Senior Systems Testing/QA Specialist

We are seeking an experienced Senior Systems Testing/QA Specialist to plan, organize, and execute quality assurance strategies for large-scale enterprise systems. In this role, you will be responsible for analyzing complex business rules, designing comprehensive test plans and test scenarios, and executing rigorous manual, API, and systems integration testing across both GUI and non-GUI backend environments. Leveraging your expertise in structured testing methodologies, web service protocols (REST/SOAP), database integrity verification, and modern test management platforms such as Azure DevOps and Jira, you will establish full requirement traceability, record and manage defect lifecycles, and collaborate closely with cross-functional technical teams to deliver reliable, production-ready software solutions.

Location: Toronto, ON (Fully Onsite – 5 days/week required)

Duration: 10 months

Advantages
Comprehensive Testing Scope: Lead diverse QA efforts across core manual execution, API validations, and complex system integrations.

Modern Tooling & Workflows: Gain hands-on exposure to Azure DevOps pipelines, Jira defect management, and API testing frameworks.

Architecture-Level Impact: Validate critical microservices and event-driven architectures across enterprise platforms.

Collaborative Onsite Environment: Engage directly with dedicated project delivery teams and technical specialists in Toronto.

Responsibilities
Provide expert guidance on testing strategies, master test plans, tool selection, and resource estimation for complex system implementations.

Plan, organize, and execute end-to-end testing across GUI and non-GUI environments, covering functional, integration, system, regression, and user acceptance testing (UAT).

Conduct in-depth analysis of business requirements, functional designs, and underlying business rules to define expected system outcomes.

Author, maintain, and execute detailed manual test plans, test cases, test scenarios, and Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTM).

Design and execute comprehensive API testing for REST and SOAP services, validating security, payloads (JSON/XML), and data integrity through structured request/response analysis.

Formulate test data strategies, set up test user accounts, and execute database queries to retrieve test data and verify backend data integrity.

Log, track, and triage software defects through their full lifecycle using Azure DevOps, Jira, and enterprise defect tracking tools.

Collaborate with developers, systems architects, and project managers during defect review sessions to facilitate root-cause analysis and re-testing.

Validate system integrations across service-oriented, microservices, and asynchronous event-driven architectures.

Define and evaluate entry, exit, and acceptance testing criteria to ensure solutions meet quality gates prior to production release.

Document and present testing progress, coverage metrics, and complex technical findings in clear reports for project owners and leadership.

Qualifications
QA Planning & Implementation: Proven, progressive experience in quality assurance processes, planning, organizing, and executing testing efforts for large-scale enterprise systems (Strictly Required).

Manual Testing Expertise: Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and executing comprehensive manual testing suites across web applications and backend systems (Strictly Required).

Business Rule Analysis: Strong background analyzing complex business rules, functional specifications, and user requirements to establish accurate test scenarios (Strictly Required).

Test Case Design & Traceability: Demonstrated experience authoring detailed test plans, test cases, test data sets, and Requirements Traceability Matrices (Strictly Required).

API Testing Proficiency: Hands-on experience testing REST and SOAP web services, including validation of HTTP status codes, JSON/XML schemas, authentication, and data integrity (Strictly Required).

Defect Management & SDLC: Solid understanding of the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC) and Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), with hands-on experience using tools such as Azure DevOps or Jira (Strictly Required).

Database Querying: Working knowledge of relational databases and experience writing queries to validate data integrity and extract test data (Strictly Required).

Nice-to-Have Assets:
Knowledge and hands-on experience testing enterprise Registry systems (e.g., Catalyst or similar platforms).

Strong written communication skills to document, synthesize, and report complex technical findings to project owners and non-technical stakeholders.

Experience testing Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications and specialized workflows.

Familiarity with accessibility testing standards (AODA / WCAG).

Summary
If you're interested in the "Senior Systems Testing/QA Specialist" role based in Toronto, we encourage you to apply online at www.randstad.ca.

Only qualified candidates will be contacted for the next steps. We look forward to hearing from you!

Randstad Canada is committed to fostering a workforce reflective of all peoples of Canada. As a result, we are committed to developing and implementing strategies to increase the equity, diversity and inclusion within the workplace by examining our internal policies, practices, and systems throughout the entire lifecycle of our workforce, including its recruitment, retention and advancement for all employees. In addition to our deep commitment to respecting human rights, we are dedicated to positive actions to affect change to ensure everyone has full participation in the workforce free from any barriers, systemic or otherwise, especially equity-seeking groups who are usually underrepresented in Canada's workforce, including those who identify as women or non-binary/gender non-conforming; Indigenous or Aboriginal Peoples; persons with disabilities (visible or invisible) and; members of visible minorities, racialized groups and the LGBTQ2+ community.

Randstad Canada is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible workplace for all its candidates and employees by supporting their accessibility and accommodation needs throughout the employment lifecycle. We ask that all job applications please identify any accommodation requirements by sending an email to [email protected] to ensure their ability to fully participate in the interview process.

This posting is for existing and upcoming vacancies.