QA Lead (Contractor/Shokutaku)/ Application Engineering Div.

Explanation of division

The Application Engineering Division, home of NNLJ’s engineering teams, is responsible for the overall delivery of NNLJ’s application environment.

Application Engineering develops passionate engineering, equipped with a continuous learning mindset, always looking for the latest tools and technologies to improve their way of working and the solutions they deliver.

Ensuring alignment to company strategy, managing resources and removing impediments to change are all part of the broader Application Engineering Divisions remit. We make sure that talent is being developed, best practices are being shared, and encourage our people to become part of the broader engineering community both internally and externally.

Job Description

We are seeking a hands-on QA Lead to establish and drive our quality engineering practices across the organization. Today, we do not have a dedicated QA team; our goal is to enable all engineers to take ownership of quality by providing standards, frameworks, training, and tooling.

As QA Lead, you will define the quality vision, create and roll out testing standards and templates, and coach our engineering teams so that quality becomes an integral part of our development lifecycle. This is a time-bound role (1-2 years) focused on building sustainable capabilities, not a permanent centralized QA function.

You will work closely with engineering, product, architecture, and operations to embed quality practices into everyday work, ensuring that teams can independently design, implement, and maintain effective tests and quality controls long after the engagement ends.

IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL:

- Establish the overall QA/quality engineering strategy aligned with company goals and engineering practices.

- Define what “good quality” means for our products (e.g., reliability, performance, security, usability) and how it will be measured.

- Create and maintain organization-wide QA standards, guidelines, and best practices (e.g., test levels, test design, test data, environments).

-Develop reusable templates for test plans, test cases, test reports, and defect reports.

- Select or standardize on test frameworks and tools (unit, integration, API, UI, performance, security) in collaboration with engineering and architecture.

- Train and coach engineers to design, implement, and maintain automated and manual tests as part of their regular development work.

- Provide hands-on support to teams in setting up test suites, pipelines, and quality gates, with support from the CICD Team. Embed QA activities into existing SDLC processes (Agile, Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid) and release workflows.

- Champion secure development and testing practices in collaboration with Security and CICD Team.

- Define key quality metrics (e.g., defect trends, test coverage, escape rates, reliability, performance) and reporting standards.

- Implement dashboards and regular reporting so teams and leadership can see quality status and trends.

- Use data to identify systemic issues and drive continuous improvement initiatives.

- Work closely with Solution Architects, API and platform teams, and product owners to ensure quality is considered in solution design and non-functional requirements.

- Partner with Architecture Team to ensure appropriate test environments, data management, and tooling support.

- Engage with business stakeholders to clarify acceptance criteria and ensure test coverage aligns with business risk and priorities.

- Review and provide feedback on test strategies, test plans, and critical test suites for key projects.

- Help teams identify and mitigate quality risks early in the lifecycle.

- Contribute to and align with enterprise architecture, security, and compliance standards where applicable.

- Act as a subject matter expert and advisor on QA and quality engineering practices.

- Mentor technical leads and engineers on test design, automation patterns, and effective defect prevention.

- Facilitate communities of practice or guilds around testing and quality.

- Design the tasks with a clear exit strategy: document processes, standards, and ownership so that quality practices are sustainable after the role ends.

- Identify and develop internal champions who will continue to drive quality improvements.

- Provide a final “playbook” and recommendations for ongoing quality governance.

Education and Training after Joining the Company

- Access to Udemy

- Access to Microsoft Training Certification Program

Selling Points of This Position

Wide exposure to the latest Cloud technology.

Close cooperation with various technical team with short feedback loops.

Perspective of Future Career in this Position

creation of CoE role

Conversion to engineer

International posting

Must

4+ years of experience in software quality assurance / quality engineering, including test strategy, test design, and test execution across multiple projects or products

1+ years of experience leading or driving QA / quality engineering practices at a team or organizational level (e.g., QA lead, quality architect, or similar role)

Proven experience establishing or significantly improving QA practices in environments without a mature QA function (e.g., introducing standards, automation, and processes from scratch)

Strong hands-on experience with test automation for APIs and/or UIs using mainstream frameworks and languages (e.g., Java, .NET, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python)

Demonstrated experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and defining quality gates (e.g., coverage thresholds, automated regression suites, static analysis)

Experience communicating across technical and non-technical audiences, in Japanese

High level of emotional intelligence and a track record of effectively coaching and influencing engineers and technical leads without direct line authority

Strong understanding of non-functional testing concepts (e.g., performance, reliability, security, usability) and how to incorporate them into solution design and delivery

Comfortable and effective when working in a virtual and distributed environment

Want

Experience defining and tracking quality metrics (e.g., defect trends, escape rates, test coverage, reliability) and using them to drive continuous improvement

Experience designing or running a QA Center of Excellence, quality guild, or similar cross-team enablement function

Familiarity with secure development practices and security testing approaches, and experience collaborating with Security and Architecture teams

Experience with performance and load testing tools and practices (e.g., JMeter, Gatling, k6, or similar)

Experience with test data management, environment strategy, and related tooling in complex, integrated systems

Background in modern software architectures (e.g., microservices, event-driven systems, cloud-native) and their implications for testing strategies

Experience working in Agile environments (Scrum, Kanban) and applying “shift-left” and continuous testing practices

Experience creating and delivering training, workshops, or internal documentation to uplift QA/quality engineering skills across engineering teams

Background

Life Insurance: Better to have

Financial Industry: Better to have

Treatment

Open Position Number : 1

Employment Status: Contractor/Shokutaku

Expectation Start date : ASAP

Work Location

Tokyo Head Office