Principal QA Engineer

ENSEK; Nottingham; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in the energy sector is seeking a Principal QA Engineer to enhance product quality through leadership and collaboration. This role involves mentoring teams, defining testing strategies, and ensuring robust automation frameworks. The ideal candidate will have extensive QA experience and a passion for fostering a culture of quality within engineering teams. This position offers a hybrid work model based in Nottingham, allowing for flexibility in work arrangements.

Qualifications

• Experience leading small software engineering teams.
• Expertise in QA processes and hands-on leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead QA efforts across multiple squads.
• Define and implement testing strategies.
• Mentor and support test engineers.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Collaboration

Problem Solving

Tools

Test Automation Tools

SDLC

Job description

We are a technology business operating in the global energy sector.

ENSEK has become the go-to option for top energy suppliers across the globe. Why? Because our technology represents a significant step change away from legacy systems that have historically dominated the market. It's also massively cheaper to adopt the ENSEK solution, with no loss in customer service or standards.

But by far the biggest reason why ENSEK is the best choice in energy supplier software is because of the people who work here — their endless enthusiasm, energy, and support for their colleagues. All our clients comment on what great people we have. Our people are our superpower.

That is where you come in.

ROLE SUMMARY:

Reporting to the Tribe Engineering Manager, the Principal QA Engineer leads testing efforts, ensuring product quality through collaboration, QA process enhancement, and automation. With extensive QA leadership experience, this role involves mentoring QA engineers, managing test environments and releases, supporting incident resolution, and communicating QA results to stakeholders.

This role involves collaborating with cross-functional squads/tribes, defining and enhancing QA processes, and maintaining robust automation frameworks.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Lead role & go-to person for approximately 2-3 squads or for a domain impacting many squads.
2. Influential leader across multiple squads through formal supervisory responsibility and/or technical authority, as well as by example/influence, challenging mindsets/behaviours if needed.
3. Work in collaboration with Architects, Lead Engineers, and Engineering Management on testing best practices, tools, and strategies to ensure product delivery.
4. Define and implement overall testing strategies, including manual and automated testing approaches.
5. Collaborate with product management, development, and other stakeholders to align testing efforts with business objectives.
6. Ensure overall product quality through test strategies and execution of various techniques, including E2E and production monitoring.
7. Contribute to the central view of QA status across the product portfolio.
8. Drive continuous improvement in testing environments, release strategies, production testing, and monitoring.
9. Establish and enforce quality standards and best practices throughout the development and testing lifecycle.
10. Conduct root cause analysis of defects and implement corrective actions.
11. Lead in sharing practices within the QA guild.
12. Mentor and support test engineers to enhance skills and performance.
13. Participate in QA recruitment processes.
14. Lead QA academy initiatives.
15. Work closely with the Head of QA Enablement on release ownership, risk assessment, and sign-off.
16. Present testing results, metrics, and insights to senior management and stakeholders.
17. Promote a positive, results-oriented work environment and foster teamwork.
18. Add value to client, colleague, and stakeholder experiences by practicing and promoting company values.
19. Collaborate with Lead Engineers to ensure quality in PR reviews.

TECHNICAL SKILLS:

• Experience leading small software engineering teams in a technology environment.
• Expertise in QA processes, best practices, and hands-on leadership in QA roles.
• Proficiency in test automation tools and understanding of SDLC.
• Experience working in an agile environment; energy/utilities sector experience is advantageous but not essential.

SOFT SKILLS:

• Ability to understand the broader business context and make impactful decisions.
• Effective at bringing others on board with strategies and ways of working.
• Experience coaching and mentoring others.
• Approachable, strong communicator capable of influencing and presenting to senior stakeholders.
• Values teamwork and experience working remotely in multidisciplinary teams.
• Highly organized with a structured approach to work.
• Fosters a culture of quality within engineering teams.

Department: Technology - Product & Engineering (Regs & Compliance Tribe)
Role: Principal QA Engineer
Locations: Nottingham, Remote (Hybrid)