QA Lead & Test Data Management Specialist

A senior onsite QA professional who owns the test management strategy and the test data management framework end-to-end. This role combines governance leadership with hands-on TDM execution acting as the primary liaison with the client's QA team while ensuring test data integrity, traceability, and SAMA compliance across all non-production environments.

Key Responsibilities

Test Management

• Define and own the test management strategy aligned with the client's delivery and regulatory requirements.
• Coordinate SIT and UAT activities across multiple application teams and environments.
• Roll out the governance framework including readiness gates, freeze protocols, and phase exit criteria.
• Implement and track the CMMI-aligned test automation maturity model across the client's teams.
• Establish and chair the weekly Technical Review Board with automation leads and DevOps engineers.
• Ensure complete requirement-to-test traceability using Jira/Xray or the client's existing test management platform.
• Monitor environment health, access control compliance, and audit-readiness of all test artefacts.

Test Data Management

• Design and implement the test data catalogue and discovery mechanism across DEV, SIT, and UAT environments.
• Define TDM governance SOPs covering data provisioning, access control, reset/refresh, conditioning, and archival.
• Align data masking and anonymisation standards with SAMA requirements and the client's data protection policies.
• Configure Jira/Xray defect workflows and requirement-to-test traceability across all in-scope applications.
• Establish data ownership models and role-based access controls for test data.
• Support test data conditioning for end-to-end and negative test scenarios.
• Audit and report on TDM compliance and data quality across testing cycles.

• 10+ years of QA experience with at least 3 years focused on test data management and at least 4 years in banking or financial services.
• Deep understanding of SIT/UAT lifecycle management, environment governance, and release management.
• Hands-on experience with data masking tools and techniques for banking environments.
• Strong knowledge of Jira administration, Xray configuration, and defect workflow design.
• Knowledge of SAMA IT Governance, data protection requirements, and PII handling standards.
• Experience defining and rolling out test automation maturity models (CMMI-aligned or equivalent).
• Experience with SQL-based test data queries, data profiling, and synthetic data generation.
• Strong communication skills for daily interaction with the client's QA teams and senior stakeholders.
• Onsite presence in Riyadh required (Sun Thu, KSA business hours).

• Preferred Certifications: ISTQB Advanced Test Manager, ISTQB Advanced Test Analyst, CDMP, ITIL v4, TMap Next.