Forward Financing is a financial technology company based in Boston, Massachusetts with team members throughout the United States, Dominican Republic, and Canada. The company is on a mission to unlock the capital that fuels small businesses across America. Recognized as a Best Place to Work by Built In Boston and certified as a Great Place To Work®, Forward is investing in its employees, technology, and customer experience – with long-term success in mind every step of the way.
About the Role
At Forward, we're building a world-class fintech platform to empower small businesses. Our engineering team isn't just a support function, we're a core driver of the business. We use data from dozens of third-party vendors to fuel our AI/ML initiatives and create a more sophisticated financial ecosystem. We need a seasoned technical leader to own our architectural vision and execution, setting the technical foundation for our next phase of growth.
We're seeking an experienced Quality Assurance Team Lead to establish and scale our quality assurance practice from the ground up. This is a unique opportunity to shape QA strategy, implement modern automation frameworks using AI-powered tools, and build a culture of quality in a fast-paced fintech environment. You'll be instrumental in transforming our manual testing processes into a comprehensive automation suite while ensuring the reliability and security our customers depend on.
What You'll Do
Establish QA best practices, processes, and standards from scratch, designing a comprehensive test management suite covering smoke, regression, integration, and end-to-end testing
Evaluate and implement AI-based QA automation tools, building robust automated test suites using modern frameworks (Playwright strongly preferred) that run on developer machines, within CI/CD pipelines, and for full releases
Leverage your lending/fintech experience to understand complex financial workflows, compliance requirements, and edge cases—collaborating with engineering teams to dive deep into code and identify critical test scenarios
Own release quality by establishing Go/No-Go criteria, conducting risk assessments, and providing data-driven recommendations to leadership through transparent quality metrics and reporting
Mentor the QA Engineer and UAT team, fostering a culture of quality ownership and shift-left testing practices across all engineering teams
What You'll Need
5+ years in QA engineering with at least 3 years in a lead role, plus deep experience in lending, fintech, or financial services with understanding of compliance and risk
Proven track record building QA practices from the ground up with expert-level proficiency in test automation (Playwright preferred) and AI-powered testing tools
Strong technical skills: ability to read code (Python, Golang, Ruby, TypeScript/React), understanding of software architecture, and experience with CI/CD, Git, and cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred)
Leadership capabilities: establishing quality metrics programs, leading cross-functional collaboration, making critical release decisions, and influencing change across the organization
Fintech domain knowledge: lending workflows, regulatory compliance (KYC, AML, data privacy), financial transaction testing, and security testing for sensitive data
Experience with test management platforms (TestRail, Zephyr, qTest, or similar), API testing frameworks (Postman, RestAssured, etc.), and data validation strategies preferred
Background in performance and load testing for high-volume transaction systems is a plus
Experience mentoring QA engineers and building teams highly valued
Total Rewards:
Additionally, we offer a comprehensive total rewards package, including but not limited to: medical, dental, vision, commuter benefits, a flexible time-off policy, paid parental leave, 401k match for US employees, wellness reimbursement, volunteering days, annual professional development budget, and charitable donation match.
Forward is proud to be a remote-first company, keeping workplace flexibility a top priority for our employees. As a business, we are focused on impact; we are more concerned with your contributions to the success of the company than where you get your work done. To help facilitate in-person collaboration, employees are welcome to work from one of our premiere office locations.
When we aren’t collaborating to drive business and support our customers, we’re finding virtual and in-person ways to get to know our colleagues, celebrate team wins, and have fun together!
