Quality Assurance Manager

Bank of London; City Of London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent UK clearing bank is seeking a QA Manager to define and implement the quality assurance strategy for key payments programs. You'll lead a team, ensuring systems meet high reliability and security standards. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in payments systems, strong test automation skills, and the ability to manage offshore teams. This role is pivotal in driving quality across the Software Development Lifecycle, within a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.

Qualifications

• Deep experience testing complex payments systems, including knowledge of ISO 20022 and SWIFT messages.
• Expert proficiency in designing and maintaining automated testing frameworks using JavaScript, Java, or Python.
• Strong experience with tools for testing RESTful APIs, particularly for transaction-based services.
• Ability to write and execute complex SQL queries for data validation.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience writing high-level strategic documents.
• Experience managing offshore QA engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain detailed Test Strategy and Test Plan documents.
• Design, implement, and maintain automated test suites for payments services.
• Oversee functional, regression, performance, and security testing.
• Lead and manage a team of QA engineers, promoting technical excellence.

Skills

Payments Domain Expertise

Test Automation Frameworks

API/Service Testing

Database Proficiency

Tools

Communication

Leadership

Tools

Selenium

Cypress

Postman

Jira

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Job description

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Bank of London is one of only six UK clearing banks with direct access to the country's payment systems. Built on modern, cloud-native technology, we provide businesses with secure, API-driven banking that's fast, compliant, and built for growth. Our role is simple: help ambitious businesses turn their plans into reality by removing barriers and simplifying complexity. If you want to work where technology meets banking, where security comes first, and where your work directly enables business ambition, you're in the right place.

As the QA Manager, reporting to the CTO, you will be responsible for defining and implementing the end-to-end quality assurance strategy for major payments and banking programs, including real-time, cross-border, and domestic payment systems (e.g., SWIFT, SEPA, Faster Payments, CHAPS). You will lead a team to ensure all systems meet high standards of reliability, performance, and security. This is a crucial role that requires leadership in test automation, development of comprehensive test strategy documents, and maintaining the ability to personally execute manual testing for complex or sensitive scenarios when necessary. You'll work closely with Product Owners, Development Leads, and Compliance Teams to drive a culture of quality throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

Responsibilities

Test Strategy & Planning

• Develop, maintain, and secure approval for detailed Test Strategy and Test Plan documents for major payments programs, aligning with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Define scope, objectives, success criteria, entry/exit criteria, and resource needs for all testing phases (System, Integration, UAT, Performance, Regression, Security).

Automation Leadership

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable and robust automated test suites for API, UI, and back-end services, specifically targeting payments message flows and transaction processing.
• Select and recommend appropriate testing tools and frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Postman/Rest Assured) and drive continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices.

Reporting

• Oversee and actively participate in the execution of functional, regression, performance, and security testing.
• Oversee and execute manual testing for complex, high-risk, or exploratory scenarios where automation is not feasible or appropriate.
• Manage defect tracking, prioritisation, and resolution processes.
• Provide clear, concise, and timely reports on testing progress, risks, and quality metrics to senior management and stakeholders.
• Own communication with external vendors / partners by tracking reported defects, following up on resolution progress, validating fixes, and ensuring timely and high-quality delivery of all defect‑related commitments. Escalating issues when quality or delivery expectations are not met.

Team & Process Management

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of QA engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
• Establish and enforce best practices for testing processes, standards, and documentation.

Skills and Qualifications required

• Payments Domain Expertise: Deep, verifiable experience testing complex payments systems, including knowledge of ISO 20022, SWIFT messages, domestic clearing schemes, or card scheme flows.
• Test Automation Frameworks: Expert proficiency in designing, building, and maintaining automated testing frameworks using languages such as Javascript, Java or Python.
• API/Service Testing: Strong experience with tools like Postman or Rest Assured for testing RESTful APIs, particularly for transaction‑based services.
• Database Proficiency: Ability to write and execute complex SQL queries for data validation and back‑end testing in relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• Tools: Hands‑on experience with test management (e.g., Jira/Confluence) and CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with proven experience writing high‑level strategic documents (Test Strategies) for executive review.
• Proven track record of successfully implementing and scaling test automation frameworks from scratch or significantly improving existing ones.
• Leadership: Experience managing offshore QA engineers.

Diversity

Bank of London is an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusion, diversity and belonging. All qualified applicants are welcome and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, age, religion or religious expression, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity and expression, transgender, national origin, or military veteran status.