• Director of Quality Assurance

    Raymond James Financial, Inc. (St. Petersburg, FL)


    This position follows our hybrid-friendly schedule, so you get the best of both worlds – flexibility and collaboration. In office days will be 2-3 per week averaging 10-12 days per month in our St Petersburg, FL Corporate Office.

     

    _Please note: This role is not eligible for Work Visa sponsorship, either currently or in the future._

    Responsibilities:

    Leadership & Strategy:

    + Define and execute the QA vision, strategy, and roadmap aligned with business and technology goals.

    + Lead and mentor a large, geographically distributed team of QA professionals, including onshore and offshore resources.

    + Foster a culture of quality, accountability, and continuous improvement across engineering teams.

    Quality Engineering & Governance:

    + Oversee the implementation of robust QA processes, frameworks, and tools across all stages of the SDLC.

    + Drive adoption of test automation, CI/CD, performance testing, and shift-left practices.

    + Establish and monitor quality KPIs, metrics, and dashboards to ensure transparency and accountability.

    Trading Systems & Financial Platforms:

    + Ensure rigorous testing of trading platforms, order management systems (OMS), market data feeds, and related financial applications.

    + Collaborate with trading, compliance, and infrastructure teams to validate system performance, latency, and reliability under real-world conditions.

    + Maintain high standards for regulatory compliance, auditability, and risk mitigation in trading environments.

    Collaboration & Delivery:

    + Partner with Product, Development, and Compliance teams to ensure quality is embedded from ideation to release.

    + Ensure timely and high-quality delivery of software releases, balancing speed with risk mitigation.

    + Manage vendor relationships and offshore QA delivery models to optimize cost and performance.

    Risk, Compliance & Audit:

    + Ensure QA practices meet regulatory, security, and audit requirements specific to financial services.

    + Maintain documentation and traceability for audit readiness and compliance reporting.

    Experience:

    + 10+ years of progressive experience in QA leadership roles, preferably in financial services or capital markets.

    + Proven track record of managing large, distributed QA teams (onshore/offshore).

    + Hands-on experience with trading systems and post-trade processing.

    + Experience implementing enterprise-wide QA strategies.

    **Technical Skills** :

    + Deep understanding of QA methodologies, SDLC, Agile/Scrum, DevOps, and CI/CD pipelines.

    + Experience with test automation tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress), performance testing (e.g., JMeter), and test management platforms.

    + Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), APIs, microservices, and modern software architecture.

    Soft Skills:

    + Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

    + Ability to influence cross-functional teams and drive changes in a matrixed environment.

    + Strategic thinker with a hands-on approach to problem-solving.

    Preferred Qualifications:

    + Experience with regulatory frameworks such as SOX, SEC/FINRA.

    + Certifications such as ISTQB, CSTE, or PMP are a plus.