Lead Quality Engineer

Howden; City Of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Howden is seeking a Senior Quality Engineer to ensure the quality and reliability of data engineering pipelines. The role will involve developing automated testing frameworks, collaborating with teams, and driving quality assurance practices. Ideal candidates will possess strong expertise in data quality, test automation, and CI/CD practices. Join a diverse team committed to excellence and innovation in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years' experience in data quality or test automation.
• Strong knowledge of testing data pipelines, ETL workflows.
• Hands-on experience with test automation frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement quality assurance strategies for data pipelines.
• Define and maintain automated testing frameworks.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to integrate quality best practices.

Skills

Test automation

Data quality engineering

Collaboration

Data governance

CI/CD practices

SQL

Scripting languages

Education

Experience in data-intensive environments

Tools

Azure Databricks

Azure Data Factory

Synapse Analytics

PyTest

Great Expectations

DBT

Job description

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.

Senior Quality Engineer

Position
Senior Quality Engineer to ensure the quality, reliability, and robustness of data engineering and platform engineering pipelines within the Group Data Platform.

Summary of the Role
Howden Group Services is expanding its Group Data Platform and is looking for a Senior Quality Engineer to take ownership of data quality assurance, test automation, and validation frameworks across data engineering and platform engineering teams. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in testing data pipelines, automation frameworks, and CI/CD practices, with a passion for driving quality-first principles in data platforms.

This role requires a detail-oriented, strategic thinker who can establish testing best practices, develop automated testing frameworks, and collaborate with engineers to embed quality throughout the data development lifecycle. The successful candidate will ensure that data pipelines are robust, scalable, and meet business requirements while validating infrastructure and platform-level components.

Responsibilities
The successful candidate will:

• Develop and implement a comprehensive quality assurance strategy for data engineering and platform engineering pipelines.

• Define, build, and maintain automated data validation and pipeline testing frameworks to ensure data reliability and accuracy.

• Design and execute test cases for ETL/ELT workflows, data transformations, and metadata-driven data pipelines.

• Validate platform engineering components, including infrastructure automation, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud-based data services.

• Collaborate closely with data engineers, platform engineers, and DevOps teams to embed quality practices into development workflows.

• Drive data integrity and governance by ensuring data lineage, consistency, and compliance with regulatory requirements.

• Define and monitor key quality metrics, ensuring visibility into data pipeline performance and failures.

• Establish best practices for unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, and performance testing in a data environment.

• Work with stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into effective testing strategies.

• Mentor and coach engineers in quality engineering principles and best practices.

Requirements
Candidates should have:

• 5+ years of experience in data quality engineering, test automation, or software testing in data-intensive environments.

• Strong knowledge of testing data pipelines, ETL/ELT workflows, and big data solutions.

• Experience with cloud-based data platforms, particularly Azure Databricks, Azure Data Factory, and Synapse Analytics.

• Hands-on experience with test automation frameworks (e.g., PyTest, Great Expectations, DBT tests, or similar).

• Proficiency in SQL and scripting languages (e.g., Python, Scala) for test automation.

• Experience in CI/CD and DevOps practices, including integration of tests into pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins).

• Strong understanding of data governance, data security, and compliance best practices.

• Ability to work cross-functionally and communicate effectively with engineers, analysts, and business stakeholders.

• Experience with infrastructure testing (e.g., Terraform validation, monitoring of cloud services) (preferred).

• Experience working with insurance or financial data (not essential, but preferred).

This role is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Quality Engineer to play a critical role in ensuring the robustness and accuracy of data engineering and platform engineering solutions in a modern, scalable Group Data Platform.

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:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• 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