Quality Assurance Lead / Quality Engineering Manager

About upstream

Headquartered in Canberra, Australia, we've grown into a global force in technology services. As a Platinum monday.com Partner (3x APAC Partner of the Year), a Diamond HubSpot Partner, and a proud member of the Apple Consultant Network, we collaborate with top-tier cloud software providers to deliver exceptional solutions to businesses worldwide.

We bring people together energetic, honest, high achievers who challenge the norm and believe in making the impossible possible. Collaboration, curiosity and integrity fuel the way we work. From corporate to community, we deliver quality products and services - whatever is needed. Backed by smart systems, bold thinking, and the right people in the right roles.

With a distributed team across Australia, India, and the APAC region, we've championed remote work since 2015, cultivating a culture that values inclusivity, support, and a healthy work-life balance.

About The Role

We are looking for a QA Lead / Quality Engineering Manager to own and elevate testing across all of our delivery teams. You will set the quality strategy, build and mentor a team of testers, and embed automation, CI/CD-driven testing, and agile quality practices into how we ship. You will be the person who translates technical risk into clear business impact and who makes confident, data-informed release decisions.

This is a hands-on leadership role: equal parts strategy, coaching, and deep technical craft. It is fully remote.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the overall QA strategy for quality across multiple delivery streams, aligning testing strategy with product and business goals.
• Lead, coach, and mentor a team of QA engineers, building a collaborative, high-trust quality culture across delivery teams.
• Design and maintain test automation frameworks and expand automated coverage across UI, API, and performance layers.
• Embed quality gates into CI/CD pipelines so defects are caught early and releases stay predictable.
• Shift quality left, early in the SDLC — anticipate blockers, prevent defects at the source, and drive continuous process improvement.
• Make and communicate release readiness using data and metrics such as defect leakage, test coverage, and escape rate.
• Translate technical risk into clear business impact for stakeholders, developers, and clients.
• Champion agile testing practices within cross-functional squads and resolve conflicts smoothly.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience: 8 to 12 years in software quality assurance, with at least 4 years managing or leading QA for multiple delivery streams.
• Technical skills: Hands-onmastery of automation tools (Selenium, Playwright, Cypress), API testing (Postman, RestAssured), and performance tools (JMeter, k6).
• CI/CD: Strong working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices for testing.
• Methodology: Deep experience within agile / Scrum delivery environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Industry-recognised credentials such as ISTQB Advanced/Expert, Agile Testing, or PMP.
• Experience leading QA for consultancy or multi-client delivery environments.
• Exposure to monday.com, Google Cloud, or HubSpot ecosystems is an advantage.

Essential Qualities

• Strategic vision: Sees the big picture of product quality and aligns testing strategy with business goals.
• Strong communication: Translates complex technical risks into clear business impact for stakeholders and developers.
• Proactive mindset: Anticipates blockers, prevents defects early in the SDLC, and drives continuous improvement.
• Leadership & empathy: Mentors testers, builds a collaborative culture with delivery teams, and resolves conflicts smoothly.
• Analytical thinking: Uses data and metrics (defect leakage, test coverage) to make smart release decisions.