Head of Quality Assurance

Head of Quality Assurance (Financial Software)

(Permanent: Menlyn Maine, Pretoria)
Reporting To: Chief Operations Officer BaaS (Banking as a Service)

About Our Client 

We're on a mission to improve the global financial ecosystem by enabling banks and corporates to offer innovative financial solutions that benefit society. Integrity, tenacity, learning, enabling and agility are our core values, and we've served our customers and partners for more than 23 years.

About the Role

The Head of Quality Assurance (QA) is a pivotal senior leadership position responsible for defining and executing a holistic quality strategy that assures the integrity, performance, and security of all Direct Transact products and services.

This role requires a seasoned leader who will transition the organization from reactive testing to proactive quality engineering and assurance. You will embed a culture of quality ownership across the entire Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), ensuring our high-volume, mission-critical financial systems maintain flawless reliability and strict adherence to global payment standards (Visa/Mastercard) and financial regulatory compliance.

Key Responsibilities

I. Strategy, Leadership, and Center of Excellence

• Quality Vision & Strategy: Define, communicate, and implement a long-term QA strategy and roadmap that aligns with Direct Transacts business objectives, driving a transition to continuous, automated quality engineering.
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, mentor, and scale the QA/Quality Engineering team, fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and technical excellence.
• Centre of Excellence (CoE): Establish and maintain a QA Centre of Excellence, defining and promoting best practices, modern methodologies (Shift-Left, BDD, TDD), and centralized knowledge sharing across all development streams.
• Process Improvement: Continuously evaluate, standardize, and optimize QA processes and methodologies to maximize efficiency and reduce time-to-market without compromising quality.
  
  

II. Technical & Operational Excellence

• Automation Architecture: Own the strategy, design, and implementation of a robust, scalable, and sustainable test automation framework covering unit, integration, functional, and end-to-end tests across APIs, Front-end (Portal, Internet Banking), and core back-end systems.
• CI/CD Integration: Ensure QA processes are fully integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, enabling rapid, reliable, and frequent deployments to various environments (Dev, Test, UAT/Pre-prod, and Production).
• Performance & Resilience: Oversee and implement strategies for critical non-functional testing, including high-volume performance, load, stress, and scalability testing essential for mission-critical payment systems.
• Innovation: Drive innovation in QA, specifically leveraging AI/ML tools for predictive defect detection, smart test case generation, and anomaly detection to enhance testing efficiency and accuracy.
• Technical Oversight: Ensure the team maintains strong technical proficiency in tools, languages (e.g., SQL, C#, OOP), and methodologies required to test complex, distributed, service-oriented (microservices) and cloud-based architectures.
  
  

III. Financial Domain, Risk, and Compliance

• Reconciliation Assurance: Develop specialized testing environments and processes to rigorously validate the accuracy and integrity of settlement figures and complex reconciliation logic across all payment rails.
• Scheme and Regulatory Compliance: Ensure all platform features adhere to the strict specifications and certification requirements of Visa, Mastercard, and relevant financial regulations (PCI DSS, SOX), mitigating regulatory risk through comprehensive testing.
• Fraud and Negative Testing: Collaborate with Product and Fraud Management teams to develop effective negative and edge-case testing scenarios that proactively identify and mitigate fraud vectors within transaction processing and card solutions.
• Collaboration and Stakeholder Management: Work closely with the IT Executive, Development Manager, Business Analysts, and external Clients to ensure quality standards are met and customer expectations are consistently exceeded.

Accountability and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The Head of QA is directly accountable for the overall quality and reliability of Direct Transacts software solutions. Performance will be measured by the following critical KPIs:

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

Measurement Focus

Defect Leakage Rate (Production)

Percentage of defects found in production (vs. QA), specifically tracking high-impact financial transaction issues.

Regulatory Compliance Score

Measures adherence to financial regulations and scheme specifications (Visa/Mastercard) during QA processes and external audits.

Test Coverage for Core Financial Modules

Ensures critical areas like payments, reconciliation, reporting, and lending logic are thoroughly tested and automated.

Automation Coverage and ROI

Percentage of test cases automated, and the return on investment from automation initiatives (Test Efficiency).

Time to Resolution (TTR) for Critical Defects

Measures how quickly high-impact, customer-impacting bugs are resolved and deployed.

System Uptime Post-Release

Monitors production stability and availability after major deployments.

AI-Driven Defect Prediction Accuracy

Tracks the precision of innovative AI tools in identifying potential defects before traditional testing begins.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Experience (Mandatory): Minimum of 10 years of experience in Quality Assurance or Quality Engineering, with at least 5 years in a senior leadership or Head of QA role, managing small to medium-sized teams (10+).
• Domain Expertise (Non-Negotiable): Deep, demonstrable experience within the FinTech, Banking, Payment Processing, or Card Services sector is essential.
• Education: Tertiary education in a relevant field (e.g., Computer Science, Software Engineering) is required. Industry-recognized certifications (e.g., ISTQB Advanced Level, SAFE, ITIL) are highly desirable.
• Technical Acumen: Expert knowledge of QA principles, methodologies, and modern automation tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Postman/RestAssured). Strong grasp of complex, distributed, and cloud-based system architectures.
• Regulatory Knowledge: Proven familiarity with relevant financial service regulations, including local South African requirements and global payment scheme mandates (e.g., PCI DSS).
• Soft Skills: Exceptional leadership, communication, analytical, and critical thinking skills, with a proven ability to manage stakeholders and drive innovation and cultural change.

What We Offer and What Were Looking For

What We Offer:

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• The opportunity to lead and strategically shape the entire quality function of a global FinTech enabler.
• A collaborative and dynamic work environment focused on innovation and growth.
• Significant professional growth and development opportunities.
  
  

What Were Looking For:

• A self-motivated and results-driven individual who takes ownership and accountability for the quality of the product suite.
• A strong, inspirational leader who can motivate and technically guide the Quality Engineering team.
• A strategic thinker who can drive both organizational change and technical innovation.
• A customer-focused individual who understands the critical importance of delivering flawless, high-quality financial software solutions.