Associate Quality Manager

Team Name:

At Blizzard Entertainment, we pour our hearts and souls into everything we create. Best known for iconic video game universes, including Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and StarCraft, we've been creating genre-defining games for millions of players around the world for more than 30 years. We're on a quest: bring our dreams to life and craft the most epic entertainment experiences…ever. Hard work, iteration, and polish go into the Blizzard "secret recipe," but the most important ingredients come from talented people who share our vision. 

The concept of "Blizzard polish," that is, the infinite care and loving detail put into every aspect of our games, is something we take seriously and pride ourselves on delivering to our players.  It's a responsibility shared across the company – and its undisputed heart and soul is Blizzard QA. Blizzard QA is a close-knit team; we care about iteration, problem-solving, and succeeding as a group. We genuinely love what we do for a living and expect the same from everyone who joins us
 

The Associate Quality Manager oversees Quality Assurance (QA) operations and testing for assigned team and product, ensuring software quality and process improvement. The Associate Quality Manager is a pivotal figure in ensuring the success and quality of our products, leading a team responsible for testing initiatives aligned with senior leadership strategies. They collaborate closely with leadership and key partners, offering valuable insights and services to enhance product quality. With a focus on quality and continuous improvement, they oversee all aspects of test execution and reporting, ensuring deliverables meet high standards. Their role involves creating and monitoring metrics and analyzing product quality and risks. Additionally, they play a key role in developing their team and leadership talent, championing best practices, and driving the long-term vision for quality assurance.

• Lead a test team for a product, ensuring alignment with senior leadership initiatives and strategy across globally distributed teams.

• Collaborate with development leads and provide high-value, quality-related services to the product area.

• Oversee team test execution and reporting, ensuring the quality of all deliverables, workflows, and relationships.

• Host test closure activities, such as testware evaluation, knowledge transfer, and retrospectives.

• Create, monitor, and control metrics impacting product and team quality, analyzing product quality and usability, associated system limitations, and reporting on risk. 

• Collaborate with senior leadership on shifting work or resources to promote test quality, software development best practices, and enhanced customer experience.

• Develop training materials for the project team and lead workshops for test leadership requirements.

• Lead and support projects and initiatives with regional teams, cross-functional partners, and QA teams. Provide resources and assistance and oversee adherence to the master test plan for the product.

• Provide leadership, support and guidance to the assigned team, ensuring their performance is managed effectively and fostering a productive, positive, collaborative work culture.

• Champion efforts that build synergy, trust, collaboration, and inclusivity within the organization. Own and manage relationships with key partners, resources, colleagues, and leaders ensuring transparency around critical decisions and trade-offs.

• Performs other duties as assigned.

• Minimum 6 years of experience in Quality Assurance. 

• Minimum 2 years directing the work of individual contributors and multiple levels of management and teams.

• Experience with game engines, content and asset editors, and shared technology.

• Bachelors Degree in a related field preferred.

• Thorough understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), specifically QA processes in agile and waterfall development environments.

• Practical knowledge of relational databases such as Oracle, MySQL, & SQLServer.

• Thorough understanding of Jira process for their team, able to navigate their project and enter defects with no oversight.

• Proven ability to analyze, interpret, and act on data sets and complex workflows.

• Excellent written and verbal communication, planning, organization, and time management skills.

• Mobile OS knowledge.

• White box testing experience.

• Certifications: PMP, Scrum Master and/or Product Owner, ISTQB.

• Coding Knowledge: XML / HTML, JavaScript, Python, Java, C / C++ / C#, SQL.

• High level of gaming knowledge and/or skill.

• Passion for Blizzard's line of products and services.