Ford Credit is seeking a highly experienced, talented, and motivated Environments Manager to oversee and manage our complex, integrated test environments. This critical role is essential for enabling effective and reliable End-to-End (E2E) testing, particularly for new and transforming financial platforms, such as Alfa Systems Lending Platform and FiServ, within our existing ecosystem. The Environments Manager will serve as the central point of accountability for the overall health, readiness, and release alignment of all test environments, thereby mitigating risks such as inconsistent test environments, impeded end-to-end (E2E) testing, increased defect triage time, and delayed testing cycles. This position demands a strategic thinker who can ensure environmental stability, manage dependencies, and streamline coordination across diverse technical and business teams in a fast-paced fintech environment.

8+ years of experience in managing complex IT environments, preferably in the financial services or fintech sector. Proven experience in a dedicated Test Environment Manager or similar leadership role. Strong understanding of End-to-End (E2E) testing methodologies and their environment requirements. Expertise in coordinating and managing diverse technical components, including applications, services, databases, and third-party integrations, across multiple test environments. Experience with cloud platforms (e.g., GCP) for managing and scaling test environments and infrastructure. Proficiency with environment and issue tracking tools, specifically Jira, for managing environment configurations, issues, and releases. Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and their integration with test environments. Deep knowledge of data privacy regulations and best practices for handling sensitive data (PII) in non-production environments, including data masking and encryption techniques. Exceptional communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts and quality concerns clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex environment-related issues and drive them to resolution. Strong planning and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and dependencies in a dynamic environment.

 

Preferred Qualification: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field. Knowledge of current market trends about automation tools and frameworks, specifically in FinTech. Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Virtualization, and Container Orchestration (Kubernetes) related to setting up test environments.

Role & Responsibilities:

 

Test Environment Strategy & Governance: Develop, establish, and continuously refine the comprehensive test environment strategy and governance framework for Ford Credit's applications and integrated financial products. Ensure rigorous quality standards aligned with business goals, regulatory requirements, and audit needs for all test environments. Create and own the overall environment management strategy and framework, developing policies and processes for planning, provisioning, and release delivery. Holistic Test Environment Management: Oversee and ensure the stability, availability, and correct configuration of all test environments (SIT, FIT, UAT, Performance, etc.) from an E2E perspective.  Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of all application versions, data sets, and integration points required for various testing phases across the entire platform (e.g., Alfa, legacy systems, third-party integrations).  Coordinate environment refresh schedules, data loads (with Test Data Management - TDM), and deployment activities across all involved teams (Infrastructure, Alfa deployment, application teams).  Cross-Functional Coordination & Communication: Act as the primary liaison for the Enterprise Testing group regarding all test environment needs, issues, and planned changes. Collaborate with various teams, including Infrastructure, Alfa Systems deployment, application development, and TDM, to ensure alignment on environment status, schedules, and requirements.  Work with teams managing integrated systems (e.g., RouteOne, Salesforce, Legacy Systems) to schedule and manage their components within the test environments. Facilitate communication and resolution of cross-team environment-related dependencies and conflicts.  Test Environment Readiness & Monitoring: Ensure that all components required for specific E2E user journeys are operational and correctly configured within the target test environment.  Collaborate with the Observability team and Enterprise Testing to monitor the health and performance of critical end-to-end (E2E) pathways within test environments, utilizing tools such as Dynatrace. Ensure the environment’s status is regularly monitored and reported. Issue Triage & Resolution Facilitation: Serve as the first point of contact for testers encountering environment-related issues, performing initial triage to determine whether the problem is environment, data, or code-related. Escalate and track environment issues with the appropriate support teams (Infrastructure, Alfa, application teams) until they are resolved.  Release & Deployment Coordination: Integrate test environment readiness into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to enable frequent and reliable releases. Ensure that testing environments accurately mirror production systems to prevent environment-specific bugs. Test Data Management: Ensure the existence and availability of adequate, comprehensive, and appropriately obfuscated/anonymized test data that accurately reflects complex scenarios and complies with data privacy standards and regulations. Implement and enforce test data masking to ensure proper data preparation and obfuscation, facilitating testing in lower environments. Documentation and Process Improvement: Maintain up-to-date documentation on test environment configurations, access details, known issues, and dependencies. Continuously identify and drive improvements in test environment management processes to enhance efficiency and reliability.  Security & Compliance (PII): Maintain a deep understanding of data security and privacy principles (data masking, encryption, access controls) and familiarity with regulatory compliance requirements in the financial domain, particularly concerning Personally Identifiable Information (PII) in non-production environments. Advise on challenges and solutions that account for sensitive data such as PII, ensuring its secure handling throughout the test environment lifecycle.