Role Overview:
We are seeking a QA & Release Consultant to support our clients in delivering high-quality, customer-facing technology changes safely and efficiently. This role combines technical QA leadership with strong diplomacy, stakeholder communication, and client management. You will act as the bridge between engineering teams, delivery functions, and client stakeholders, ensuring releases are well-governed, low risk, and aligned to business priorities.
Key Responsibilities:
Release Management:-
· Coordinate and govern end-to-end release cycles across environments.
· Facilitate release planning, readiness reviews, and go/no-go decisions.
· Manage deployment risks, rollback planning, and stakeholder communications.
· Work closely with DevOps and delivery teams to support CI/CD maturity.
QA Strategy & Delivery:-
· Advocate risk-based testing and continuous improvement in quality areas.
· Make and drive suggestions to improve our QA offering
· Strong defect management experience
· Manage the interface between different partners testing cycles
Client & Stakeholder Management:-
· Act as a trusted advisor to client leadership on quality, risk, and release confidence.
· Translate technical risks into clear, business-focused messaging.
· Build strong relationships across IT, operations, and commercial stakeholders.
· Mediate between delivery pressures and quality standards.
· Challenge constructively and influence decision-making without escalation where possible.
· Maintain calm, credible leadership during high-pressure release windows.
· Understand peak trading constraints.
· Ensure releases align with trading calendars and minimise customer disruption.
Skills & Experience:
· Proven experience in QA leadership and release management.
· Strong stakeholder engagement and client-facing consultancy skills.
· Excellent written and verbal communication; able to brief both technical and non-technical audiences.
· Demonstrable diplomacy, influencing, and conflict-resolution capability.
· Experience working with Agile, Waterfall, or hybrid delivery models.
· Knowledge of test management, defect lifecycle, and release governance practices.
· Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.
Success Measures:
· Smooth, low-risk releases with minimal business disruption.
· High stakeholder confidence in QA and release processes.
· Clear, consistent communication across delivery and client teams.
· Measurable improvements in test effectiveness and release maturity.