User Acceptance Testing Implementation Lead

Group 1001 is a consumer-centric, technology-driven family of insurance companies on a mission to deliver outstanding value and operational performance by combining financial strength and stability with deep insurance expertise and a can-do culture. Group1001’s culture emphasizes the importance of collaboration, communication, core business focus, risk management, and striving for outcomes. This goal extends to how we hire and onboard our most valuable assets – our employees.

Group 1001, and its affiliated companies, is strongly committed to providing a supportive work environment where employee differences are valued. Diversity is an essential ingredient in making Group 1001 a welcoming place to work and is fundamental in building a high-performance team. Diversity embodies all the differences that make us unique individuals.  All employees share the responsibility for maintaining a workplace culture of dignity, respect, understanding and appreciation of individual and group differences.

The UAT Implementation Lead is responsible for overseeing the entire User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process for each sprint/release in Group 1001’s annuity IT organization. This role includes the execution and supervision of UAT, defect management, and stakeholder engagement during the project, implementation, and post-implementation phases. The candidate will directly facilitate and coordinate preparedness activities with the business for large-scale and cross functional initiatives and will ensure implementation efforts are successful.

Main Accountabilities:

• Understand overall project scope, testing requirements and impact on our business partners.
• Contribute to business requirements gathering, refinement, and review.
• Monitor the execution of UAT and communicate progress of testing results and defect tracking to project stakeholders.
• Prepare the test environment with appropriate data for UAT execution.
• Conduct stand-ups and planning meetings for UAT.
• Identify and engage Operations users to participate in UAT, manage their expectations, and coordinate testing sessions.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration of UAT activities.
• Support QA with Operations related questions and validate QA testing results if requested.
• Attend demo sessions held by QA and provide feedback on test scenarios and results.
• Partner with QA team to improve manual and automated testing on a continuous basis.
• Lead and represent UAT in project, pre-implementation, and release meetings.
• Collaborate with internal business customers, IT project team, and project stakeholders.
• Coordinate with business units to stay abreast of processes and procedures.
• Assess the impact on Operations as defects are reported. Identify priority and determine MVP (Minimal Viable Product) for launch.
• Present dependencies and workarounds to project stakeholders and assess which Operations departments may be impacted.
• Develop and maintain functionality documentation, including release notes, workarounds, and procedural updates.
• Provide demos and training in support of end-users during UAT phases.
• Continuously improve UAT processes and methodologies.
• Own pre and post release sign offs.
• Support implementation release with FTEV (first time event testing) and validation of enhancements, defect fixes, etc.
• Coordinate, validate, and report issues discovered within the first 5-10 days of a release.
• Assist with prioritization of JIRA ticket backlog.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory and company standards during UAT processes.
• Identify and mitigate risks associated with UAT processes.
• Mentor and lead the UAT Specialist during UAT and post implementation phases.

Required Skills/Knowledge:

• 5+ years of experience with operational processes and UAT support.
• Strong understanding of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and testing methodologies.
• Subject matter expertise with financial industry products, with a preference for annuity and annuity industry experience.
• Technical knowledge for deeper root cause analysis of defects.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with business analysts, technical leads, senior-level managers, and project managers.
• Experience in running meetings related to testing with stakeholders at various levels of seniority and departments.
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills to work with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple competing priorities while driving resolution and achieving results.
• Knowledge of JIRA is preferred.

Benefits Highlights:  

Employees who meet benefit eligibility guidelines and work 30 hours or more weekly, have the ability to enroll in Group 1001’s benefits package. Employees (and their families) are eligible to participate in the Company’s comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plan options.  Employees are also eligible for Basic and Supplemental Life Insurance, Short and Long-Term Disability, and to enroll in the Company’s Employee Assistance Program and other wellness initiatives.  Employees may also participate in the Company’s 401K plan, with matching contributions by the Company.