Manager, Quality Engineering (US Based - Remote)

About Orchid Group

Orchid Group is the technology team behind a family of software companies in the assisted-reproduction space. Our products manage escrow and finances for surrogacy, egg donation and fertility journeys. We also run a platform that supports the federal Independent Dispute Resolution process between healthcare providers and insurers.

Our software handles client funds, payment data and sensitive personal information for families going through some of the most important moments of their lives. Quality here isn't a checkbox. It protects people's money, their trust, and their path to building a family.

We are a distributed team across the US and Latin America, working on Eastern Time. We use AI as part of how we build software, always with people reviewing and approving the work.

The Role

This is a new role. You'll be our first leader of quality engineering across all our products.

Today, testing lives inside each product team. There are no shared standards, no common tooling and no group-wide quality metrics. You'll change that. QA engineers across our products will report to you, and you'll partner closely with each product's engineering lead, who owns sprint priorities and the final release decision.

You'll start by learning what each team already does well. Then you'll help every QA engineer on the team grow, using test automation and AI-assisted tools in a responsible, measurable way.

What You'll Do

• Assess before you change. In your first month, meet every QA engineer and engineering lead. Review how each product is tested today: strategy, automation, CI/CD, test data, defect handling and release sign-off. Deliver a written assessment, a prioritized plan and a baseline for each product.
• Build shared automation. Stand up shared API and UI test automation running in CI, prove it on one product, then extend it across the group.
• Set the standard. Define group-wide QA practices and release-readiness criteria. Give QA input on every release, while engineering leads keep the go/no-go call.
• Own the numbers. Track and report quality metrics on a regular cadence, and be clear about how they're measured.
• Use AI responsibly. Apply AI-assisted tools to test design, test generation, automation code, documentation and defect analysis. Every AI output is reviewed by a person before it's used. New tools go through architecture review, and no tool touches production client, payment or health data without approval.
• Grow the team. Set goals, give feedback, run reviews and put every QA engineer on a development plan. Partner with the CTO and HR on hiring for the QA team.

What You Bring

• 10+ years in QA and quality engineering, including building or rebuilding a QA function and managing QA engineers and/or SDETs.
• Hands-on test automation experience with UI and API frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Playwright, Cucumber, Mocha) and CI/CD (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, TeamCity).
• Practical experience using AI-assisted testing or engineering tools, and examples of the results they produced.
• Experience with quality metrics, traceability, release readiness and risk-based testing.
• Experience testing financial, payment, tax or other regulated software.
• Comfort leading a distributed team across time zones, and influencing engineering leads you don't manage.
• Experience designing Jira workflows, and clear written communication with both engineers and executives.

Nice to Have

• Healthcare or PHI-adjacent product experience.
• Performance testing (JMeter or similar).
• Experience with AWS or Google Cloud test environments.

How Success Looks at Six Months

• A written assessment and quality baseline for every product with a QA engineer.
• Shared automation running in CI on at least one product, with measured gains in coverage and test cycle time.
• Every QA engineer on a development plan, with visible progress.
• Defects that reach production tracked on every product, with a full period of data.
• A data-backed recommendation on QA staffing for each product.

What We Offer

• Fully remote role, with home-office equipment provided (laptop, two monitors, keyboard and more).
• Health insurance through Cigna, with individual and family plans including dental and vision.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan.
• Unlimited PTO, plus your birthday off and a Day of Purpose.
• A trust-based culture: we don't track hours. We care about ownership, outcomes and how we work together.
• The chance to build a function from the ground up, with real support from engineering leadership.

Eligibility

This is a full-time, US-based W-2 position. Candidates must reside in the United States and be authorized to work in the US without current or future visa sponsorship. We do not work with staffing agencies or Corp-to-Corp arrangements for this role. Interviews are conducted on video with camera on.

Our Hiring Process

1. Application and short questionnaire. Please answer in your own words. Specific, honest answers matter more than polished ones.
2. 30-minute conversation with our recruiting team.
3. Interview with an engineering manager.
4. Final conversation with our CTO.