Systems Testing/QA Specialist – Senior
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Summary
Upstaff is sourcing a senior QA contractor for the Ontario Public Service (GSIC) to plan and execute testing of large enterprise systems, 100% onsite in Ontario. The work spans manual and automated testing (Selenium, Postman), performance testing (JMeter/LoadRunner), SQL/Oracle data validation, AODA accessibility, defect management (JIRA/Azure DevOps), and CI/CD integration.
Client: Government Services Integration Cluster (GSIC)
Ministry: Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement
Location: Ontario, Canada
Work Arrangement: 100% Onsite – 5 days per week
Start Date: September 21, 2026
End Date: March 21, 2027
Extension: Up to 1 additional term
Openings: 1
Security Clearance: No clearance required
Closing Date: September 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM EST
Maximum Submissions: 1 candidate
Position Overview
Our client, the Government Services Integration Cluster (GSIC) within the Ontario Public Service, is seeking a Senior Systems Testing/QA Specialist with extensive experience testing enterprise-level IT environments and large-scale systems.
The successful candidate will be responsible for planning, coordinating, designing, executing, and documenting comprehensive testing activities across complex systems. The role requires strong hands-on experience in both manual and automated testing, performance testing, API testing, database validation, accessibility testing, defect management, and CI/CD environments.
The candidate will work closely with testing leads, IT leads, developers, business analysts, project managers, and other project team members throughout the software development and testing lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide advice on testing strategies, test plans, testing tools, and resources required for testing.
- Plan and organize testing efforts for large systems across both GUI and non-GUI environments.
- Plan and execute system integration, specialized, user acceptance, stress, performance, and other testing activities.
- Develop and maintain test strategies, test plans, test scripts, test cases, and test data.
- Execute functional, integration, system, regression, non-functional, and acceptance testing.
- Validate that systems perform as expected under various conditions.
- Identify, document, track, and manage software defects using tools such as ALM, JIRA, Bugzilla, Azure DevOps, TestRail, Zephyr, or similar.
- Work closely with developers to reproduce, troubleshoot, and resolve defects.
- Develop and maintain automated test scripts using tools such as Selenium, Micro Focus/OpenText UFT, TestComplete, Postman, or similar.
- Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
- Conduct performance, stress, and load testing using tools such as JMeter, LoadRunner, or similar.
- Analyze performance bottlenecks, system scalability, response times, and system capacity.
- Perform API testing and backend/data validation.
- Develop and execute database queries to validate data integrity, consistency, and accuracy.
- Perform data migration and transformation testing as required.
- Develop and manage robust test data strategies, including realistic test-data generation, privacy considerations, and test environment management.
- Conduct basic security testing and collaborate with security specialists for deeper penetration/security testing activities.
- Apply knowledge of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) requirements and related accessibility standards.
- Collaborate with developers, business analysts, project managers, and technical teams to clarify requirements and ensure quality.
- Participate in Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
- Maintain detailed documentation of test results, test coverage, quality metrics, and testing outcomes.
- Provide input into user manuals and release notes.
- Ensure testing activities comply with applicable industry standards, QA practices, and regulatory requirements.
Requirements
Mandatory Qualifications & Core Skills
Software Testing & QA – Must Have
Candidates must have 10+ years of experience in software testing within enterprise-level IT environments and large-scale systems, including:
- Extensive hands-on experience in manual and automated testing.
- Strong understanding and practical experience with Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall methodologies.
- Extensive experience with AODA testing and compliance.
- Experience developing and maintaining:
- Test strategies
- Test plans
- Test cases
- Test scripts
- Test data
- Test reports
- Proven experience performing end-to-end testing of complex systems, ensuring functional and non-functional requirements are covered.
- Experience executing:
- Functional testing
- Integration testing
- System testing
- Regression testing
- Acceptance/UAT testing
- Non-functional testing
- Performance testing
- Load testing
- Stress testing
- Experience supporting and participating in User Acceptance Testing (UAT) activities.
- Strong knowledge of QA principles, practices, tools, and structured testing methodologies.
- Knowledge of the complete Software/System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Software Testing Life Cycle.
Test Automation
Hands-on experience with automated testing tools/frameworks such as:
- Selenium
- Postman for API testing
- Micro Focus/OpenText UFT
- TestComplete
- Cypress
- Other comparable automation tools
Experience coding automated test scripts and developing automated test cases is highly important.
Performance Testing
Experience with performance, stress, and load testing tools, including:
- JMeter
- LoadRunner
- Similar performance testing tools
Candidates should be capable of developing and executing performance test scripts and analyzing performance bottlenecks and system scalability.
Defect & Test Management Tools
Experience with one or more of the following:
- JIRA
- Azure DevOps
- ALM
- Bugzilla
- TestRail
- Zephyr
- Similar defect/test management platforms
Database & Data Validation
Strong understanding and hands-on experience with databases, including:
- SQL
- Oracle
Experience writing queries to:
- Validate backend data
- Perform backend testing
- Validate data integrity
- Validate data consistency and accuracy
- Support data migration and transformation testing
Cloud & DevOps
Knowledge and practical understanding of cloud technologies such as:
- Microsoft Azure
- AWS
Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and integration tools, including:
- Jenkins
- Git
- GitLab
- Similar CI/CD and version-control technologies
Security Testing
- Knowledge of QA compliance standards and security testing best practices.
- Experience conducting basic security testing.
- Ability to collaborate with security specialists for deeper penetration/security testing.
Test Data Management
Experience developing and managing robust test-data strategies, including:
- Generating realistic and sufficient test data.
- Protecting data privacy.
- Managing test-data environments.
- Validating data across multiple system components and databases.
Accessibility
- Extensive AODA testing and compliance experience is mandatory.
- Knowledge and understanding of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and related regulations and standards.
General Skills
The successful candidate should demonstrate:
- Experience planning, organizing, and implementing testing efforts at the senior level.
- Knowledge of structured methodologies for application development, design, implementation, and maintenance.
- Experience using CASE tools and data-query tools to assist in developing test cases.
- Experience using automated testing tools and version-control systems.
- Experience with functional, non-functional, and systems-level integration testing.
- Experience supporting UAT activities.
- Strong knowledge of quality assurance principles, practices, tools, and structured methodologies.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, decision-making, organizational, creativity, and perseverance skills.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate effectively with technical and functional teams.
- Ability to work effectively as part of a large project team.
- Proven ability to meet deadlines.
- Ability to work under pressure and manage aggressive timelines.
- Adaptability to changing priorities and requirements.
- Demonstrated ability to write clear, comprehensive test cases and execute them effectively.
- Strong understanding of system, integration, regression, and acceptance testing.
- Clear understanding of software development and testing lifecycles.
Scripting & Programming
Knowledge of scripting/programming languages is required or strongly preferred, including:
- Python
- JavaScript
- Bash
- Or another programming language suitable for automation and test-data setup.
Knowledge and experience in at least one programming language is considered a desirable skill.
Public Sector / OPS Experience
Previous Ontario Public Service (OPS) or broader public-sector experience is considered an asset.
Candidates should have familiarity with:
- OPS quality assurance standards and practices.
- Public-sector testing and delivery environments.
- Government information-management principles, policies, and practices.
Additional Desirable Skills
The following experience is considered an asset:
- Experience planning and organizing testing efforts for both large and small systems.
- Experience coding automated test scripts to produce automated test cases.
- Experience testing Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications.
- Knowledge of information retrieval packages.
- Knowledge and understanding of testing methods in an object-oriented environment.
- Knowledge and understanding of Information Management principles, concepts, policies, and practices.
- Experience with one or more programming languages.
- Additional experience with accessibility testing and compliance.
Soft Skills
The successful candidate must demonstrate:
- Excellent written and verbal communication.
- Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.
- Ability to work effectively with functional and technical teams.
- Ability to participate effectively in a large project team.
- Strong analytical and systematic problem-solving capabilities.
- Ability to work under pressure and meet aggressive timelines.
- Flexibility and adaptability in a changing project environment.
- Strong organization, attention to detail, and commitment to quality.
Work Arrangement & Other Requirements
- 100% onsite – 5 days per week
- Ontario, Canada
- 1 position available
- No security clearance required
- Assignment duration: September 21, 2026 to March 21, 2027
- One potential extension term
- Maximum 1 candidate submission per supplier
- Candidates must be available to work onsite five days per week.
Mandatory Requirements – Quick Checklist
Candidates submitted for this position must clearly demonstrate:
- 10+ years of enterprise-level software testing experience.
- Hands-on manual and automated testing experience.
- Strong Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall experience.
- Extensive AODA testing and compliance experience.
- Experience with Selenium and/or Postman.
- Experience with JMeter, LoadRunner, or similar performance-testing tools.
- Strong SQL and/or Oracle database experience.
- Knowledge of Azure and/or AWS.
- Experience with defect-management tools such as JIRA or Azure DevOps.
- Experience developing test strategies, test plans, test cases, test scripts, and test reports.
- Strong end-to-end testing experience across functional and non-functional requirements.
- Knowledge of CI/CD, Jenkins, Git, or GitLab.
- Knowledge of QA compliance and security-testing practices.
- Strong communication, analytical, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.
- Ability to work 100% onsite, 5 days per week.
Nice to Have: Previous Ontario Public Service (OPS) / public-sector experience.