The concept of “Blizzard polish,” that is, the infinite care and loving detail put into every aspect of our games, is something we take seriously and pride ourselves on delivering to our players. It’s a responsibility shared across the company – and its undisputed heart and soul is Blizzard QA. Blizzard QA is a close-knit team; we care about iteration, problem-solving, and succeeding as a group. We genuinely love what we do for a living and expect the same from everyone who joins us!

JOB SUMMARY

The Associate Test Director at Blizzard oversees QA operations and testing for one or more products, ensuring software quality and driving process improvement. Responsibilities include managing the end-to-end test teams, aligning with departmental and organizational strategies, and establishing standards for cross-functional teams. This role plays a crucial role in delivering exceptional gaming experiences for customers and internal partners by developing and managing strategies, goals, and key initiatives for test teams and products, ensuring alignment with department and organizational strategies across globally distributed teams. Additionally, they define and achieve annual quality goals, drive a strategic vision for quality assurance improvement, and lead efforts to hire, develop, and retain talent, including senior management. They coach and mentor individuals and teams to achieve collective excellence and influence cross-functional teams on strategy and execution.

This role is anticipated to be a hybrid work position, with some work on-site and some work-from-home. The potential home studio for this role is Irvine, CA.

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE TABLE

Develop, manage and execute quality strategies, goals, and key initiatives for one or more test teams and products, ensuring alignment with department and company strategies across globally distributed teams.
Establish and enforce quality metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure and improve the effectiveness of the QA processes. Advocate for best practices in software development and enhance the customer experience.
Conduct regular business reviews and provide quality-related services to senior leadership while refining and optimizing the role of quality assurance within the company.

Develop and maintain information and visualizations to tell compelling stories to key stakeholders. Identify and report trends and insights to support QA in meeting its strategic objectives. Participate and lead meetings to provide updates, share information, drive change, and facilitate effective decision-making.
Provide leadership, support and guidance to a team including senior management, ensuring their performance is managed effectively and fostering a productive, positive, collaborative work culture. Coach and mentor individuals and teams to achieve collective excellence and influence cross-functional teams on strategy and execution.
Champion efforts that build synergy, trust, collaboration, and inclusivity within the organization. Own and manage relationships with key partners, resources, colleagues, and leaders ensuring transparency around critical decisions and trade-offs.
Lead, partner, and collaborate with teams across the company and with global outsource teams on quality initiatives, driving quality projects with regional teams, partners and stakeholders, and QA teams to contribute to the long-term QA vision and foster proactive and engaging communication with stakeholders.
Performs other duties as assigned.

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

Experience

Minimum 10 years of experience in Quality Assurance.
Minimum of 7 years in management, directing the work of both individual contributors and multiple levels of leadership and teams.
Experience leading regional test teams and forecasting and managing test budgets for large projects.
Experience working with cross-functional teams and stakeholders to achieve quality objectives.
Experience with game engines content and asset editors, and shared technologies.
Experience working with global outsource teams.

Knowledge & Skills

High School diploma or equivalent required. Bachelor’s Degree in a related field preferred.
Thorough understanding of Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), specifically QA processes in agile and waterfall development environments.
Be an expert in multiple software testing methodologies.
Practical knowledge of relational databases such as Oracle, MySQL, & SQLServer. Thorough understanding of Jira process.

EXTRA POINTS

White box testing experience.
Certification in any of the following: PMP, Scrum Master, and/or ISTQB-ATM.
Coding Knowledge: XML / HTML, JavaScript, Python, Java, C / C++ / C#, SQL.
High level of gaming knowledge and/or skill.
Passion for Blizzard’s line of products and services.

Your Platform

Best known for iconic video game universes including Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, and StarCraft®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard, which was acquired by Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment experiences. Blizzard Entertainment has created some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed and genre-defining games over the last 30 years, with a track record that includes multiple Game of the Year awards. Blizzard Entertainment engages tens of millions of players around the world with titles available on PC via Battle.net®, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.

Our World

Activision Blizzard, Inc., is one of the world's largest and most successful interactive entertainment companies and is at the intersection of media, technology and entertainment. We are home to some of the most beloved entertainment franchises including Call of Duty®, World of Warcraft®, Overwatch®, Diablo®, Candy Crush™ and Bubble Witch™. Our combined entertainment network delights hundreds of millions of monthly active users in 196 countries, making us the largest gaming network on the planet!

Our ability to build immersive and innovative worlds is only enhanced by diverse teams working in an inclusive environment. We aspire to have a culture where everyone can thrive in order to connect and engage the world through epic entertainment. We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered!

The videogame industry and therefore our business is fast-paced and will continue to evolve. As such, the duties and responsibilities of this role may be changed as directed by the Company at any time to promote and support our business and relationships with industry partners.

We love hearing from anyone who is enthusiastic about changing the games industry. Not sure you meet all qualifications? Let us decide! Research shows that women and members of other under-represented groups tend to not apply to jobs when they think they may not meet every qualification, when, in fact, they often do! We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment and strongly encourage you to apply.

We are committed to working with and providing reasonable assistance to individuals with physical and mental disabilities. If you are a disabled individual requiring an accommodation to apply for an open position, please email your request to accommodationrequests@activisionblizzard.com. General employment questions cannot be accepted or processed here. Thank you for your interest.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status, among other characteristics.

Rewards

We provide a suite of benefits that promote physical, emotional and financial well-being for ‘Every World’ - we’ve got our employees covered! Subject to eligibility requirements, the Company offers comprehensive benefits including:

Medical, dental, vision, health savings account or health reimbursement account, healthcare spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance;
401(k) with Company match, tuition reimbursement, charitable donation matching;
Paid holidays and vacation, paid sick time, floating holidays, compassion and bereavement leaves, parental leave;
Mental health & wellbeing programs, fitness programs, free and discounted games, and a variety of other voluntary benefit programs like supplemental life & disability, legal service, ID protection, rental insurance, and others;
If the Company requires that you move geographic locations for the job, then you may also be eligible for relocation assistance.

Eligibility to participate in these benefits may vary for part time and temporary full-time employees and interns with the Company. You can learn more by visiting https://www.benefitsforeveryworld.com/.

In the U.S., the standard base pay range for this role is $99,520.00 - $184,240.00 Annual. These values reflect the expected base pay range of new hires across all U.S. locations. Ultimately, your specific range and offer will be based on several factors, including relevant experience, performance, and work location. Your Talent Professional can share this role’s range details for your local geography during the hiring process. In addition to a competitive base pay, employees in this role may be eligible for incentive compensation. Incentive compensation is not guaranteed. While we strive to provide competitive offers to successful candidates, new hire compensation is negotiable.

Associate Test Director, Diablo IV