Overview
Contract - Test Manager role at Honda Motor Europe Ltd. The Test Manager is responsible for defining and driving the overall test strategy, ensuring high-quality delivery of connected car services and associated software. This role provides leadership and oversight across all test activities, from planning through execution to sign-off, with accountability for ensuring that solutions are robust, reliable, and fit for purpose. The Test Manager will be hands-on, working at the intersection of software quality, system integration, and architectural integrity. The role requires engaging with multiple stakeholders, managing risks, producing clear documentation, and acting as a trusted advisor on testing and quality assurance.
Note: The contract specifies hours as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 35 hours per week. Regular office hours are 08:00–16:00 Monday to Thursday (with a half-hour lunch) and 08:00–13:00 on Friday. Flexibility is offered in start times between 07:00 and 11:00 and for working from home up to 2 days per week, subject to business requirements.
Main Responsibilities
* Define, document, and own the test strategy, approach, and governance framework across projects and releases.
* Develop and maintain detailed test plans, schedules, and resourcing models aligned with delivery and release objectives.
* Establish and enforce testing standards, frameworks, methodologies, and tools, including test automation where appropriate.
* Manage all phases of testing (unit, integration, system, UAT, performance, security, regression, etc.) across multiple domains.
* Ensure clear entry/exit criteria for all test phases; provide go/no-go recommendations based on results and risk.
* Lead risk-based testing, identifying, managing, and mitigating quality risks throughout the lifecycle.
* Collaborate with development teams, architects, business analysts, product owners, release managers, and other stakeholders to integrate testing into the delivery pipeline.
* Validate integration architecture across APIs, microservices, and third-party platforms; ensure testability is built into system design.
* Assess and challenge architectural decisions that impact stability, resilience, or maintainability; act as a technical authority on design choices.
* Design and execute resilience testing to ensure functionality during failures, including verification of failover, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation.
* Analyse requirements for completeness, testability, and alignment with goals; identify gaps in performance, scalability, reliability, and usability.
* Challenge ambiguous specifications; ensure traceability between requirements, test cases, and defects.
* Integrate security testing throughout the quality lifecycle; ensure adherence to security standards including OWASP Top 10.
* Coordinate with security teams and external vendors for security plans and testing.
* Validate authentication, authorization, data encryption, and secure communications across integration points.
* Provide high-quality test documentation for technical and senior business audiences.
* Manage defect lifecycle, prioritization, and resolution; ensure issues are tracked and closed.
* Oversee test environment requirements, readiness, and availability in collaboration with infrastructure and operations teams.
* Drive continuous improvement in testing practices, tools, automation, and reporting.
* Act as a single point of accountability for test delivery within the programme; ensure alignment to release and business outcomes.
* Guardian of system stability, ensuring production readiness before hardware and vehicle-level testing begins.
* Mentor and guide test teams and promote a culture of quality.
KPIs
* Test coverage metrics (requirements coverage, functional/non-functional coverage).
* Defect detection rate, defect leakage into production, and defect turnaround time.
* Automation coverage and efficiency improvements.
* Test execution progress against plan and timely reporting.
* Quality of test documentation and stakeholder feedback.
* Reduction in production incidents caused by insufficient testing.
* Environment availability and utilization for test activities.
* Adherence to release and test schedules.
* Minimal defect leakage to hardware/vehicle testing phases.
* Timely identification of architectural risks and requirement gaps.
* Successful security audit outcomes with no critical vulnerabilities in production.
Required
Qualifications, skills and experience required
* Proven experience as a Test Manager in complex software development environments, ideally within connected car services or related domains.
* Strong understanding of software development lifecycles (Agile and Waterfall) and integration into test management practices.
* Demonstrable experience in defining and implementing test strategies, frameworks, and governance.
* Understanding of API technologies and integration patterns with hands-on experience testing distributed systems and microservices architectures.
* Knowledge of resilience patterns with ability to design and execute resilience testing scenarios.
* Working knowledge of OWASP standards and experience conducting or coordinating security testing (SAST, DAST, and penetration testing).
* Understanding of authentication and authorization frameworks (OAuth, JWT, SAML) and secure coding practices.
* Ability to produce clear, concise, high-quality test documentation for technical and business stakeholders.
* Strong leadership skills with the ability to motivate teams, vendors, and stakeholders in a matrixed environment.
* Excellent communication and presentation skills; able to explain technical issues to non-technical audiences.
* Confidently challenge decisions and advocate for quality; able to push back on schedule pressure when needed.
* Proactive issue, risk, and conflict management with strong decision-making.
* Solid understanding of IT infrastructure, application development, and systems integration.
* Experience with test automation tools, frameworks, and practices.
Desirable
* Experience in connected vehicle ecosystems, IoT, or automotive software testing.
* Knowledge of security, performance, and compliance testing.
* Experience in fast-paced, multicultural, multi-vendor environments.
* Proficiency in modern test management and reporting tools.
* Strong stakeholder management skills, including customer-facing experience.
Honda is committed to equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also promotes respect for individual differences and talents, and diversity across the organization. We recruit, hire, train and promote the most qualified individuals without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.
#J-18808-Ljbffr