Dedicated QA Team — Outsourced QA Function That Owns the Outcome
A self-sufficient Testriq pod that owns your QA function end-to-end: dedicated QA Lead, automation engineers, manual testers, performance + security specialists, all working as one unit. You get a quality outcome — coverage, evidence, release-gating — without managing individual engineers. ISO 9001 + ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS controlled.
What you get
- Dedicated QA Lead — your single point of contact + accountability
- Right-sized pod (4-12 engineers typical) covering specialisations
- Owned by Testriq — we manage the engineers, you manage the outcome
- Audit-ready evidence packs for SOC 2 / IEC 62443 / FDA Part 11
- Monthly steering review + quarterly business review
Engagement models
Different engagements fit different stages. The right model is usually the one that matches how your team actually wants to absorb capacity.
Project QA Pod
Dedicated team for a defined product or release cycle. Builds the test strategy, executes the suite, delivers evidence, hands off when project completes.
Best for
Single-product orgs with quarterly release cycles, MVP-to-production launches, regulatory-cycle releases.
Managed QA Function
Permanent dedicated team that IS your QA function. Continuous capacity across multiple products + releases + audit cycles. Replaces or supplements an in-house QA org.
Best for
Mid-size to enterprise orgs that don't want to build + retain an internal QA org but need professional QA depth.
Audit-Cycle Pod
Specialty pod that engages around regulatory audit cycles — SOC 2, IEC 62443, FDA, ISO 27001 — builds evidence packs, manages the audit interaction, exits cleanly.
Best for
Regulated industries with annual or biannual audit cycles, M&A due-diligence audits, certification initial-launches.
Platform QA Pod
Long-running platform-level QA team for SaaS providers — multi-tenant testing, partner-API contract testing, ongoing compliance, performance + security posture.
Best for
SaaS platforms with continuous-deployment cadence + B2B enterprise customers that demand audit traceability.
Roles you can hire
Specialisations Testriq has bench depth in. Each role is interviewed against the skill matrix below; certifications backed by ISTQB syllabi.
QA Lead
Core skills
- ISTQB Advanced
- Test Strategy
- Team Coaching
- Stakeholder Reporting
- Process Design
Typical engagement: Permanent for the lifetime of the pod. Single point of accountability.
Automation Engineers (2-4)
Core skills
- Selenium
- Cypress
- Playwright
- Page Object
- CI/CD
- Framework Architecture
Typical engagement: Long-term. Build + maintain regression suites + new-feature coverage.
Manual QA + Exploratory Testers (1-3)
Core skills
- ISTQB
- Exploratory Charters
- Session-Based Testing
- UAT Facilitation
Typical engagement: Long-term. Cover what automation can't: UX, exploratory, accessibility flow.
Performance Engineer
Core skills
- JMeter
- k6
- Gatling
- Load Modeling
- APM Correlation
Typical engagement: Embedded in pod for ongoing perf-budget management.
Security Test Engineer
Core skills
- Burp Suite
- OWASP ZAP
- API Security
- VAPT
- Compliance Audits
Typical engagement: Embedded in pod; primary during audit cycles, ongoing during release cycles.
Mobile QA Specialist (if mobile in scope)
Core skills
- Appium
- XCUITest
- Espresso
- Real-Device Farms
- Mobile CI/CD
Typical engagement: Embedded in pod for the lifetime of mobile coverage.
How it works
From inquiry to engineer-on-your-team in days, not months.
Scope + risk discovery
Map your product surface, integration scope, compliance frameworks, release cadence, and risk register. Half-day to two-day workshop.
Pod design + sizing
Right-sized pod composition + role mix + budget envelope. Typical pods: 4-8 engineers + a QA lead.
Pod onboarding
2-week onboarding — pod gets context on product, processes, tooling. Builds initial test strategy + baseline regression suite.
Steady-state operation
Pod runs continuously — test design, execution, automation maintenance, performance + security cycles, audit prep. Monthly steering with you.
Continuous improvement
Quarterly review of KPIs (coverage, defect-leakage, automation ROI, audit findings). Pod composition + scope tuned based on results.
Why Testriq for dedicated qa team
Outcome ownership
Most outsourced QA is body-shop staffing under your management. A dedicated pod owns the QA outcome — coverage targets, evidence packs, release-gating decisions. You hold us accountable, not individual engineers.
Multi-discipline depth
Manual + automation + performance + security + accessibility in one pod, all governed by one QA Lead, all reporting against one risk register. Single accountability layer.
Audit-cycle muscle memory
Dedicated pods at Testriq have run SOC 2 / IEC 62443 / FDA Part 11 audit cycles. The evidence-pack discipline + auditor-interaction muscle memory transfers to your engagement on day one.
ISO 9001 + ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS
Documented quality + information-security management. For fintech, healthcare, regulated manufacturing — vendor-risk reviews clear in days because the controls are documented + audited annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a dedicated QA team different from staff augmentation?
Staff augmentation: engineers work under YOUR management, you direct the work. Dedicated QA team: a Testriq pod with its own QA Lead owns the QA function — you direct outcomes, the pod manages internal execution. Augmentation suits teams that have a QA Lead + want capacity; dedicated suits teams that want to outsource the function.
How big is a typical pod?
Most pods: 4-8 engineers + 1 QA Lead. Smaller (2-4) works for single-product MVP-stage clients. Larger (10-20) works for multi-product enterprises. Sizing is risk-based: high-compliance + high-release-cadence + multi-product = bigger pod.
What's the minimum engagement length?
Project pods: 3-month minimum. Managed QA function: 12-month minimum (with quarterly review checkpoints). Audit-cycle pods: aligned to your audit window (typically 8-16 weeks). Shorter engagements are typically staff-augmentation, not dedicated.
Who owns the test artifacts created?
You do — all test cases, automation scripts, evidence packs, documentation are work-for-hire assigned to your IP. Testriq retains the right to reuse generic framework patterns (not your test cases) across other clients.
Can the pod take on adjacent work — DevOps, SRE, security ops?
Pod is QA-focused. We don't pretend to be DevOps or SRE. For adjacent work, we can recommend partners or scope a separate engagement. Keeping the QA pod focused is what makes it effective.
What if a key engineer leaves?
Pod continuity is Testriq's responsibility. We maintain bench redundancy + documented handover protocols. If an engineer leaves, replacement is onboarded with pod-internal knowledge transfer — typically transparent to you. Lead-role transitions get extra governance.
Ready to add QA capacity without the hiring drag?
Talk to a Testriq hiring lead. We'll match your stack, scale, and audit posture to the right engineer profile — typically with a CV in 48 hours.
Get a proposal