We have partnered with our Financial Services client in their search for a Head of Engineering - Quality Assurance hybrid in Charlotte, NC to build and lead a firm-wide QA function that ensures all technology and data changes are fully tested, compliant, and safe for release into highly regulated environments. This role is critical to strengthening production stability, introducing disciplined testing practices, and establishing clear governance across the organization.
What You'll Do
- Build and lead a centralized QA organization with clear ownership across platforms.
- Develop an enterprise-wide testing strategy, including unit, integration, system, UAT, and regression testing.
- Ensure test environments, data, and dependencies accurately mirror production.
- Establish and enforce "definition of done" criteria for all handoffs to Finance, Risk, and Regulatory teams.
- Improve release readiness, gating controls, and testing documentation.
- Partner closely with Engineering, Data, Finance, Risk, and Regulatory stakeholders to reduce production defects and elevate testing discipline.
What Success Looks Like
- Consistent, repeatable test cycles aligned to delivery timelines.
- Trusted regression testing that protects prior functionality and balances.
- No releases to downstream functions without validated data and complete testing.
- QA recognized as a critical engineering and control function.
What We're Looking For
- 10+ years in QA, test engineering, or quality leadership within large-scale tech environments.
- Strong background in financial services and regulated environments.
- Proven experience building QA organizations from the ground up.
- Deep understanding of data-heavy systems, integrations, and batch processing.
- Ability to drive process discipline, challenge legacy behaviors, and influence senior stakeholders.
Nice to Have
- Experience testing complex data flows and using automated testing frameworks.
- Exposure to Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, and strong partnership with Release Management and Audit.
About Korn Ferry
Korn Ferry unleashes potential in people, teams, and organizations. We work with our clients to design optimal organization structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward and motivate their workforce while developing professionals as they navigate and advance their careers. To learn more, please visit Korn Ferry at www.Kornferry.com
