Lead QA Engineer

Lead QA Engineer

Department: Tech Hub

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: London

Description Contract type: Permanent
Hours: Full Time, 37.5 hours per week Salary: circa £67,000 depending on experience Location: Canary Wharf, London WFH policy: Employees are required to attend the office 2 days/week Flexible working: Variety of flexible work patterns subject to line manager discretion e.g. Compressed 9-day fortnight. Reports to: Technical and Governance Lead
Deadline Note: We reserve the right to close the advert before the advertised deadline if there are a high volume of applications.

Role Summary:

As the Lead QA Engineer, you will be responsible for establishing and leading the overall testing framework and processes to ensure the resilience and quality of our systems.

You will play a critical role in promoting and advocating for test capabilities and decisions related to testing within the context of our delivery environment.

This position will be crucial as we transition to a cloud-based infrastructure and develop bespoke software applications to support our schemes and business insights.

Additionally, you will be instrumental in ensuring the safe and secure delivery of new software applications for upcoming schemes, supporting our objective to become a centre of expertise.
Key Responsibilities

• Testing Framework and Processes: Define and implement standardized testing processes and artefacts, including test strategy, planning, and estimation. Drive test automation initiatives to improve testing efficiency and coverage.
• Risk Identification and Mitigation: Proactively identify and highlight risks to stakeholders and senior management, proposing mitigation plans to ensure timely delivery of high-quality outputs.
• Collaboration and Influence: Work closely with the development team, operations hub, and the business as a whole to ensure all teams understand their roles in testing. Influence teams to contribute to continuous testing within the CI/CD pipeline.
• Best Practices and Tools: Introduce and implement best practices and tools required for complex programs. Drive sprint testing automation with the goal of achieving zero manual testing.
• Acceptance Test Criteria: Participate in estimation and planning sessions, defining and creating acceptance test criteria at a domain level.
• Automation Framework Design: Collaborate in designing the architecture, model, and tech stack for the automation framework.
• Shift Left Implementation: Work alongside the Technology governance area to define and implement the Shift Left approach, ensuring early involvement in testing throughout the development process.
• Non-Functional Testing: Demonstrate expertise in non-functional testing, including performance, accessibility, and security testing.
• Management, Training and Support: Manage and develop your team and provide suitable training and support to the rest of the IT team in their specialist area.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

1. Demonstrable experience in establishing fit-for-purpose testing automation and continuous testing integrated within a CI/CD pipeline.
2. At least 3 years of experience in building a software test function, including implementing test frameworks, suitable test tools, developing a team and establishing a testing centre of excellence.
3. Knowledge of Java
4. Proficiency in both functional and non-functional testing aspects.
5. Ability to design and execute a wide range of testing techniques and communicate test results to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
6. Experience in managing large-scale UAT, SIT, and regression activities.

1. Familiarity with cloud-based testing environments and methodologies.
2. Experience with performance testing tools and techniques.
3. Expertise in security testing methodologies and tools.
4. Knowledge of accessibility testing standards and practices.
5. Knowledge of Python.

Employee Benefits As if contributing to and supporting work that makes life better for millions wasn't rewarding enough, we offer a full range of benefits too. Key benefits that may be available depending on the role include:

• Annual performance based bonus, up to 10%
• 25 days annual leave, plus eight bank holidays
• Up to 8% pension contribution
• Financial support and time off for study relevant to your role, plus a professional membership subscription
• Employee referral scheme (up to £1500), and colleague recognition scheme
• Family friendly policies, including enhanced maternity leave and shared parental leave
• Free, confidential employee assistance, including financial management, family care, mental health, and on-call GP service
• Three paid volunteering days a year
• Season ticket loan and cycle to work schemes
• Family savings on days out and English Heritage, gym discounts, cash back and discounts at selected retailers
• Employee resource groups