Lead Quality Engineer - Test Strategy & Design (IoT/ Embedded/ Access Control product)

About the role:
The Lead Quality Engineer - Test Strategy & Design is responsible for the design, structure, and continuous quality of Safetrust's test cases and test documentation across mobile, web, API, and device platforms. This position plays a key role in the QA organization, acting as the source of truth for what is tested, how it is described, and how a release is proven ready to ship.
This role focuses on test design leadership and documentation ownership, working as a peer to the Test Automation Lead (who owns frameworks and CI infrastructure), and contributes to Safetrust's continued growth by ensuring test coverage scales rigorously as the product grows.
Key Responsibilities:
Test Case Design Ownership
Own the end-to-end test case design strategy across mobile apps, web portals, APIs, and IoT devices.
Define and enforce standards for how test cases are written: structure, granularity, preconditions, expected results, traceability to requirements.
Review and approve test cases authored by QA engineers; coach the team on test design techniques (boundary, equivalence partitioning, decision tables, state transition, risk-based, exploratory charters).
Maintain a master test case library - organized, deduplicated, version-controlled, and tagged for reuse across releases and product lines.
Drive coverage analysis: map test cases to requirements, user stories, and risk areas; identify gaps and prioritize remediation.
Define and maintain reusable test data sets, environments, and fixtures that test cases depend on.
Establish enterprise-wide quality standards, testing methodologies, and governance across all Safetrust engineering teams.
Partner with Engineering, Product Management, Security, and Customer Success to ensure quality objectives are incorporated throughout the software development lifecycle.
Define release quality gates, risk acceptance criteria, and go/no-go recommendations for production deployments.
Develop and maintain quality dashboards measuring defect trends, release readiness, customer-reported issues, automation coverage, and engineering quality metrics.
Lead root cause analysis initiatives for significant production incidents and establish preventative quality improvements.
Drive continuous improvement initiatives focused on quality engineering maturity, process optimization, and organizational scalability.
Develop onboarding programs, mentoring frameworks, and technical training for Quality Engineers across all disciplines.
Collaborate with the QA Automation Lead to define enterprise automation priorities and maximize automation return on investment.
Test Documentation Ownership
Own the structure and quality of all test documentation: test plans, test strategies, test reports, release sign-off documents, RCA reports, and regression suites.
Establish templates, naming conventions, and lifecycle rules for every test artefact across the QA team.
Maintain the test management system (Zephyr, or equivalent) as the single source of truth - keep it clean, current, and queryable.
Produce clear, actionable release-readiness reports for engineering and product leadership: what was tested, what was skipped, known issues, residual risk.
Maintain audit-ready documentation for security, compliance, and customer reviews (SOC 2, ISO 27001 evidence, customer test reports).
Document and continuously improve QA processes, runbooks, and onboarding material so the team scales without losing rigor.
Team Leadership
Lead and mentor a team of QA engineers spanning manual, mobile, device, and automation testing.
Set quality KPIs (coverage, defect leakage, escape rate, test cycle time) and report them to engineering leadership.
Plan QA capacity per release; balance manual, exploratory, and automated effort across squads.
Plan hiring, growth, and individual development for the QA team.
Automation as Supporting Capability
Decide which test cases are worth automating and which stay manual or exploratory - guide the team in making the right call.
Set standards for how automated tests are written, named, and tied back to the test case library.
Ensure automation results feed back into the same test management and reporting flow as manual results - one coherent picture of quality.
Skills & Experience:
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
7+ years of QA experience with 2+ years leading a QA team or owning a QA function.
Deep expertise in test design techniques and demonstrable ownership of large test case libraries (1,000+ cases).
Hands-on experience with test management tools (TestRail, Zephyr, Xray, qTest, or similar) - including admin-level configuration.
Strong skills in writing clear, structured technical documentation in English.
Solid grasp of risk-based testing, traceability matrices, and release-readiness criteria.
Experience defining QA processes, templates, and standards across multiple product lines or squads.
Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
Working knowledge of at least one automation framework (Selenium/Cypress/Playwright/Appium) - enough to set standards and review work, not necessarily to build the framework yourself.
Nice to Have / Preferred
Experience testing IoT, embedded, or access-control products end-to-end.
Familiarity with BLE/NFC, mobile credentials, or hardware-software integration testing.
Exposure to compliance-driven QA (SOC 2, ISO 27001, medical, automotive, or financial standards).
ISTQB Advanced Level (Test Manager) or equivalent certification.
Programming literacy (Python, Java, or JavaScript) to read and review automation code.
Success Profile:
The ideal candidate is
Rigorous and structured, with a strong eye for test coverage gaps and documentation quality.
A strong people leader who coaches QA engineers on test design craft.
Able to translate testing status into clear, decision-ready reports for leadership.
Comfortable acting as a peer partner to the Test Automation Lead on shared priorities.
Comfortable working across regions and functions in a global environment (Vietnam, US, Australia).
Why you'll love working here
Competitive salary based on experience and performance
13th-month salary
Daily lunch is provided at the office
Free coffee, tea, and refreshments
Full statutory insurance (social, health, unemployment)
Annual health check-up and paid annual leaves
Professional, international working environment
Working Location: Level 6 Khanh Hoi 2 Building 360A Ben Van Don, Vinh Hoi, Ho Chi Minh City
Safetrust is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We offer an inclusive workplace and will not tolerate discrimination against any job candidate or employee due to age, race, religion, color, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, membership in an employee organization, medical condition, family history, genetic information, veteran status, marital status or parental status.