Director of Quality Assurance/QA Architect

About Fanatics Collect

Fanatics Collect is redefining the collectibles industry through an integrated platform for discovering, vaulting, tracking, and transacting on physical and digital trading cards. Launched in 2024, we bring best-in-class grading partners, next-gen fan experiences, and a secure digital vault to collectors everywhere. As part of Fanatics Inc., we draw on the scale and reach of a global sports platform to power innovation at speed.

The Role

As Director of Quality Assurance & QA Architecture, you will serve as the top QA leader across both the Fanatics Collect and Fanatics Live platforms. You will define and drive the end-to-end quality strategy, establish a sustainable QA operating model, and lead the architecture and implementation of test infrastructure across product surfaces.

This is a critical leadership role that spans people, process, and platform. You will report into senior engineering leadership, partner cross-functionally across Product, Data, and DevOps, and scale a QA organization that safeguards collector trust while enabling developer velocity.

Responsibilities

Strategic Quality Leadership

• Set the strategic direction for QA across Fanatics Collect and Live.
• Build and scale the QA function—org design, hiring, onboarding, mentoring, and performance management.
• Define and govern quality KPIs, SLIs, and SLOs aligned to product and fan experience goals.
• Institutionalize shift-left/shift-right quality practices across the SDLC.
• Lead quality governance: go/no-go criteria, stakeholder scorecards, defect management, and release health reporting.
• Serve as an executive voice for QA in roadmap, incident, and OKR planning.

Quality Architecture & Infrastructure

• Oversee the architecture and deployment of modern testing frameworks.
• Define test architecture strategy including CI/CD quality gates, distributed runners, and dashboards.
• Champion best practices for contract testing, test-data management, and risk-based testing.
• Reduce P1/P2 incident volumes via proactive quality design and resilient automation.
• Lead innovation in AI-assisted QA: LLM-based test generation, self-healing locators, and intelligent test selection.

Organizational Impact

• QA team and governance embedded across all product delivery teams within 3 months.
• Automation frameworks live and integrated into CI/CD for all major platforms.
• Real-time dashboards and test health metrics in place for incident tracking and regression risk.
• Demonstrable reduction in production defects and unplanned work by Month 4.
• Shift-left and shift-right practices codified across product and engineering orgs.
• AI-for-QA strategy piloted and evaluated by end of first 6 months.

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience in software quality assurance with at least 3+ years in senior leadership roles.
• Proven ability to lead large, distributed QA organizations and partner across engineering and product leadership.
• Track record of driving significant quality transformation initiatives at scale.
• Strong architectural and technical depth in modern test automation tools and practices.
• Experience with production systems, observability, CI/CD, and scalable test infrastructure.
• Executive presence and comfort engaging with C-level stakeholders and external partners.

Preferred

• Background in commerce, marketplaces, fintech, or livestream platforms.
• Hands-on leadership in AI/ML-based tooling for developer or QA workflows.
• Familiarity with vaulting, collectibles grading, or digital asset management preferred.

Culture at Fanatics Collect

At Fanatics Collect, we lead with curiosity, take ownership of outcomes, and obsess over the fan and collector experience. As a Director at Fanatics Collect, you'll be expected to:

• Drive organizational clarity across multiple domains and senior stakeholders.
• Foster a high-accountability, high-support culture across QA and engineering.
• Set direction while empowering technical experts to own solutions.
• Prioritize for long-term, scalable impact—especially in high-growth, ambiguous environments.

The salary range for this position is $194,000-242,000, which represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. When determining base pay, as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training.

Ensure your Fanatics job offer is legitimate and don’t fall victim to fraud. Fanatics never seeks payment from job applicants. Feel free to ask your recruiter for a phone call or other type of communication for interview, and ensure your communication is coming from a Fanatics email address (including @collectfanatics.com). For added security, where possible, apply through our company website at www.fanaticsinc.com/careers.