The Principal QA Engineer is considered as one of Matson’s most experienced technical QA resources, acknowledged expert in software quality assurance procedures and practices and possesses hands-on experience in multiple Quality Assurance concepts and methodologies. He or she will be responsible for ensuring software quality across the enterprise.

This position is highly cross functional and the individualwill work with a team of developers, business analysts, project managers and offshore teams.  He or she may independently lead QA efforts in multiple projects and as such be responsible for short-term planning, setting priorities based on project demands, estimating effort for identified work, allocating work to team members, tracking progress and ensuring the quality of delivered products.  

Matson is currently using an onshore-offshore project model where most of the development and QA work are outsourced.  In the context of this approach, the Principal QA Engineer will be responsible for effectively engaging with the outsourcing vendor for successful delivery.  This includes enhancing Matson’s QA standards and processes in alignment with the vendor’s processes, reviewing the vendor’s plan and estimates, monitoring the vendor’s work and progress, providing information as needed to the vendor and ensuring quality of delivered products.

• In the context of the onshore-offshore outsourcing model the principal QA engineer should possess the following essential skills:
  
  - Effectively engage with the outsourcing vendor for successful delivery of fixed bid projects using the onshore-offshore delivery model
  
  - Enhance Matson’s software QA standards and processes incorporating world class software processes such as CMM Level5 in order to be in harmony with the outsourcing vendor’s processes.
  
  - Independently lead QA efforts for multiple projects and as such be responsible for short-term planning, setting priorities based on project demands, estimating effort for identified work, verifying work estimates provided by the outsourcing vendor, tracking progress, and ensuring the quality of delivered products.
  
  - Lead special projects on continuous improvement of software quality across the enterprise




• Understand the business practices of his or her customers and devise QA approaches to test business scenarios or requirements. Define and execute testing approaches in multiple projects. Ensure that the approach does not compromise on the quality of the application. 




•  Take initiative in defining test environments for the project. Collaborate with cross-functional service groups to establish test facilities. 




•  Ensure that appropriate change control processes for QA test cases are followed. Ensure that all application & integration tests are thoroughly conducted.  Work closely with production operations, build and deployment teams to ensure smooth deployment of application components in QA and post-QA environments.




• Assist in creating and defining clear standards and document quality assurance processes and testing methods. 




•  Possesses hands-on experience in multiple Quality Assurance concepts and methodologies. Act as one of Matson’s top technical QA resources and acknowledged expert in software quality assurance.  




•  Create and maintain automated test procedures to conduct system and regression tests. 




•  Introduce, maintain and enhance the test automation facilities. Conduct automated testing procedures to simulate high-volume transactions. 




•  Participate in requirements and design review; analyze systems requirements to ensure testability. 




• Coordinate bug tracking activities. Provide reports to management on the outstanding bugs.




• Conduct code migration from development to QA.

• Bachelor’s degree (B.A. or B.S) from four-year college or university or equivalent technical certification. Master’s degree in relevant field is desirable.  




• Ten or more years of related work experience in Quality Assurance in increasingly responsible positions.   




• Knowledge of and some prior experience in developing supply chain solutions for shipping or retail industry or experience in domestic or international transportation is desirable. 




• Expertise in software quality assurance procedures and practices, with hands-on experience in software testing on large scale enterprise application projects.




• Possesses hands-on experience of multiple Quality Assurance concepts and methodologies.




• Takes a broad business perspective and makes sense of complex issues.




• Possesses in-depth knowledge of Quality Assurance best practices and business implications, specifically skilled in:
  
   - various kinds of testing methodologies such as functionality testing, security testing, stress testing, regression testing, integration testing, performance testing and user acceptance testing
  
   - a variety of technical skills, including programming languages, database technologies and computer operating systems.
  
   - Unix and Windows environments.
  
   - J2EE, DHTML, JavaScript, SQL, DB2 and Oracle DB.
  
   - white box testing.
  
   - automated and performance test tools (Mercury).
  
   - Defect Management and Test Case Tracking tools and reporting techniques.
  
   - using configuration management tools, defect tracking tools, debugging tools, and requirement tools such as Rational ClearCase, ClearQuest, TeamTrack, Test Suite, RequisitePro, CVS, and Rational Rose.




• Ability to work effectively with offshore teams.




• Ability to lead and work on multiple projects at the same time




• Excellent communication skills including verbal and written. Communicates well in a large group setting




• This job has no supervisory responsibilities on a regular basis; however, the individual is expected to provide technical leadership to other members of the QA team

Other required competencies:

• Internal & External Communication - Communicates well in a large group setting. Possesses excellent verbal and written skills to communicate to cross-functional teams on Quality Assurance and SDLC details. 




• Collaboration - Effectively addresses conflicts, misunderstandings and disagreements.




• Decisions - Takes initiative in making Quality Assurance solution decisions. 




• Leadership - Excellent in a leadership role and able to take charge when working with project team members to architect, develop and deploy Quality Assurance solutions. Constantly strives to improve Matson's Quality Assurance solutions. 




• Management - Efficiently engages Quality Assurance staff in delivering enterprise Quality Assurance solutions. 




• Guidance – Routinely provides guidance to other members of the Quality Assurance team.




• Self Development - Takes initiative to enhance skills.