QA Lead

Acorn by Synergie; Crewe; Remote; GBP 51,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading talent agency, Acorn by Synergie, is looking for a QA Lead to drive test automation in an exciting transition to microservices. This role involves ensuring product reliability, developing automated testing frameworks, and mentoring teams to uphold best practices in quality assurance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of QA experience, including 2 years in a leadership role.
• Strong proficiency in automation frameworks.
• Experience with CI/CD tools and clean coding practices.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the QA strategy focusing on automation.
• Design and implement automated tests within CI/CD frameworks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to maintain quality standards.

Skills

Test Automation

Python

CI/CD

Agile

Microservices

API Testing

Functional Testing

Performance Testing

Mobile Testing

Selenium

Tools

Jenkins

Docker

GitLab CI

Job description

QA Lead

Salary up to 60k

Remote with travel to Crewe once a month

Acorn by Synergie, is recruiting on behalf of our client for an experienced QA Lead to take the reins on their test automation strategy. This is a key role in an exciting technical transformation, as the business begins its move from a monolithic architecture to microservices. The successful candidate will be instrumental in ensuring product reliability, streamlining testing processes within CI/CD pipelines, and embedding quality at every stage of the engineering lifecycle. Reporting to the Head of IT, you'll work closely with cross-functional teams including Developers, DevOps, and Product to set and uphold best-in-class QA standards.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define, lead and maintain, within industry standards, the QA strategy with a strong focus on test automation across backend, frontend, and APIs.
• Design, build, and implement automated test frameworks and test suites from scratch.
• Integrate automated tests within CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions).
• Define and enforce quality gates at various stages of the deployment lifecycle.
• Mentor and guide QA engineers and developers on testing best practices.
• Ensure robust coverage for both monolithic applications and distributed microservices.
• Develop and maintain test data and test environments in coordination with DevOps, in line with PCIDSS & ISO27001 standards.
• Conduct root cause analysis of test failures and drive resolution efforts.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define acceptance criteria and ensure testability of requirements.
• Lead testing efforts during the migration from monolith to microservices, identifying risks and ensuring consistent quality across services.
• Work closely with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, and developers to ensure timely and effective delivery of high-quality features.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 5+ years of QA experience, with at least 2 years in a QA leadership or senior automation role.
• Experience writing clean, maintainable and scalable code in Python 3.
• Proven experience with both monolithic applications and microservices architectures.
• Strong proficiency in at least one automation framework/tool (e.g., Selenium, Appium, Cypress, Playwright, RestAssured).
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools and workflows (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI, GitHub Actions).
• Solid programming/scripting skills (e.g., Python, JavaScript, Java, Bash).
• Deep understanding of modern software development practices (Agile, TDD/BDD, shift-left testing).
• Experience setting up test automation frameworks and environments from scratch.
• Experience with containerised environments (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with performance, load, or security testing is a plus.
• Experience in Functional Testing (Unit, Integration, System, Regression, Smoke, Sanity)
• Experience in Non-Functional Testing (Performance, Security, Usability, Compatibility, Accessibility)
• API Testing (Postman, SoapUI)
• E2E (End 2 End Testing)
• Acceptance Testing (UAT)
• Mobile Testing (Android/iOS)

Desirable Skills:

• Experience with service virtualization and mocking tools.
• Exposure to cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools related to quality assurance.
• Experience working closely with a scrum team to define, priorities and deliver high quality work at a rapid pace.
• Experience implementing and maintaining Test Management tools (e.g. Test Rail, Zephyr, Xray)
• Knowledge of QA metrics and KPIs to measure software quality and team performance
• Familiarity with mobile testing strategies and frameworks (e.g. Appium, Espresso)
• Familiarity with front end development and best practices

Acorn by Synergie acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment.