Head of Test Automation & Quality Engineering

SMBC Group; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 108,000 - 162,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid and flexible working

Competitive paid leave days

Private medical insurance

Life and invalidity insurance

Counselling and coaching services

Learning and development opportunities

Job summary

SMBC Group in London seeks a Head of Test Automation to lead the bank’s automation and quality engineering across trading platforms. You will define strategy, set standards, and drive scalable automated testing for UI, API, services, and data layers.

You will establish BDD/Cucumber practices, integrate into CI/CD, and mentor a team of 10+ QA engineers, fostering collaboration with Product, Trading and Tech stakeholders. Hybrid working in the UK is offered.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background, 15+ years in software development or QA in financial services or similar regulated environments.
• Experience building and leading enterprise-scale test automation across UI, API, services, messaging and data layers.
• Hands-on Java or other modern languages; ability to review automation frameworks and provide direction.
• Extensive experience with BDD and Cucumber; integrating into the SDLC and CI/CD pipelines.
• Automation frameworks using Selenium/Playwright, REST/API testing, Cucumber and contract/service testing.

Responsibilities

• Define the test automation strategy, roadmap, operating model, and standards across Sales & Trading platforms.
• Drive shift from manual regression to automated continuous testing across functional, API, end-to-end and performance testing.
• Embed automation throughout the SDLC with measurable targets for coverage, quality and efficiency.
• Lead reusable automation components and govern feature files, scenarios and maintenance.

Skills

Software engineering

Test automation

Java

BDD/Cucumber

Selenium

Playwright

REST/API testing

CI/CD

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Leadership

Quality Engineering

Education

Degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

Jira

Xray/Zephyr

Git

Quality dashboards

Job description

SMBC Group in London seeks a Head of Test Automation to lead the bank’s automation and quality engineering across trading platforms. You will define strategy, set standards, and drive scalable automated testing for UI, API, services, and data layers.

You will establish BDD/Cucumber practices, integrate into CI/CD, and mentor a team of 10+ QA engineers, fostering collaboration with Product, Trading and Tech stakeholders. Hybrid working in the UK is offered.