Director of Quality Assurance

Job Description Summary

We are seeking a seasoned and strategic Director of Quality Assurance (QA) to lead our QA organization across onshore and offshore teams. This role is pivotal in ensuring the delivery of high-quality, secure, and compliant software solutions in a fast-paced financial services environment, with a strong emphasis on trading systems. The ideal candidate will bring 10+ years of QA leadership experience, deep expertise in QA methodologies and SDLC, and a proven ability to scale quality practices across distributed teams.

Job Description

This position follows our hybrid-friendly schedule, so you get the best of both worlds – flexibility and collaboration. In office days will be 2-3 per week averaging 10-12 days per month in our St Petersburg, FL Corporate Office.

Please note: This role is not eligible for Work Visa sponsorship, either currently or in the future.

Responsibilities:
Leadership & Strategy:

• Define and execute the QA vision, strategy, and roadmap aligned with business and technology goals.

• Lead and mentor a large, geographically distributed team of QA professionals, including onshore and offshore resources.

• Foster a culture of quality, accountability, and continuous improvement across engineering teams.

Quality Engineering & Governance:

• Oversee the implementation of robust QA processes, frameworks, and tools across all stages of the SDLC.

•  Drive adoption of test automation, CI/CD, performance testing, and shift-left practices.

• Establish and monitor quality KPIs, metrics, and dashboards to ensure transparency and accountability.

Trading Systems & Financial Platforms:

• Ensure rigorous testing of trading platforms, order management systems (OMS), market data feeds, and related financial applications.

• Collaborate with trading, compliance, and infrastructure teams to validate system performance, latency, and reliability under real-world conditions.

• Maintain high standards for regulatory compliance, auditability, and risk mitigation in trading environments.

Collaboration & Delivery:

• Partner with Product, Development, and Compliance teams to ensure quality is embedded from ideation to release.

• Ensure timely and high-quality delivery of software releases, balancing speed with risk mitigation.

• Manage vendor relationships and offshore QA delivery models to optimize cost and performance.

Risk, Compliance & Audit:

• Ensure QA practices meet regulatory, security, and audit requirements specific to financial services.

• Maintain documentation and traceability for audit readiness and compliance reporting.

Experience:

• 10+ years of progressive experience in QA leadership roles, preferably in financial services or capital markets.

• Proven track record of managing large, distributed QA teams (onshore/offshore).

• Hands-on experience with trading systems and post-trade processing.

• Experience implementing enterprise-wide QA strategies.

Technical Skills:

• Deep understanding of QA methodologies, SDLC, Agile/Scrum, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines.

• Experience with test automation tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress), performance testing (e.g., JMeter), and test management platforms.

• Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), APIs, microservices, and modern software architecture.

Soft Skills:

• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

• Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive changes in a matrixed environment.

• Strategic thinker with a hands-on approach to problem-solving.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with regulatory frameworks such as SOX, SEC/FINRA.

• Certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, or PMP are a plus.

Education

Bachelor’s: Computer and Information Science, High School (HS) (Required)

Work Experience

General Experience - More than 15 years

Certifications

Travel

Less than 25%

Workstyle

Hybrid

At Raymond James our associates use five guiding behaviors (Develop, Collaborate, Decide, Deliver, Improve) to deliver on the firm's core values of client-first, integrity, independence and a conservative, long-term view. 

We expect our associates at all levels to:
•  Grow professionally and inspire others to do the same
•  Work with and through others to achieve desired outcomes
•  Make prompt, pragmatic choices and act with the client in mind
•  Take ownership and hold themselves and others accountable for delivering results that matter
•  Contribute to the continuous evolution of the firm

At Raymond James – as part of our people-first culture, we honor, value, and respect the uniqueness, experiences, and backgrounds of all of our Associates.  When associates bring their best authentic selves, our organization, clients, and communities thrive. The Company is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions on the basis of merit and business needs. 

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