QA and Technical Analyst

Blend is currently hiring a QA and Technical Analyst to help provide technical planning and testing to ensure project success.

The QA and Technical Analyst is responsible for maintaining the overall quality of Blend projects — from start-to-finish websites to ongoing support and accessibility auditing. This position helps document a project's ongoing scope and final sign-off before our clients receive a new feature or site.

Blend’s web development process follows an agile-ish approach, developing along a launch-specific timeline broken into sprints. We have worked with dozens of content management systems in the past, but currently focus on Optimizely and Umbraco.

You will collaborate with developers, project managers, and our strategic design team, as well as directly with clients.

The QA and Technical Analyst is responsible for fulfilling the following three roles:

• Technical and Scope Documentation: Working with the development team to document the scope of a feature or full site implementation, this position will collaborate on and maintain a technical scoping document that will serve as a roadmap for development and testing. Additionally, this position will help maintain and manage requirements and coordinate changes to technical and scope documentation as the project progresses.
• Testing: Creating, performing, and communicating results of tests for client and internal web projects and features, including maintenance of user stories, ownership of accessibility and performance testing, and collaboration on bug and feature fix tickets.
• Ongoing Improvement: Research and communication of testing best practices — including for accessibility and performance — and participation in the improvement of company processes around testing and QA.

Job requirements.

This position, by nature of being a final stop on the way to a complete project, requires incredible attention to detail, but in a way that allows for the big picture to shine. It requires, at times, rigidity and flexibility. We are looking for the right person to build a process that balances communication between clients, developers, and project management.

Previous experience in a web testing environment is required. Note that web testing, while seemingly similar, can at times be drastically different from traditional software testing, and while the general core principles align with that of sotware testing, the structure of the day-to-day tends to be a bit looser. The successful candidate will possess the ability to:

• Identify and document expected site and user behaviors based on known design and functional requirements
• Define and mitigate complex issues, dependencies, and risks during test planning and during testing itself, including undocumented expectations based on best practices
• Understand web content modeling and common editorial workflow in order to test for user experience within the content management system
• Communicate and escalate deficiencies in implementation, behavior, design, and user experience for resolution
• Document ongoing processes (and critically analyze those that don’t work) in order to improve testing effectiveness
• Maintain and communicate testing best practices, including ongoing site performance and accessibility testing
• Think big picture to help guide and shape the overall QA practice, from testing to ongoing performance
• Communicate clearly through oral and written means with Blend’s development team, project management team, and project clients and stakeholders
• Stay self-driven and accountable for tasks and reporting, including tracking time and managing workflow with project management
• Multi-task and easily shift gears

Our values.

Blend believes that our clients deserve our honesty and integrity and that our office culture should reflect those values. We believe in five core values: passion, progress, integrity, advocacy, and authenticity.

Within the role of QA and Technical Analyst, you will work with the team and our clients in a way that reflects these core values. Passion for contributing to our client's digital strategies and our own. Progress in continuously furthering your knowledge base. Integrity to do the right thing, even if it means suffering negative impact. Advocacy in providing the right solution even if it's more challenging. Authenticity in never being afraid to admit to limitations and understanding that the right answer to a question is an honest one.

The successful candidate will be able to align with these core values, and in doing so our clients and projects will benefit.

The perks.

• Competitive salary (based on experience)
• A formal profit-sharing plan, paid quarterly after the first year and based on company profits
• Group Health Insurance offered through UnitedHealthcare
• Vision and dental coverage through UnitedHealthcare Dental and Vision Service Plan
• Simple IRA Plan with employer match
• Long Term Disability is provided at no additional cost to all employees 
• Basic (employer-paid) Group Life and Personal Accident Insurance
• Paid maternity & paternity leave up to 80 hours
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and WorkLife Services Benefit
• Be Well @ Blend wellness reimbursement program
• Hybrid work environment

To view our office and learn a little more about our culture at Blend, visit our Instagram.