QA Environment & Data Lead

Job DescriptionAt ERCOT, our diverse and dynamic work environment provides a platform on which employees can work together to build the future of the Texas power grid and wholesale market utilizing the latest technologies and resources. We encourage you to join our talented, dedicated workforce to develop world-class solutions for today and tomorrow's energy challenges while learning new skills and growing your career.ERCOT is committed to fostering inclusion at all levels of our company. It is the cornerstone of our corporate values of accountability, leadership, innovation, trust, and expertise. We know that individuals with a wide variety of talents, ideas, and experiences propel the innovation that drives our success. An inclusive and diverse workforce strengthens us and allows for a collaborative environment to solve the challenges that face our industry today and in the future.JOB SUMMARYThe Test Environment & Data Lead is accountable for the governance, stability, and continuous improvement of all non-production test environments to ensure secure, compliant, and release-ready systems.This role oversees end-to-end environment lifecycle management, including configuration control, test data governance, environmental use and data refreshes. The lead ensures alignment with Quality Assurance and Release & Change Management standards to minimize operational, product, and data-related risks.In addition, this role is responsible for maintaining data integrity and consistency across environments by coordinating controlled test data refresh cycles, validating post-migration data accuracy, and ensuring compliance with data privacy, security, and regulatory requirements. Close collaboration with Database, Infrastructure, and Security teams is required to ensure environments are production-representative, audit-ready, and optimized for consistent, reliable, and predictable testing outcomes.The Environment & Test Data lead serves as a critical quality and data control point, safeguarding both system stability and data accuracy across the non-production landscape.JOB DUTIESBroadly applies principles, theories and concepts related to the profession. A seasoned, experienced professional with an in-depth/full understanding of area of specialization.May provide recommendations regarding issues outside the bounds of defined procedures and practices. Demonstrates good judgment in selecting methods and techniques for obtaining solutions.Wide latitude for decisions within assignments, programs and projects; impact is generally limited to the project or department.Acts as a resource to advise and may at times lead the work of lower level professional and/or support employees. Generally represents the department on projects and may perform in a project leadership role.ADDITIONAL JOB DUTIESOwn lifecycle management of Test and Pre-Prod environmentsMaintain environment configuration baselines and version inventoryEnsure environment readiness before test cyclesCoordinate provisioning, upgrades, and patching with platform teamsMonitor environment stability, availability, and performanceManage environment scheduling and conflict resolutionPrevent version drift between QA and ProductionThis position will be responsible for executing on the QA Test Data Management strategy and roadmapThis person will work closely with Release Management, the PMO, Application Services, and other IT areas in design and implementation of an enterprise test data repository to be used as source of test data for application development testingThis position will also be responsible for planning, scheduling and communicating test system refreshes, time-sliced data refreshes, on-demand test data requests and coordinating with appropriate IT areas for corresponding virtual test environments as neededThis position requires a highly motivated individual who will leverage his/her technical and business expertise to help ensure test data and test environment objectives, goals and requirements are delivered according to stakeholder expectationsThe individual must be able to work independently and communicate with all levels of management in a timely and accurate mannerResponsible for defining the test data management architecture and tool strategiesResponsible for delivery, process implementation and oversight of a newly formed Test Data Management service within the QA and Test Management DepartmentManage and establish service levels for the TDM shared service, including transparency through reporting and valuation of serviceCoordinate work of highly decentralized business application teams while implementing demand management operating models that proactively sources and manages test data on multiple concurrent projectsImplement methodologies for automated test data generation, test reusability and data privacyResponsible for building and maintaining a central repository of test data and test environment models across multiple lines of businessResponsible for defining and implementing the scope of a releases test environment and test data needsAccountable for the maintenance and implementation of the policy framework for ERCOT's Test Data and Environment capabilitiesResponsible for developing process of maintaining gold copy of test data sets for programs, projects and releasesAccountable for department operating procedures, processes and adherence to corporate standardsAccountable for communication with stakeholders and managementAccountable for adherence to audit and compliance standards regarding QA practicesAccountable for identifying and implementing process improvements in alignment with ERCOT's testing frameworkManage, mentor and coach staff on test data and test environment principles and practicesDevelop and publish KPIs to communicate delivery practices for test data and test environmentsResponsible for maintaining knowledge of emerging trends and industry best practicesAbility to support multiple streams of projects of varying complexityAbility to create and meet timelines cognizant of business needs and constraintsStrong leadership, communication, negotiation, and conflict management skillsHighly self-motivated, driven work ethic, keen attention to detail and exceptional customer service orientationAbility to communicate highly technical information in an understandable manner to non-technical audiences through writing and presentationsEXPERIENCERequires minimum 8+ years in IT operations, QA operations, or release management.3+ years managing non-production environments and test data.Experience in system design, programming and troubleshooting with relational databases (e.g., Oracle and SQL Server)Experience with version control, deployments, and migration governance.Strong understanding of SDLC, STLC, and change management.Experience in cloud or hybrid environments.Demonstrated project management experience managing implementations of new enterprise-wide technology initiativesExperience with service virtualization technologiesProven track record of effectively working in a highly collaborative environmentDetailed work experience and knowledge of application integration of DevOp and QA tools used for provisioning test data and test environmentsFamiliarity with AI-based environment monitoring or anomaly detection.Experience leveraging automation for deployment validation.Understanding predictive analytics for environment capacity or failure detection.Exposure to synthetic test data generation tools (preferred).Technical SkillsCI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub, etc.)Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, ARM, etc.)Monitoring/observability platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace)Management tools (ServiceNow, JIRA , Qtest, etc.)Other tools (Ansible, Rubric, AppSync)EDUCATIONBachelor's Degree: Computer Science, MIS or related field (Required) or a combination of education and experience that provides equivalent knowledge to a major in such fields is requiredERCOT is firmly committed to equal employment for all qualified persons without regard to race, sex, medical condition, religion, age, creed, national origin, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, ancestry, veteran status, genetic information or any other protected category under federal, state or local law.Expected Salary Range:$122,262 - $207,828