Quality Assurance Lead

Unite Group; West of England; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

25 days holiday

Pension scheme

Healthcare plan

Employee Assistance Programme

Wellbeing platform

Gym benefit

Job summary

Unite Students is seeking a forward‑thinking QA Lead to shape our quality strategy, champion automation and AI, and transform how we test and deliver change. You will lead the QA team, set best practice, and collaborate with Product, Technology and Architecture to deliver quality with confidence.

You will influence testing standards, mentor testers, manage risks, and sign off on major releases, while driving continuous improvement across delivery groups.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading QA in Agile environments.
• Hands-on test automation skills with CI/CD knowledge.
• Experience using AI-assisted testing tools to improve efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Lead QA strategy and roadmap across projects and programmes.
• Drive automation and AI initiatives to improve testing efficiency and quality.
• Own testing standards, metrics, governance, and release sign-off.

Skills

QA leadership

Automation testing

CI/CD pipelines

TypeScript

JavaScript

AI-assisted testing

Stakeholder management

Tools

Azure DevOps

Job description

The Role

Lead the future of Quality Assurance at Unite Students

We're looking for a forward-thinking QA Lead to shape our quality strategy, champion automation and harness the power of AI to transform how we test and deliver change. Combining strategic leadership with a hands-on approach, you'll lead our QA team, drive best practice across business-as-usual and major programmes, and work collaboratively with Product, Technology and Architecture teams to deliver quality with confidence. This is an exciting opportunity to challenge traditional ways of working, unlock greater efficiency through AI, and make a real impact on the quality of our technology and services.

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead our QA strategy – Shape and deliver our QA roadmap, setting consistent standards and driving quality across projects, programmes and day-to-day delivery.
• Champion automation and AI – Transform how we test by expanding automation, embedding AI-assisted testing and measuring improvements in efficiency, time and cost.
• Own quality and release confidence – Oversee testing standards, metrics and governance, manage risks and provide final QA sign-off for projects and major releases.
• Lead and develop our people – Grow our QA team's capabilities in automation and AI, while providing direction to external testers and programme testing teams.
• Manage resources and partnerships – Own QA budgets, capacity planning, testing tools and supplier relationships to ensure effective delivery across all teams.
• Drive continuous improvement – Work with Product, Development and Architecture teams to resolve complex testing challenges, improve ways of working and champion best practice across Unite Students.

What We’re Looking for in You

Essential

• Proven experience leading QA in Agile environments, including managing and developing testers.
• Strong hands-on test automation skills, experience with CI/CD pipelines, and working knowledge of TypeScript or JavaScript.
• Practical experience using AI-assisted testing tools to improve efficiency and quality.
• Experience defining test strategies, driving change and embedding quality standards across teams.
• Strong understanding of risk-based testing, quality governance and release management, with experience making go/no-go recommendations.
• Experience with Azure DevOps or equivalent tools, alongside budget, resource and third-party supplier management.
• Confident communication and stakeholder management skills, including influencing senior and non-technical audiences.

Desirable

• Experience testing Salesforce, Oracle Fusion, property management or booking platforms.
• Experience delivering large-scale transformation programmes involving multiple teams and end-to-end testing.
• Knowledge of performance, load and security testing, and observability tools such as Datadog or New Relic.
• Experience integrating AI agents or LLM-based tools into engineering workflows.
• Relevant ISTQB advanced, test automation or AI testing qualifications, or equivalent experience.

What you'll Get in Return

• A discretionary annual bonus so you can share in the company's success
• 25 days' paid holiday and an annual holiday buying scheme, with 5 additional days awarded for long service
• A generous pension scheme – employer contributions between 5% and 11% depending on how much you save
• Various benefits to support your health and wellbeing including a Healthcare Cash Plan, an Employee Assistance Programme, a Wellbeing platform and a Gym benefit that you can share with your family and friends
• Enhanced Family Leave including 18 weeks full pay for birthing parents and 4 weeks for non-birthing parents
• Lots of other great benefits including an annual ShareSave scheme, Employee Life Assurance, a discounts portal and more!

About Unite Students

Founded in 1991, Unite Students is the UK`s largest provider of purpose-built student accommodation. You can find us in 23 leading university towns and cities, with over 70,000 students calling US home! We are driven by our values, culture, and a commitment to develop diverse and inclusive teams, filled with positive energy and new ideas.

Instinctive inclusion.

We know that to create and maintain a happy healthy organisation, we have to work hard to ensure inclusion isn`t just what we do but who we are.

People make Unite Students.

Employees, students, and neighbours all contribute to building environments where we can all thrive.

Room for Everyone

We`re proud to be an employer thatembraces individuality, and we`re passionate about building inclusive teams. We focus on creating a collaborative culture where you can be you, where your voice is heard, and where you can truly belong. We take great pride in being rated Gold Investors in People and are constantly striving to provide the highest standard of learning and development opportunities and professional pathways for our people. Building ahome for success, for both our employees and students, requires exceptional people with passion. Join us as we build better experiences for students that live with us.

We are US.