QA Team Lead

Harness AI & Lead Quality: QA Team Lead @ Awesome Motive (Thrive Themes)

About Awesome Motive

Awesome Motive powers over 25 million websites with our industry-leading software, including WPBeginner, OptinMonster, MonsterInsights, WPForms, SeedProd, and more. We’re not just building software; we’re creating awesome user experiences and helping businesses gain a competitive edge. As a fast-growing, bootstrapped company, we’re proudly considered thought leaders and innovators in our space.

Join the Thrive Themes Team

Step into a pivotal role within our dynamic Thrive Themes team at Awesome Motive. We are seeking a talented and experienced QA Team Lead ready to champion product quality, elevate our testing strategy, and mentor a high-performing team.

Your Mission: Ship Quality, Drive Innovation

In this role, you won’t just manage; you’ll be integral to ensuring our suite of nine integrated WordPress plugins and supporting websites deliver robust, bug-free experiences, consistently and on time. You’ll lead a small, dedicated team blending manual testing expertise with skilled test automation engineers.

A key focus for this position is guiding our strategic transition towards a more sophisticated and scalable automated testing framework. You’ll be instrumental in defining and implementing this strategy, steering the team through the evolution of our QA processes.

You’ll also be at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge AI tools in testing, coaching your team to harness their power to enhance efficiency, coverage, and depth in our QA efforts.

What You’ll Be Doing

This is a leadership position with hands-on impact. Your responsibilities will span strategic planning, team management, and direct contributions to our quality assurance efforts:

• Provide timely, insightful feedback on requirements, specifications, and technical designs.
• Lead the charge in transitioning manual test cases to robust, stable, and clean automated tests.
• Oversee and contribute to the maintenance and expansion of our comprehensive test suite.
• Champion bug tracking best practices, ensuring issues are identified, documented thoroughly, and tracked to resolution.
• Collaborate with internal teams to align on system requirements and optimize development workflows.
• Manage daily workload, priorities, and projects for your team of 2-3 QA engineers.
• Provide dedicated mentorship, support, and professional development guidance through regular 1:1s and reviews.
• Oversee and contribute to the creation and execution of detailed test plans and test cases.
• Report on team progress, test coverage, and key quality metrics to stakeholders.
• Foster a highly collaborative, productive, and positive team environment.
• Represent the QA team’s capacity, needs, and insights during sprint planning and other Agile ceremonies.

Are You Our Next QA Team Lead?

Beyond the technical skills, we’re looking for a specific kind of leader who thrives in our culture:

• You’re a true self-starter, taking initiative and driving projects from concept to completion.
• Exceptional communication is second nature – you’re fluent in written and verbal English and believe in clear, thorough communication (“no such thing as over-communicating”).
• You possess a strong attention to detail and take immense pride in the craftsmanship of your work.
• Mentoring and helping others “level up” brings you fulfillment. You’re passionate about developing your team members’ skills and careers.
• You are comfortable giving and receiving constructive feedback gracefully and productively.
• You are eagerly and aggressively exploring and using AI tools for testing and are excited to guide your team in leveraging them effectively.
• You comfortably handle tasks of all sizes, from individual test execution to strategic team coordination.
• You are a natural, motivating leader capable of unifying a team towards shared goals.

What You’ll Bring (Required Experience & Skills)

• 5+ years of proven experience in web software quality assurance.
• 3+ years hands-on experience with automated browser testing frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, or managing a small QA team, including assessing skills and developing improvement plans.
• Deep understanding of QA methodologies, tools, and processes.
• Solid knowledge of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
• Ability to distill complex ideas into simple, actionable concepts (Simplicity is a core value!).
• Extensive experience writing clear, concise, and comprehensive test plans and test cases.
• Proficiency with Git and branching strategies.
• Experience writing code or tests using PHP.
• Experience with API testing.
• Experience testing integrations with 3rd-party services (payments, marketing, etc.).
• Significant, practical experience using and guiding others with AI tools like Cursor, GitHub CoPilot, ChatGPT, Claude for testing purposes.
• Upper-intermediate level or higher proficiency in English (written and verbal).
• A reliable personal computer with stable internet access.
• Availability to participate in audio/video meetings between 9:00 AM ET and 11:30 AM ET.

Nice to Haves (Bonus Points For)

• Direct experience testing with WordPress.
• Experience with the Codeception testing framework.
• Experience with Continuous Integration (CI), preferably GitHub Actions.
• Experience with performance and/or security testing.
• Knowledge of MySQL and database structures.
• ISTQB certification.
• Previous successful remote work experience.
• Experience with popular project management or task tracking tools (e.g., JIRA, Zenhub, Asana).

Life @ Awesome Motive: More Than Just a Job

Working with us is a lifestyle choice we cherish. It’s challenging, rewarding, and comes with amazing benefits:

• Competitive Salary.
• Life Insurance and AD&D coverage.
• Comprehensive Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance (for full-time US employees).
• Health Insurance benefits provided in many other countries where we have employees (India, Pakistan, Brazil, Philippines, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Nepal, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, Argentina & Jamaica).
• Truly remote work: Join our globally distributed team from your home office.
• Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO) after 90 days. We encourage you to take the time you need.
• Paid Holidays (based on your location).
• Paid Parental Leave.
• Full reimbursement for necessary software, books, and courses to support continuous learning.
• Company-covered travel for annual all-company retreats and team meetups.
• Additional Perks: Awesome Motive Welcome Box, Yearly Anniversary Gifts, Technology Stipend.
• The opportunity to solve challenging, meaningful problems that truly make a difference.
• Work alongside some of the best talent in the industry.
• A culture built on respect, results, and direct communication – no politics, no BS, and no jerks.

Location & Work Environment

This is a fully remote position. While our core operating hours are 9am – 5pm ET (UTC -5) from our Florida base, full 8-hour overlap is not required. You *must* be available for meetings and collaboration during the 9:00 AM ET – 11:30 AM ET window to ensure effective team synchronization.

Inclusion at Awesome Motive

At Awesome Motive, we are committed to cultivating a diverse and inclusive workplace. We value the unique backgrounds, experiences, skills, and perspectives that each team member brings. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.

Ready to Apply? Pay Close Attention!

If this opportunity excites you, we’d love to hear from you! To stand out and demonstrate your attention to detail (one of our core values!), please follow these instructions *precisely* in your cover letter. Applications that do not answer each question below will be disqualified.

In your cover letter, please clearly address the following points:

• Describe a specific bug that took you the longest time to identify and replicate, and why.
• If given a new web application to test, walk us through your approach using AI tools to:
  • Generate test scenarios.
  • Create test data.
  • Automate test execution.
  • Analyze results.

  (Bonus points for sharing actual prompts/chats you might use!).

• Describe a scenario where you successfully converted a significant number of manual tests to automated tests. How did you prioritize which tests to automate first?
• Share an example of a complex testing problem you solved using AI that would have been difficult or impossible with traditional automation methods. (Bonus points for sharing actual prompts/chats!).
• How do you validate the output and ensure the reliability of AI-generated test cases?
• Can you quantify the improvements in testing efficiency (e.g., time saved, coverage increased) you have personally achieved by leveraging AI tools?
• Describe your personal leadership style and your experience managing or mentoring QA engineers. How do you approach workload distribution and support your team’s professional growth?
• Tell us a bit about yourself – what makes you the top candidate for this specific QA Team Lead role at Awesome Motive? Highlight your experience, qualifications, and personality fit.

Please also include links to any relevant online profiles (your website, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.).

Proofread carefully! Check for spelling, grammar, capitalization, and ensure you’ve answered *every* question thoroughly. This is your opportunity to showcase your attention to detail from the start.

We appreciate your interest! Due to the volume of applications, we can’t respond individually to everyone, but we will be in touch if you appear to be a strong match.

Thanks, and we look forward to potentially welcoming you to the team!

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