QA Development Lead

Richemont, one of the world leaders in the luxury sector, has various Houses specializing in jewelry, watches and high-end accessories. Each Maison proudly embodies a tradition of style, quality and craftsmanship and Richemont strives to preserve the heritage and identity specific to each of them. At the same time, we are committed to innovating and designing new products in line with the values ​​of our Houses, through a process of permanent creativity.

CONTEXT

Our Maisons have embarked on a journey with Industry 4.0 to accelerate digitalization and support more connected operational use cases bringing more efficiency and quality, based on latest technologies.

In this context, the management and evolution of PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), CAD (Computer-Aided Design), and advanced CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) solutions are strategic. These systems are at the heart of our design and engineering processes and are crucial for translating innovative designs into precise, efficient, and high-quality manufacturing instructions.

To support this ambition, we are looking for a QA Lead to define, drive, and execute our Quality Assurance strategy. You will play a pivotal role in guaranteeing that our digital solutions translate innovative designs into precise, efficient, and high-quality manufacturing instructions across our 30+ sites in Europe (including 20+ in Switzerland), supporting prestigious Watchmaking & Jewelry Maisons.

HOW WILL YOU MAKE AN IMPACT?

As an Engineering & Product Development QA Lead, you and your team will be responsible for defining, implementing and continuously improving the Quality Assurance strategy, processes and automation frameworks across the Engineering & Product Development landscape. By fostering a customer-oriented mindset and a culture of trust and transparency you will ensure that all solutions, including PLM platforms (Windchill, Centric, Aras), CAD solutions (Creo, Rhino, SolidWorks), and their integrations meet the highest standards of quality, performance and reliability before deployment to our Maisons' Manufactures.

You will be accountable for the QA deliverables according to the roadmap of our "Product Owner" and guidelines of our Architects, working in close collaboration with development, integration, and cross-functional teams.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and lead the QA strategy for the Engineering & Product Development Product Area, encompassing functional testing, regression testing, integration testing, performance testing and user acceptance testing (UAT).

• Design, implement and maintain automated testing frameworks using Python, RobotFramework ,Selenium, Cucumber, JUnit and Saucelabs, ensuring comprehensive test coverage across all critical applications and integrations.

• Build and manage CI/CD quality gates leveraging Jenkins pipelines to integrate automated testing seamlessly into the continuous integration and delivery workflow.

• Manage and develop a QA team of experienced consultants, fostering a culture of quality, continuous improvement and technical excellence by actively mentoring them and promoting Agile (Scrum/Kanban) ceremonies (daily Stand-ups, Sprint Planning, Sprint Grooming, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives).

• Oversee QA Operations, including the management of test management tools (e.g., Zephyr) and issue tracking systems (Jira), ensuring complete traceability of bugs, test phases, and test runs.

• Drive Proactive Monitoring & Continuous Improvement: Evaluate system fault indicators to discover and mitigate bugs before they reach end-users; enrich test suites based on these insights.

• Champion a "Shift-Left" Testing Approach: Embed quality assurance practices early in the software development lifecycle by collaborating closely with developers, architects, and product owners from the design and requirement phases. Promote a culture where quality is everyone's responsibility, not just a final gate, through early code reviews, static analysis, unit test advocacy, and continuous feedback loops.

• Oversee the quality assurance of PLM platforms (Windchill, Aras) and CAD solutions (Creo, Rhino, Solidworks), ensuring solution stability, data integrity and seamless user experience.

• Validate integrations between PLM systems and other critical enterprise applications such as SAP, customer portals, and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), ensuring data consistency and process reliability.

• Define and monitor quality KPIs and reporting dashboards, providing clear visibility on quality status, defect trends, test coverage and risk areas to project stakeholders and management.

• Lead business analysis activities related to quality: translating business requirements into comprehensive test strategies, performing data mining and business intelligence analysis to identify quality patterns and improvement opportunities.

• Drive User Acceptance Testing (UAT) processes, coordinating with business stakeholders across our Maisons to ensure validation and sign-off of delivered solutions.

• Manage QA project activities including project planning, budget follow-up, resource management, delivery tracking, supplier management and project reporting, adhering to established methodologies.

• Maintain a constant technological watch on QA best practices, test automation innovations, and AI-driven testing approaches, and propose relevant improvements for the Group. Actively participate to the internal Richemont Community Of Practice (COP).

HOW WILL YOU EXPERIENCE SUCCESS WITH US?

• Master's degree / Engineer in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Industrial Engineering or a related field.

• 7+ years of experience in Quality Assurance, with at least 3 years in a QA Lead or QA Manager role, ideally within industrial or engineering environments.

• Strong expertise in test automation:

  Mandatory :  Python, RobotFramework with hands-on experience building and maintaining automated test suites.

  Plus : Selenium, Cucumber, JUnit, Saucelabs.

• Solid experience with CI/CD pipelines and automation orchestration

• Strong knowledge of database management systems: Oracle with the ability to design and execute database-level validation and data quality checks.

• Proven experience in project management : including budget management, project planning, delivery follow-up, resource management, supplier management and project reporting.

• AI & Innovation in QA: Proven experience or demonstrated initiative in leveraging AI-driven tools and techniques to optimize QA activities (e.g., intelligent test case generation, predictive analytics for defect prevention, AI-powered test automation maintenance). Ability to identify relevant AI innovations during technological watch and propose actionable improvements for the team.

• Strong understanding of architecture design principles and integration technologies (APIs, event-oriented architectures, and Cloud hosting).

• Collaborative leadership and coaching mindset, with experience in team management overseeing QA design, execution and support activities.

• Excellent ability to effectively communicate technical and quality-related information to management, peers and industry partners.

• Fluency in French and English is mandatory.

HOW DO WE KEEP YOU SMILING?

• The role is a perfect mix between defining quality strategy, building automation frameworks and leading a skilled QA team at the service of all our Maisons' Manufactures.

• The variety and density of initiatives with our Maisons provides a great portfolio of opportunities to always learn and develop new skills across PLM, CAD, integration and testing technologies.

• At Richemont we can and do discuss with all levels of technology and business, and your value-added and advice on quality excellence is highly appreciated by the business stakeholders.

• You will have a direct impact on the reliability and performance of solutions that support the creation of some of the world's most iconic luxury products.

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