Senior Manager, Software QA

Senior Manager, Software QA
Location: Bangalore (Hybrid)

Join us in bringing joy to customer experience.  Five9 is a leading provider of cloud contact center software, bringing the power of cloud innovation to customers worldwide.  

Living our values everyday results in our team-first culture and enables us to innovate, grow, and thrive while enjoying the journey together. We celebrate diversity and foster an inclusive environment, empowering our employees to be their authentic self.  

The team  

Five9 has led the cloud revolution in contact centers, helping organizations transition from legacy premise-based solutions to the cloud. The cloud contact center market has become the hot space for innovation in real-time communications and is the tip of the spear for the application of Artificial Intelligence, especially Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLM). Our Studio Product Engineering team is responsible for developing a suite of leading-edge AI products built upon industry-leading AI tech from vendors like OpenAI, Google, IBM Watson and Amazon and integrate into Five9 wider well-developed microservices platform. 

Our vision is nothing less than to reimagine the experience of connection between end users and the brands which serve them. Our AI agents will offer self-service which delights and accomplishes tasks at super-human speeds, while also blending in live human agents for the many cases when a human touch is needed. Our AI agents will assist the live agents too and help supervisors and managers get the most out of their mix of human and AI labor. 

Role Purpose 

 Five9 is seeking an experienced and passionate, hands-on QA Manager to lead a talented team of test engineers in India. The ideal candidate will be a strong technical leader with a proven track record in owning product quality, people's management, operational excellence, and the design and implementation of advanced test automation frameworks. This role requires a leader who is eager to drive quality at scale, own end-to-end QA strategy, collaborate closely with cross-functional engineering teams, and help identify and resolve challenging technical problems. You will be responsible for mentoring your team, ensuring the quality and reliability of our production systems, and driving the adoption of innovative practices, including AI-powered testing solutions. 

Key Responsibilities 

Quality ownership 

• Apply business and functional knowledge to develop end-to-end testing strategies through the use of quality processes and methodologies.  

• Apply testing methodologies, principles and processes to define and implement key metrics to manage and assess the testing process including test execution and defect resolution 

• Ensure QA processes effectively address scalability, performance, security, reliability and data integrity aspects of cloud-based SaaS software 

• Partner with engineering and product teams to ensure quality is embedded throughout the development lifecycle and improve test coverage, automation effectiveness, reliability and release confidence 

Test Automation Strategy & Development: 

• Lead the design, development, and maintenance of robust and scalable test automation frameworks and practices 

• Drive the strategy for various testing disciplines, including functional, regression, performance, and API testing 

• Stay current with industry trends and champion the adoption of new tools and technologies to enhance testing efficiency 

Team Leadership & Mentoring: 

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of 5-8 test engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement 

• Conduct regular performance reviews, provide constructive feedback, and support the career development of your team members 

• Involve in the hiring as we grow the team, from writing job descriptions to interviewing candidates and helping new team members get up to speed. 

Innovation & AI Adoption: 

• Act as a key driver for innovation within the test group 

• Explore, evaluate, and implement AI-powered tools and methodologies to accelerate testing cycles, improve test coverage, and enhance overall product quality 

Production Support: 

• Participate in an on-call roster to provide critical support for production systems during the India time zone, ensuring system stability and reliability 

• Lead the team in troubleshooting and resolving production issues in a timely and efficient manner and acting as point of contact for escalations in India 

Communication : 

• Communication will be a big part of your role as well. You'll regularly update senior leadership on your team's progress and the overall health of our systems. During incidents, you might be the one explaining technical issues to non-technical stakeholders and ensuring everyone understands the impact and resolution timeline. 

Required Qualifications & Skills 

• 8-15 years of experience in software development lifecycle involving development, testing strategy & CI/CD practices with at least 3-5 years in a management or leadership role 

• People Management: Demonstrated experience in managing and mentoring engineering teams 

• Technical Expertise: 

• Strong hands-on experience with test automation frameworks and tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright) 

• Proficiency in at least one programming language such as Java or PHP 

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., GitLab CI, Jenkins) 

• Solid understanding of software development life cycles and agile methodologies 

• Production Support: Proven experience in a production support or on-call role for mission-critical systems 

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills 

• Experience with cloud platforms with at least one (e.g., GCP, AWS, Azure) 

• Knowledge of containerization technologies like Docker 

• Knowledge of scripting technology such as BASH, PowerShell 
   

Desirable: 

• Experience with Contact Centre, IVR, Virtual Agents, VoIP and telecommunications service providers is advantageous.   

• Experience working with cloud platforms (e.g., GCP, AWS, Azure) 

• Knowledge of Kubernetes 

• A keen interest and/or hands-on experience with AI in software testing 

Reporting Structure 

• This position reports directly to the Director of Engineering and involves close collaboration with other engineering managers across the organization. You'll work regularly with cross-functional teams like Application engineering, Voice engineering, release and delivery teams, SRE team and product management, and platform teams on cross-cutting initiatives that affect the entire engineering organization.