Lead Quality Engineer
At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group. Strengthening talent and culture is one of our strategic priorities. We strive to make Aberdeen a great place to work so that we can attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us to make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders and society.
We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent.
Aberdeen comprises three businesses: Interactive Investor (ii), Investments And Adviser, Each Of Which Focuses On Meeting And Adapting To Our Clients’ Evolving Needs.
* Interactive Investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save and invest in the way that works for them.
* Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
* Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.
About the Department
At Aberdeen Adviser, we are building a modern, scalable technology platform that empowers financial advisers to serve their clients more efficiently. Our engineering teams work in cross-functional squads to develop innovative, high-quality software solutions that make a real impact. We foster a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and continuous learning, where every engineer can shape the future of our platform.
About the Role
We’re creating a modern, automation‑first test function. As Lead Quality Engineer you’ll operate in a Principal/Developer‑in‑Test capacity, setting automation strategy and standards across product squads and large programmes. You’ll line‑manage a combination of quality engineers and coaches, coach engineers across disciplines, and partner with fellow Test Leads to raise the bar for quality at speed. Your mission: build the systems, practices and people that make reliable software delivery the default.
Key Responsibilities
* Define and govern coding standards, test design patterns, and automation architecture (UI, API, contract, component, and integration layers). Select and evolve toolchains that fit our stack and delivery model.
* Embed shift‑left quality, risk‑based testing, and CI/CD‑driven quality gates (including static analysis, unit coverage thresholds, contract verification, performance smoke). Establish reliable test data and environments practices.
* Grow capability through 1:1s, pairing, code reviews, clinics, and communities of practice. Develop learning roadmaps for automation engineers and side‑skill with the other Test Lead to cross‑pollinate practices across chapters.
* Objectives, performance, progression frameworks, hiring/assessment, and wellbeing for the automation team.
* Work across multiple squads/initiatives, shaping test strategies, assuring delivery plans, unblocking teams, and communicating risks and trade‑offs to senior stakeholders.
* Champion performance, reliability and accessibility testing; integrate checks into pipelines and partner with SRE/Platform/Security to automate NFR evidence.
* Define leading/lagging indicators (e.g., change fail rate, MTTD/MTTR, flake rate, escape rate), run experiments, and iterate on tooling and process based on data.
About the Candidate
* Strong engineering skills in one or more of JavaScript/TypeScript or Python, Java or C#; deep experience designing maintainable frameworks (e.g., Playwright/Cypress/Selenium, REST Assured/Pact for API & contract testing).
* Confident with Git, trunk‑based development, and build pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins). Familiar with containerisation (Docker/Kubernetes) and cloud (Azure/AWS/GCP) in service of test execution at scale.
* Proven at setting automation strategies for multi‑team programmes; influencing engineering leaders; balancing velocity, risk and compliance.
* Practical experience with performance testing (e.g., k6, JMeter) and integrating results into release decisions.
* Track record of line management (hiring, performance, growth) and coaching developers and testers alike; strong communicator across technical and non‑technical audiences.
* Nice to have - ISTQB Advanced Test Automation Engineer or equivalent experience; exposure to contract‑testing at scale, service virtualisation, IaC (Terraform), and quality in data/ML pipelines.
We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.
Our Benefits
There are 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.
An Inclusive Way of Working
At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a blended working approach. This approach combines the benefits of face‑to‑face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, our teams, our clients and our business. We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any unlawful treatment.
We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to educational, professional, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity.
If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability, let us know as part of your application and we will assist.
Seniority Level
Mid‑Senior level
Employment Type
Full‑time
Job Function
Quality Assurance
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