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.

- Explicit 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:

1. 10+ years of enterprise-level software testing experience.

2. Hands-on manual and automated testing experience.

3. Strong Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall experience.

4. Extensive AODA testing and compliance experience.

5. Experience with Selenium and/or Postman.

6. Experience with JMeter, LoadRunner, or similar performance-testing tools.

7. Strong SQL and/or Oracle database experience.

8. Knowledge of Azure and/or AWS.

9. Experience with defect-management tools such as JIRA or Azure DevOps.

10. Experience developing test strategies, test plans, test cases, test scripts, and test reports.

11. Strong end-to-end testing experience across functional and non-functional requirements.

12. Knowledge of CI/CD, Jenkins, Git, or GitLab.

13. Knowledge of QA compliance and security-testing practices.

14. Strong communication, analytical, problem-solving, and teamwork skills.

15. Ability to work 100% onsite, 5 days per week.

Nice to Have: Previous Ontario Public Service (OPS) / public-sector experience.

📌 Systems Testing/QA Specialist – Senior (Canada)
🏢 Upstaff
📍 Canada