About the role
A dedicated, experienced individual to join the Operations function as the Head of Test, working primarily with the Change you will contribute to strategic planning and ensuring testing supports organisational priorities.
The responsibilities of the Head of Test include establishing and managing a testing framework to be used by colleagues in the delivery of change, to ensure adherence to that framework and to design and deliver effective testing for prioritised change activity.
You will also be involved day to day in supporting others working on different initiatives, helping them develop test plans, mitigate risks to the test plan and supporting them as they develop their testing capability.
You will communicate concisely, clearly, and constructively with colleagues at all levels of the organisation to ensure strong engagement in testing activity.
Key aptitudes include a strong drive to successfully agree and deliver business outcomes, brilliant collaboration across all project and programme stakeholders and a relentless focus on continuous improvement. A natural attention to detail and a desire to understand and address blockers to effective change is a must.
Strongly support a "Shift Left" approach ensuring testing activities are involved much earlier in the process thereby improving the overall quality of delivery and driving efficiencies throughout the lifecycle.
Key responsibilities
* Define and own the enterprise test strategy, standards, and testing governance across all projects and platforms
* Provide leadership and direction to team building testing capability, and fostering career growth.
* Collaborate with engineering, product, delivery, and business stakeholders to ensure quality is embedded early in the SDLC ("shift-left" mindset) and reflects real-world use
* Ensure the use of best-in-class practices
* Own and manage the testing budget, tools procurement, vendor relationships, and resource planning
* Define and track quality KPIs (eg, defect leakage, test coverage, release readiness) and provide regular reporting
* Champion a culture of quality, continuous improvement, and innovation across all testing disciplines
* Evaluate and adopt emerging technologies, methodologies, and tools to improve testing efficiency and effectiveness
* Support major programme deliveries, regulatory releases, and production readiness planning
Qualifications and skills
Required:
* Experience in software testing and time spent in in senior Testing/QA leadership roles
* Proven experience managing enterprise-scale Testing/QA functions across complex programmes or portfolios
* Deep knowledge of Testing/QA methods, test automation frameworks, performance and security testing
* Strong understanding of Waterfall Agile, DevOps, CI/CD and hybrid software delivery methods
* Good understanding of Test Maturity Model (integrated) – TMMi and how to implement this
* Strong commercial awareness with experience managing budgets
* Excellent communication, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills
* Experience presenting to executive leadership and influencing at all levels
Desirable:
* Experience in highly regulated industries (e.g. finance, telecoms, healthcare, or government)
* Familiarity with enterprise tools: JIRA, Azure DevOps, Selenium, TestRail, LoadRunner, Postman, etc
* Strong Knowledge of risk-based testing, compliance requirements, and audit processes
* ISTQB Advanced Level Test Manager or equivalent certification is preferred
* Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field or related experience
* Professional certifications in software testing (eg, ISTQB), Agile (e.g. SAFe), and project/programme management (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2) are a plus