to foster an environment where each individual is valued, feels a sense of belonging, and is welcomed to bring their best self to work.
Here at TID, we provide equal opportunity for all employees and applicants. We recruit, hire, train, promote, compensate, and manage all personnel without regard to race, color, national origin, cultural identification or expression, socioeconomic background, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, family status, marital status, learning style, neurodiversity, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, or any other non-merit based or legally protected grounds.
Research has shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for roles unless they believe they meet all qualifications. We strongly encourage candidates from marginalized groups to apply, even if you don’t believe you meet every one of the job qualifications listed. We’re committed to maximizing the diversity of our team and want to hear from anyone who is passionate about our efforts and interested in supporting our work for riders.
