Sandton: Lead: Quality Assurance Manager (Quality Governance & Delivery) posted by Hire Resolve

About the Role

Hire Resolve, a dynamic and innovative short-term insurance company, is seeking a Lead Quality Assurance Manager to join their team in Johannesburg, GP. The successful candidate will lead and mature the Quality Assurance (QA) function, ensuring testing is planned, assigned, tracked, and delivered on time, and that product quality is measured, visible, and continuously improved.

Key Responsibilities

• QA Delivery Management (30%)
• Own QA delivery across squads/streams, ensuring clear QA plans for each sprint and release.
• Work with QA Leads to allocate work, balance capacity, and keep deliverables on track.
• Track execution progress, remove blockers, and escalate risks early.
• Define QA operating rhythms including daily triage, regression cycles, and releasereadiness reviews.

• Quality Governance & Release Readiness (30%)
• Define and maintain the overall QA strategy (risk-based approach, quality gates, entry/exit criteria, definition of done).
• Own the release readiness process from a QA perspective (go/nogo inputs, risk acceptance, signoff framework).
• Standardise defect severity rules, testing standards, and documentation expectations across all products.

• Leadership & People Management (15%)
• Line manage the QA Leads and support performance across the broader QA function (1:1s, coaching, development plans).
• Build a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Support hiring, onboarding, and capability development (skills matrices, career paths, training plans).

• Reporting, Metrics & Stakeholder Communication (15%)
• Provide weekly and release-based reporting to Engineering leadership and delivery stakeholders.
• Ensure reporting includes test progress vs. plan, defect trends, defect aging, escaped defects/leakage, and top risks with mitigations.
• Communicate quality status in plain language: impacted areas, risk level, and recommended actions.

• Continuous Improvement & Crossfunctional Alignment (10%)
• Partner with Engineering Managers and Product stakeholders to improve quality upstream (better requirements, acceptance criteria, testability).
• Drive improvements to QA processes, environments, test data, and tooling (via QA Leads).
• Promote preventative quality practices and reduce repeat production issues.

Requirements

• Education & Experience:
• Diploma or Degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3-5 years total QA experience, including ownership of QA planning and delivery.
• At least 1-2 years of experience leading others (formal or informal leadership) and reporting status/risks to stakeholders.
• Experience coordinating both manual and automation testing streams, with specialists driving hands-on execution.
• Strong working knowledge of Agile delivery, SDLC, and modern QA practices.
• Comfortable with tools such as Jira (or equivalent), test management tools (Xray/Zephyr/TestRail), and reporting dashboards.

Preferred Qualifications

• ISTQB Foundation (preferred).
• ISTQB Advanced Test Manager (advantageous).
• Experience in financial services, insurance, or other regulated environments (advantageous).