Sr. Tester / QA (O&M Escalation)

• Grants.gov, GrantSolutions, or other federal grants management platforms.
• Federal discretionary grants lifecycle, including funding opportunity posting, application package creation, applicant submission, agency download, forms, validations, and acknowledgements.
• Public-facing government websites or shared service platforms with large user communities.
• System-to-system interfaces supporting applicant systems, grantor systems, partner systems, or external federal integrations.
• Federal forms development, Adobe/XDP/PDF forms, XML schemas, web forms, form validation, and Section 508 accessibility.
• HHS, OMB, GAO, OIG, congressional data calls, federal stakeholder reporting, or executive-level federal communications.
• Federal cloud, ATO, POA&M remediation, vulnerability management, disaster recovery, and operational continuity.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Participate in defining test strategies, creating test plans, and executing User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Perform integration, system, regression, and performance testing; develop and maintain automated test scripts using tools like Selenium, Appium, Katalon, or Cucumber.
• Translate business and functional requirements into testable requirements using Agile methodologies.
• Identify, document, and track defects; analyze root causes and ensure defect closure.
• Work with developers, systems teams, and vendors to resolve issues and ensure successful test execution.
• Monitor, maintain, and improve data integration logic, especially in cloud environments.
• Produce detailed test cases, plans, reports, and documentation for all testing activities.

• Guide junior testers, share best practices, and promote QA standards.

• Recognize urgent maintenance or operational problems that require escalation, such as equipment failure, safety hazards, or service interruptions.
• Coordinate with supervisors, maintenance leads, and cross-functional teams to escalate issues to the right level of authority or vendor.
• Manage relationships with outside vendors, ensuring they meet service level agreements (SLAs) and operational requirements.
• Work with engineering or maintenance teams to determine the cause of critical issues and recommend preventive measures.
• Maintain accurate records of escalations, resolutions, and preventive actions; prepare reports for management.
• Ensure all escalation actions comply with safety regulations, OSHA standards, and company policies.
• Monitor and manage costs associated with urgent repairs or replacements, balancing urgency with financial impact.

The selected candidate will support the operation, maintenance, enhancement, modernization, security, performance, and user experience of the Grants.gov system. This work supports a mission-critical federal platform used by applicants, grantors, federal agencies, and partner systems across the grants lifecycle. Candidates should be comfortable working in a structured federal IT environment with strong emphasis on service continuity, stakeholder responsiveness, documentation, quality, security, accessibility, and disciplined delivery.

Ideal candidates will bring experience supporting federal IT programs, public-facing web applications, grants management systems, cloud-hosted environments, Agile/SDLC delivery, system operations, application support, testing, cybersecurity, communications, or related technical and program functions. Prior experience with Grants.gov, federal grants systems, HHS, government shared services, or high-volume public-sector platforms is strongly preferred. Preferred Grants.gov / Federal Grants Experience, * Bachelors degree in information technology, computer science, or related preferred.

• STQB, CISSP, ITIL, CEH, or other QA/security certifications

• Proficiency in SQL, Java, C#, Python, or Perl
• Experience with Agile/Scrum, TDD, BDD, and ALM tools
• Knowledge of test automation frameworks and CI/CD pipelines

• Familiarity with cloud technologies (AWS, Azure), big data tools (Hadoop, Hive), and performance/load testing tools (LoadRunner, JMeter, SoapUI, Postman)

• 5 years or more of related experience required., Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.