Software Quality Assurance Tester (Systems Analyst V) Job at Texas in Austin

Overview

MISSION: The Texas Education Agency (TEA) will improve outcomes for all public-school students in the state by providing leadership, guidance, and support to school systems.

Core Values: We are Determined; We are People-Centered; We are Learners; We are Servant Leaders. We strive to attract, develop, and retain the most committed talent, representing the diversity of Texas, each contributing to our common vision for students. We seek evidence, reflect on success and failure, and try new approaches in the pursuit of excellence for our students. Above all else, we are public servants working to improve opportunities for students and provide support to those who serve them.

Salary note: New hires, re-hires, and internal hires will typically receive a starting salary between the posted minimum and the average pay of employees in their same classification. Offers will be commensurate with experience and qualifications and will consider internal pay equity for agency staff who perform similar duties and have similar qualifications. The top half of the posted salary range is generally reserved for candidates who exceed the requirements and qualifications for the role. The maximum salary range is reserved for candidates that far exceed the required and preferred qualifications for the role.

Funding: This position is funded through December 30, 2026. Continuation beyond that date is contingent on available funding.

Office of IT: The Office of Information Technology works closely with all agency divisions to implement innovative technology solutions in a cost-efficient manner that supports the goals and priorities of the TEA. The Office provides efficient technology solutions and customer services to internal staff, 20 Educational Service Centers, and 1,200+ public-school districts and charter schools. Services include leadership on IT initiatives; guidance on security/policy issues; new application development/enhancements; software acquisition; technical support; assistance with purchasing documents (RFI, RFO, RFP); and oversight on data collection to support outcomes for TEA’s 5+ million students.

Position Overview

The Software Quality Assurance Tester performs advanced (senior-level) systems analysis and team lead work, administering the daily operations and activities of the QA team within the Information Technology Office. The work involves planning, budgeting, and analyzing user requirements, procedures, and problems to automate processing or improve existing systems. Responsibilities include overseeing work assignments, estimating test team time and effort, ensuring all test cases are tested on time and documented, providing feedback for all artifacts, and using and developing IT systems to evaluate and improve TEA systems for users. The role works under minimal direction with considerable latitude for initiative and independent judgment.

Flexible work location: Flexible work location within the state of Texas may be considered for qualified candidates.

Application note: A resume is a required attachment for applying. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Applicants who are strongly being considered for employment must submit to a national criminal history background check.

Essential Functions

1. Test Documentation: Perform detailed analysis and review of all available requirements, design test strategy and create detailed test plans and test cases/scripts to ensure software meets defined requirements prior to production release.
2. Testing Quality: Perform thorough testing of the application in the test environment, create test data, and conduct functional, regression, accessibility, and exploratory testing to ensure a quality product is deployed; estimate testing activities to protect release schedules.
3. Automation: Participate in the design and planning of automation for applications; identify test scenarios to automate, including critical paths and high-risk functionality, multi-data-set tests, and repetitive tests.
4. Team Contribution: Communicate with project manager, technical lead, developers, customers, and QA manager about testing tasks and results; provide status updates; train other team members; create how-to documents for others to use.

Minimum Qualifications

Education: Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university.

Experience: At least four (4) years of experience in testing complex web applications.

Substitutions: Education and experience may substitute for one another on a year-for-year basis.

Other Qualifications

• Share the belief that all Texas students can achieve at high levels and succeed in college, career, or the military.
• Ability to work well in a cross-functional organization and communicate effectively with management and teams.
• Skill in analyzing complex requirement documents and creating detailed test cases.
• Knowledge of agile development processes and procedures.
• Skill in determining production readiness and prioritizing work across multiple tasks.
• Ability to learn new concepts quickly and stay current on industry standards and best practices for TEA systems.
• Experience with Oracle 10g+ and SQL; SDLC exposure; Selenium or other automation tools; and performance testing tools is preferred.

As an equal opportunity employer, TEA hires without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, disability, age, or veteran status, unless required by military employment preference.

Military Crosswalk guidance: review Military Crosswalk (occupational specialty code) Guide and select the military category that corresponds with the state classification in this job posting title.

This position requires meeting Agency standards and criteria which may include passing a pre-employment criminal background check before offer of employment.

No phone calls or emails. Due to high application volume, we do not accept phone inquiries and cannot reply to all emails. Only candidates selected for interview will be contacted. Please add capps.recruiting@cpa.texas.gov and tea.texas.gov to your safe senders list to receive email notifications from our talent acquisition team and/or hiring division.