Software QA leader at 100%

Position summary

BOBST S.A. is a global leader in providing machinery and services to the packaging, label, and printing industries. Our digital printing press solutions integrate software and hardware to deliver high-quality products for customers worldwide.

We are seeking a hands-on software QA leader with a solid background in software development, quality assurance, and software release management. In this role, you will lead the Quality Assurance function for our digital printing press product line. You will be responsible for ensuring the highest levels of software quality, managing automated end-to-end testing, and synchronizing releases across multiple subsystems. This role will require close collaboration with development teams, as well as managing a distributed QA team, to ensure that software testing integrates seamlessly with hardware and follows Agile practices.

Main responsibilities

Test Automation & Hardware-In-The-Loop Testing:

• Spearhead the implementation and management of fully automated end-to-end testing to improve testing efficiency and coverage.
• Lead the setup, maintenance, and operation of the test bench for hardware-in-the-loop testing, ensuring seamless interaction between software and hardware systems.
• Identify testing bottlenecks and design robust automated solutions to reduce manual intervention and increase testing speed.

Software Release Management & Synchronization:

• Manage the end-to-end software release process, ensuring synchronization of releases across multiple subsystems (Digital Front End, Press & HMI Software, and Automation Software).
• Establish and maintain a release calendar to ensure alignment between development teams and other stakeholders.
• Ensure that release notes are meticulously prepared and that all releases are well-documented with clear communication to all relevant teams.

QA Process Leadership & Agile Practices:

• Lead the QA function in adhering to Agile methodologies, ensuring continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) pipelines are optimized and well-maintained.
• Oversee the proper use of Azure DevOps for issue tracking, test case management, and version control, ensuring it serves as the central hub for QA activities.
• Collaborate with development teams to integrate QA best practices into every phase of the software development lifecycle, ensuring quality is built into every feature from the start.

Development Environment & Build Pipeline Maintenance:

• Collaborate with DevOps teams to ensure that development and testing environments are stable, scalable, and efficient for both software development and testing needs.
• Monitor and troubleshoot CI pipelines to ensure automated builds and tests are running smoothly, and take corrective actions where necessary.

Team Leadership & Collaboration:

• Lead, mentor, and manage a geographically distributed QA team, ensuring that team members have clear goals, career development paths, and the tools they need to succeed.
• Foster strong collaboration between the QA team in India and the development teams in Europe, maintaining seamless communication and teamwork across regions.
• Encourage a culture of transparency, approachability, and open dialogue, where team members feel comfortable raising issues and proposing improvements.

Test Strategy & Architectural Influence:

• Work closely with software architects and development leads to influence software architecture decisions that enhance testability, ensuring that testing needs are factored into design discussions.
• Create and enforce test strategies that address both software and hardware concerns, with a focus on integration, system, and performance testing.
• Ensure the QA strategy evolves with the product, adjusting processes and methods to accommodate new features and technologies.

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Problem Solving:

• Collaborate cross-functionally with product management, development, and operations teams to resolve complex software and hardware integration challenges.
• Intervene in field issues when required, ensuring timely and effective resolution of critical software bugs or integration problems.
• Establish strong relationships with stakeholders, ensuring that all quality expectations are understood and met across the board.

Metrics, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement:

• Define and track key quality metrics, such as defect density, test coverage, and automation effectiveness, ensuring continuous monitoring of QA performance.
• Regularly report on QA progress, software quality, and release readiness to senior management and other stakeholders.
• Lead efforts to continuously improve QA processes and tools, with a strong focus on automation, scalability, and efficiency.

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Certifications in Quality Assurance, DevOps, or Agile methodologies are a plus.
• Over 10 years in Software Quality Assurance, with at least 3 -5 years in a leadership role.
• Proven experience in driving fully automated end-to-end testing and managing complex hardware-in-the-loop testing environments.
• Hands-on experience managing Azure DevOps, CI pipelines, and Agile-driven development and testing processes.
• Strong background in release management and software development processes, with the ability to synchronize multiple software subsystems.

Technical Skills:

• Expertise in QA methodologies, test automation frameworks (e.g., Selenium, JUnit), and CI/CD processes.
• Experience in API / Backend automation testing
• Experience in managing hardware-software integration testing and performance testing.
• Familiarity with Azure DevOps for issue tracking, project management, and version control.
• Strong knowledge of C# / Java with Selenium, specflow / cucumber
• Familiarity with Visual Studio, Nuget Package Manager and other .NET framework development tools.

Preferred qualification

• Experience in the printing or industrial automation industries.
• Familiarity with microservices architecture and cloud platforms.

Personality Traits

• Knowledge of industry-specific quality standards and security compliance.

Calm Under Pressure

• Able to handle high-stress situations calmly and efficiently, maintaining a solution-oriented mindset.

Approachable & Supportive

• A leader who is easy to talk to, builds rapport quickly, and fosters a culture of open communication and collaboration.

Relationship Builder:

• Skilled at building strong relationships across teams and geographical locations, ensuring seamless communication and teamwork.
• Prepared to travel to India in order to work closely with QA team.

Pro-active and hands-on

• Always ready to work on the press to run tests, trouble-shoot and ensure system quality.
• Anticipates travel to product site in Italy for on-site testing and providing support as needed.
• Prepared to visit customer sites for critical software issue resolution and quality assurance intervention.

For more than 130 years, and over 50 countries, BOBST has always been at the forefront of innovation and we want to accelerate connectivity, digitalization, automation and sustainability to make packaging better than ever.

Apply now

BOBST is one of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services to packaging and label manufacturers in the folding carton, corrugated board and flexible materials industries. Join our highly qualified staff and together, let’s shape the future of the packaging world.

The production site of Mex, near Lausanne in Switzerland, is also the headquarters of the Bobst Group. It is the most important site, employing approx. 1500 passionate people.

It also trains each year roughly 200 apprentices. The site offers an idyllic work environment. In the countryside and close to major highways, it is also well served by public transport. It offers many amenities, such as a corporate restaurant, sports fields, a fitness and a nursery. The facilities have been recently renovated and represent a model for sustainable development.