IVVQM/ Senior Project Validation Lead

Our client, a Defence, Aerospace, Cyber and Digital Technology company, is looking for a IVVQM/ Senior Project Validation Lead for their Austin, TX/Hybrid location.

Responsibilities:

• We are seeking a highly experienced IVVQM (Integration, Verification, Validation and Qualification Manager)/Senior Project Validation Lead to join client in Austin, Texas.
• Be part of a dynamic team delivering tailor made solutions to state and local government agencies to issue official documents (Driver's License, ID cards), and to perform biometric comparisons for government or law enforcement customers. This is a central position in our fast paced organization requiring a combination of high technical skills and good communication with a strong problem-solving mindset and leadership skills.
• The IVVQM / Senior Project Validation Lead is a hands-on leadership role that interfaces directly with customers and cross-functional teams (Project Management, Software Engineers, Infrastructure, Product Management, and Operations) in the execution of our projects and deliveries to our customers.
• BIDs and presales:
• Partner with sales and technical teams during presales activities to define and implement IVVQ processes and strategies, developing tailored validation and quality management approaches that align with customer requirements and industry standards.
• Support presales efforts by preparing detailed estimates for IVVQ activities, including resource planning and risk assessment, to enable accurate project scoping and cost forecasting.
• Project Technical Leadership
• Lead validation, verification and quality efforts on complex projects within Identity and Biometric scope.
• Define validation strategy and act as work package manager for project validation activities.
• Responsible for reliability, robustness and performance of full solution by using your quality assurance knowledge.
• Responsible for minimizing project risk and failures, optimize test coverage, estimate and monitor project tasks by understanding solution architecture and software components.
• Create and execute quality assurance plans, acceptance and validation test plans, test scripts and other documents required by client project management process.
• Define validation scenarios to ensure requirement coverage and guarantee their implementation.
• Responsible for test execution, defect management, root cause analysis, and resolution tracking across validation and user acceptance environments.
• Review and assess specifications, technical design documents and test scripts of different components.
• Determine and contribute towards automation of new feature tests and expand on regression tests cases.
• Support product release activities by verifying deliverables meet acceptance criteria and quality standards.
• Share responsibility for supporting deployed solution in production environment as Level 3 support.
• Project Team Leadership
• Lead project IVVQ activities in coordination with internal IVVQ, cross-functional, and external customer teams to ensure quality and on-time delivery.
• Responsible for working directly with customer during project initiation, implementation, acceptance testing, executive reviews, and issue escalations.
• Work directly with Project Manager, Technical leader and project team to meet the timeline and expected level of quality.
• Report progress against deadlines as requested by management.
• Continuously review and improve IVVQ methodologies and processes to enhance project outcomes
• Lead UAT testing by working closely with customer and ensure successful acceptance of solution.
• Participate in conforming to company standards, actively improve them and share lessons learnt with management.
• Other duties as assigned by the employee's manager.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, IT, or a related field (or equivalent experience) with 8-10 years working on complex solutions using various methodologies (Functional, Integration, Performance, Acceptance) and high autonomy.
• Strong knowledge of IVVQ methodologies (Integration, Verification, Validation and Qualification), tools and processes including test automation.
• 3+ years in project leadership roles, managing multiple projects or work packages for solution validation.
• 7+ years of experience with Web/Mobile technologies, applications servers, webservices as appropriate
• Proven experience with API testing using Soap/Rest protocols.
• Strong expertise in methodologies, tools, and processes, including estimation, scheduling, progress tracking, and risk management.
• Solid understanding of data communication/network protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, SSL/TLS, LDAP) and proven ability to write SQL queries for database searches.
• Over 5 years' experience with defect management tools (e.g., JIRA) and knowledge of SDLC, release management, and security best practices for application validation.
• Experience leveraging automation and AI-enabled technologies for validation activities like test writing, automation and test execution
• Skilled in troubleshooting software and hardware issues under pressure, with strong analytical, critical thinking, and fast learning abilities.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and customer-facing communication skills with a proven ability to lead validation efforts collaboratively.
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-tech environments and with public cloud deployments (AWS and/or Azure).
• Previous experience in team leadership roles.
• Previous experience in the field of identity or biometrics.
• Knowledge in automation tools such as TestComplete, ReadyAPI and JMeter is a plus.
• Ability to make decisions in uncertain and ambiguous situations.
• Strong analytical skills to understand complex scenarios, develop effective strategies, and simplify them for execution.
• Experience in PKI and strong knowledge in Digital Security good practices for data protection.
• Prior experience developing and executing automated tests (Using JavaScript, Python, or similar)
• Must have 8+ years experience, regardless of education level.
• Seeking someone who can lead validation activities
• Will be involved in the estimation/bid phase
• This is on the validation and integration side
• This person must have experience writing test plans and deciding strategies for testing
• Will be presenting to the customer.
• Must be able to communicate clearly with the customer.
• Will be involved in troubleshooting issues with the team
• Experience with automation tools, however, Test Complete, Ready API and JMeter is preferred.

Why Should You Apply?

• Health Benefits
• Referral Program
• Excellent growth and advancement opportunities