Source description
About the role
Role Summary
Our client is seeking an experienced Contract Test Lead to support Project Petabyte TJ3, a high-visibility manufacturing and digital transformation initiative focused on standing up a new manufacturing facility. The project has a compressed timeline and critical readiness milestones leading into Digital Go-Live, pilot production, and full production.
This role will lead the planning, coordination, governance, and quality oversight for testing across functional, integration/SIT, end-to-end, UAT, regression, and performance/load testing activities. The ideal candidate will bring strong interpersonal skills, leadership presence, executive-level communication, and the ability to drive accountability across business, manufacturing, digital, infrastructure, MES, and application teams.
Project Context
Project Petabyte TJ3 supports a major TAHU manufacturing capacity expansion and new facility stand-up.
The testing need is driven by a new TJ3 factory, replication of the TJ2 digital/business process stack, an aggressive timeline, and the need for structured testing before go-live.
Testing scope includes functional testing, integration/SIT, end-to-end/UAT, regression, and performance/load testing.
Key project areas include associated hardware applications, MES, digital apps, infrastructure dependencies, business process scenarios, and SAP/Vault-related touchpoints.
Known complexity includes manufacturing data and processes, BOM flow into SAP, and multiple business rules before the process reaches final state.
Required Qualifications
10+ years of QA/testing experience, including senior or lead-level responsibility in enterprise or complex program environments.
Proven experience leading test planning, coordination, governance, execution tracking, and readiness reporting across multiple teams.
Strong experience with integration testing, end-to-end testing, UAT coordination, and regression planning.
Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps Test Plans or similar test management tools for test case management, execution tracking, defect management, and reporting.
Strong communication skills with the ability to convey testing status, risks, blockers, and recommendations to technical teams, business stakeholders, and leadership.
Demonstrated ability to lead through influence in a matrixed project environment.
Strong interpersonal skills with the confidence and command presence to facilitate meetings, drive decisions, resolve ambiguity, and hold teams accountable.
Experience coordinating defect triage, release readiness, milestone reviews, and quality gates.
Ability to work with incomplete requirements, evolving timelines, and dependency-heavy project environments.
Strong analytical and organizational skills, with the ability to turn unclear testing needs into a structured test approach.
Preferred Skills and Experience
Manufacturing domain knowledge, especially shop-floor processes, production readiness, assembly operations, warehouse flows, test stands, and manufacturing process dependencies.
Experience testing MES, SAP, PLM, Vault, manufacturing execution, or digital manufacturing applications.
Experience coordinating testing for new facility launches, plant expansions, manufacturing line readiness, or digital factory programs.
Experience with performance/load testing coordination, including gathering NFRs, load assumptions, transaction volumes, and readiness criteria.
Experience working with infrastructure, network, application, security, and business process teams.
Familiarity with hybrid Waterfall/Agile delivery models and milestone-based project governance.
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