Lead Quality Assurance Engineer

Who are we?

Howden is a collective - a group of talented and passionate people all around the world. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 18,000 employees spanning over 100 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It's what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities - work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you'll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Lead Quality Assurance Engineer

Position
Lead Quality Assurance Engineer to drive quality assurance across the entire Group Data Platform, ensuring the reliability, scalability, and governance of all data, infrastructure, and engineering processes.

Summary of the Role
Howden Group Services is expanding its Group Data Platform and is looking for a Lead Quality Assurance Engineer to take ownership of the end-to-end quality strategy for the platform. This includes data engineering pipelines, platform engineering infrastructure, and overarching data governance processes.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic leader with extensive experience in data quality, automation, validation frameworks, and compliance within cloud-based data platforms. This role requires a strong technical background in data assurance, alongside the ability to establish best practices, drive automation, and work cross-functionally with engineering, governance, and business teams to uphold data integrity, performance, and security.

The successful candidate will define and lead the assurance strategy for data ingestion, transformation, storage, security, and compliance, ensuring the platform meets business and regulatory requirements.

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will:

1. Define and implement a comprehensive quality assurance strategy across the entire Group Data Platform, covering data engineering, platform engineering, and governance.
2. Lead the design, development, and adoption of test automation frameworks to validate data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, metadata management, and infrastructure components.
3. Ensure the quality and accuracy of data governance, data lineage, and security policies, aligning with compliance standards.
4. Oversee validation of platform engineering components, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, cloud security, and monitoring frameworks.
5. Develop robust testing methodologies for data consistency, performance, scalability, and disaster recovery.
6. Work closely with engineering, analytics, and business teams to ensure that data quality processes align with business objectives.
7. Own and define quality metrics, creating monitoring and alerting mechanisms for data reliability, SLA adherence, and platform performance.
8. Mentor and lead a team of Quality Engineers, fostering a quality-first culture within the data platform team.
9. Drive continuous improvement, exploring new technologies, automation tools, and best practices to enhance testing efficiency.
10. Ensure regulatory compliance for data handling, storage, and processing, aligning with GDPR, industry standards, and internal governance frameworks.

Requirements

Candidates should have:

1. 7+ years of experience in quality assurance, test automation, or data validation, with at least 3+ years in a leadership role.
2. Proven expertise in testing data platforms, data pipelines, and cloud-based big data solutions.
3. Strong experience with Databricks, Azure Data Factory, Synapse, and cloud infrastructure testing.
4. Deep understanding of data governance, data security, and compliance best practices.
5. Expertise in test automation frameworks (e.g., Great Expectations, DBT tests, PyTest, Selenium, or similar).
6. Strong coding skills in Python, SQL, or Scala for automation and validation purposes.
7. Hands-on experience in CI/CD testing within Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins.
8. Experience working with infrastructure testing tools (e.g., Terraform validation, cloud monitoring, security validation).
9. Ability to lead teams, influence best practices, and collaborate effectively with stakeholders across data, governance, and infrastructure.
10. Experience in defining quality strategies, driving process improvements, and implementing automation in large-scale data platforms.
11. Knowledge of data observability and anomaly detection tools (preferred).
12. Industry experience in financial services, insurance, or regulated environments (not essential, but preferred).

This role is an excellent opportunity for a Lead Quality Assurance Engineer to take a strategic leadership position in ensuring the end-to-end quality, compliance, and performance of the Group Data Platform while fostering a culture of excellence, automation, and continuous improvement.

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity - there is no one Howden type. Instead, we're looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

1. Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new
2. We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges
3. We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it's the right fit for you, send us your application - if your profile fits the role's criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.

Permanent