Head of Testing

Vallum Associates; England; Vor Ort; GBP 90.000 - 130.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Vallum Associates seeks an experienced Head of Testing to lead the Testing and Quality Assurance function across enterprise-scale digital transformation programs. You will define the testing strategy, establish governance, drive quality best practices, manage testing teams, and ensure successful delivery of business-critical applications.

The role requires deep experience in testing leadership, test strategy, and governance, with strong stakeholder and vendor management skills across distributed

Qualifikationen

• Explicit experience in Utility Industry.
• 12+ years of experience in Software Testing and Quality Assurance.
• 5+ years in Test Management or Testing Leadership roles.
• Proven experience managing enterprise-wide testing programs.
• Experience managing geographically distributed teams.
• Excellent stakeholder and vendor management skills.
• Strong leadership, communication, and presentation abilities.
• Knowledge of AI-assisted testing approaches.
• Experience leading large-scale digital transformation programmes.

Aufgaben

• Define and implement the overall testing and quality assurance strategy.
• Build and lead high-performing testing teams across multiple programs and projects.
• Establish testing standards, methodologies, governance frameworks, and best practices.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives within the testing function.
• Develop test maturity roadmaps and quality metrics.
• Oversee SIT, UAT, Regression, Performance, Security, and Automation testing activities.
• Ensure comprehensive test planning, execution, defect management, and reporting.
• Manage testing activities across Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery models.
• Monitor testing progress and provide executive-level reporting on quality and risk.
• Collaborate with Business, Product, Project Management, Architecture, and Development teams.
• Act as the primary point of contact for quality-related governance and testing assurance.
• Manage relationships with third-party vendors, system integrators, and testing partners.
• Present testing outcomes, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Define quality gates and release readiness criteria.
• Ensure compliance with organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
• Drive defect prevention initiatives and root cause analysis activities.
• Implement and monitor KPIs, SLAs, and quality standards.
• Promote adoption of test automation frameworks and CI/CD practices.
• Evaluate and implement modern testing tools and technologies.
• Drive shift-left, DevOps, and continuous testing practices.
• Explore AI-driven testing and quality engineering opportunities.

Kenntnisse

Utility Industry Experience

12+ years in SQA

5+ years in Test Leadership

Enterprise-wide testing programs

Distributed teams management

Stakeholder & vendor management

Leadership & communication

Tools

JIRA

Azure DevOps

HP ALM

qTest

Zephyr

Selenium

Cypress

Playwright

Tosca

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

LoadRunner

JMeter

Azure

AWS

GCP

Jobbeschreibung

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Head of Testing to lead and transform the Testing and Quality Assurance function across enterprise-scale digital transformation programs. The ideal candidate will define the testing strategy, establish governance, drive quality best practices, manage testing teams, and ensure successful delivery of business-critical applications within a complex stakeholder environment.

Key Responsibilities

Testing Strategy & Leadership

• Define and implement the overall testing and quality assurance strategy.
• Build and lead high-performing testing teams across multiple programs and projects.
• Establish testing standards, methodologies, governance frameworks, and best practices.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives within the testing function.
• Develop test maturity roadmaps and quality metrics.

Test Planning & Delivery

• Oversee SIT, UAT, Regression, Performance, Security, and Automation testing activities
• Ensure comprehensive test planning, execution, defect management, and reporting.
• Manage testing activities across Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid delivery models.
• Monitor testing progress and provide executive-level reporting on quality and risk.

Stakeholder Management

• Collaborate with Business, Product, Project Management, Architecture, and Development teams.
• Act as the primary point of contact for quality-related governance and testing assurance.
• Manage relationships with third-party vendors, system integrators, and testing partners.
• Present testing outcomes, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.

Quality Assurance & Governance

• Define quality gates and release readiness criteria.
• Ensure compliance with organizational policies, regulatory requirements, and industry standards.
• Drive defect prevention initiatives and root cause analysis activities.
• Implement and monitor KPIs, SLAs, and quality standards.

Test Automation & Innovation

• Promote adoption of test automation frameworks and CI/CD practices.
• Evaluate and implement modern testing tools and technologies.
• Drive shift-left, DevOps, and continuous testing practices.
• Explore AI-driven testing and quality engineering opportunities.

Required Skills & Experience:

• Explicit experience in Utility Industry.
• 12+ years of experience in Software Testing and Quality Assurance.
• 5+ years in Test Management or Testing Leadership roles.
• Proven experience managing enterprise-wide testing programs.

Strong understanding of:

• Test Strategy & Governance
• Quality Engineering
• Test Automation
• Agile Delivery
• DevOps Practices
• Risk-Based Testing

• Experience managing geographically distributed teams.
• Excellent stakeholder and vendor management skills.
• Strong leadership, communication, and presentation abilities.

Technical Skills

• Test Management Tools (JIRA, Azure DevOps, HP ALM, qTest, Zephyr).
• Automation Frameworks (Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Tosca).
• CI/CD Tools (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Performance Testing Tools (LoadRunner, JMeter).
• Cloud Platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).

Preferred

• Experience within Financial Services, Utilities, Retail, Telecom, or Public Sector.
• Knowledge of AI-assisted testing approaches.
• Experience leading large-scale digital transformation programmes