Lead QA Automation Engineer - Hybrid London

GCS Recruitment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

GCS Recruitment invites applications for a Lead Engineer - QA Automation in London. This hybrid role leads QA strategy across in-house and supplier-led delivery, shaping standards for unit to performance testing and driving automation across the SDLC.

You will mentor QA engineers, govern testing across multiple delivery models, and ensure CI/CD integration with scalable automation. Strong communication and leadership are essential in a modern engineering environment.

Qualifications

• ISTQB certification or equivalent testing qualification.
• Degree in IT, Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven experience leading QA and testing functions within complex enterprise environments.
• Experience governing quality across supplier-led or outsourced delivery models.
• Strong experience designing and delivering enterprise-wide test strategies and plans.
• Extensive knowledge of Functional Testing, Integration Testing, Regression Testing, UAT, Performance Testing, Test Automation.
• Hands-on experience with automation frameworks and tools including Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, SpecFlow (BDD), Postman, REST API Testing, C#.
• Strong understanding of integration testing and data-driven testing methodologies.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Proven experience delivering across the full software development lifecycle.
• Strong Agile delivery experience, ideally within Scrum and/or Kanban environments.
• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the QA and testing strategy across in-house and supplier-led delivery.
• Establish standards and governance for unit, integration, system, UAT, regression, performance, and automation testing.
• Lead and mentor QA engineers, supporting test planning, estimation, prioritisation, and delivery.
• Embed Shift Left testing practices to improve quality across the SDLC.
• Review test cases, test coverage, automation scripts, and quality metrics.
• Validate supplier testing deliverables, identify quality risks, and drive remediation activities.
• Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of automated testing frameworks.
• Ensure automation is scalable, maintainable, and integrated within CI/CD pipelines.
• Own defect management processes, quality reporting, and release readiness assessments.
• Support test environment management and test data strategy.
• Communicate quality status, risks, and recommendations to stakeholders.
• Drive continuous improvement across testing practices, tools, processes, and supplier engagement.

Skills

QA Leadership

Test Strategy

Automation

CI/CD

DevOps

Stakeholder Mgmt

Selenium

Cypress

Playwright

SpecFlow

Postman

REST API Testing

C#

Agile

Education

ISTQB certification

Degree in IT/Engineering/CS

Tools

Selenium

Cypress

Playwright

SpecFlow

Postman

REST API Testing

C#

Job description

GCS Recruitment invites applications for a Lead Engineer - QA Automation in London. This hybrid role leads QA strategy across in-house and supplier-led delivery, shaping standards for unit to performance testing and driving automation across the SDLC.

You will mentor QA engineers, govern testing across multiple delivery models, and ensure CI/CD integration with scalable automation. Strong communication and leadership are essential in a modern engineering environment.