Quality Assurance Manager

PEN Group; Greater London; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual leave 7.2 weeks

Company Sick Pay

Statutory maternity/paternity pay

Employee Assistance Programme

Virtual GP access

Speak Up Service

Wellbeing support services

Financial, legal and medical advice

Life & Leadership coaching

Discounts on shopping & activities

Self-development trainings

Job summary

Planet Education Networks (PEN Group) is seeking a QA Manager to shape QA across our software projects. You will define testing strategies, standards, and release-readiness criteria for multiple products.

You will lead the QA team, enhance processes, support QA hiring, and ensure releases have robust testing evidence and coverage.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field.
• Extensive experience leading QA across multiple projects or products.
• Proven ability to build or improve QA processes and ways of working.
• Strong understanding of testing approaches, QA tooling, defect management, automation and release readiness.
• Experience planning QA within software delivery timelines and using QA metrics.
• Experience supporting QA recruitment and team development.
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to look beyond individual tickets and assess overall quality of a project.
• Professional QA/PM certifications such as ISTQB, PRINCE2, AgilePM, Scrum preferred.

Responsibilities

• Define and improve QA processes, standards, and testing approaches across multiple projects.
• Select appropriate testing tools and technologies, and plan QA activity within project timelines.
• Lead the QA team, manage priorities, monitor quality and performance, and support QA recruitment.
• Improve test coverage, regression, exploratory testing, automation, and release-readiness practices.
• Review QA metrics and defect trends to identify risks, gaps, and areas for improvement.
• Work with Product and Development teams to challenge weak requirements or testing and improve quality throughout delivery.
• Provide a clear QA recommendation on whether a feature or project is ready to go live.

Skills

QA leadership

Quality strategy

Testing tooling

Automation planning

Recruitment support

Stakeholder management

Communication

Project quality assessment

Certification knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Software Engineering/related

Tools

Jira

Azure DevOps

TestRail

Zephyr

Xray

Job description

Working hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Work arrangement: On-site

Location: Canary Wharf, London

About the Role

Planet Education Networks (PEN Group) is looking for an experienced QA Manager to build and strengthen quality assurance across our software projects and platforms.

This role is focused on the bigger QA picture rather than individual ticket testing. You will define the right testing approach, tools, QA timelines, standards, and release-readiness criteria across new and existing products.

You will also lead the QA team, improve processes and metrics, support QA hiring, and ensure releases are backed by the right level of testing and evidence.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and improve QA processes, standards, and testing approaches across multiple projects.
• Select appropriate testing tools and technologies, and plan QA activity within project timelines.
• Lead the QA team, manage priorities, monitor quality and performance, and support QA recruitment.
• Improve test coverage, regression, exploratory testing, automation, and release-readiness practices.
• Review QA metrics and defect trends to identify risks, gaps, and areas for improvement.
• Work with Product and Development teams to challenge weak requirements or testing and improve quality throughout delivery.
• Provide a clear QA recommendation on whether a feature or project is ready to go live.

Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Business, Project Management, or a related discipline.
• Strong software QA experience, including leading QA activity across multiple projects or products.
• Proven experience building or improving QA processes and ways of working.
• Strong understanding of testing approaches, QA tooling, defect management, automation, and release readiness.
• Experience planning QA within software delivery timelines and using QA metrics to assess team and product quality.
• Experience supporting QA recruitment and team development.
• Strong leadership, communication, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to look beyond individual tickets and assess the wider quality of a project or platform.
• Professional certification in Quality Assurance, software testing, or project management, such as ISTQB, PRINCE2, AgilePM, Scrum, or similar.
• Experience with SaaS products or multiple software platforms.
• Experience improving or introducing test automation.
• Familiarity with Jira, Azure DevOps, TestRail, Zephyr, Xray, or similar tools.
• Understanding of API, integration, performance, accessibility, or security testing.

Person Specification

• Thinks beyond individual tickets and understands the wider QA picture.
• Comfortable building structure where processes are inconsistent or still developing.
• Able to balance quality, risk, timelines, and business priorities.
• Proactive in identifying weaknesses and implementing practical improvements.
• Confident leading a QA team and challenging constructively when quality standards are not being met.

• Annual leave (7.2 weeks)
• Company Sick Pay.
• Statutory maternity and paternity pay.
• Employee Assistance Programme (HA Wisdom Wellbeing)
• Virtual GP access (Livi)
• 'Speak Up Service' - confidential support service to report any workplace concerns
• Specialist physical and mental wellbeing support services with 24/7 confidential counselling support (Wisdom)
• Financial, legal and medical advice services provided (Wisdom)
• Life & Leadership coaching (Wisdom)
• Financial coaching (MUNNY)
• Discounts and perks, offering savings on shopping, activities and more (Bright Exchange)
• Self-development and Self-taught trainings