Software Quality Director - Professional Services (Retail)

External; North East; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

A global technology company is seeking a Software Quality Director in Durham, England. This role focuses on defining and executing quality strategies for client-facing programs in the retail sector. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in software quality assurance, including expertise in automation and leadership experience to drive impactful quality practices. The position emphasizes collaboration with customer executives, utilizing modern AI methodologies to ensure operational excellence. This opportunity provides a dynamic environment engaged in transforming retail operations.

Benefits

Group health coverage

401(k) plan with company match

Employee Assistance Programs

Generous paid holiday schedule

Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in software quality assurance, including automation.
• 8 years of leadership experience managing teams.
• Strong communication skills to influence executives.

Responsibilities

• Lead the quality strategy and execution for customer-facing programs.
• Serve as a quality advisor to customer leadership.
• Define a QA strategy aligned with retail business use cases.

Skills

Leadership

Customer Communication

Strategy Implementation

Test Automation

AI/ML Application

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering

Tools

CI/CD Tools

Test Management Tools

Job description

Software Quality Director — Professional Services (Retail) External • Durham, England, UK

Are you an engineering-quality leader who thrives at the intersection of customer outcomes and product excellence Do you enjoy partnering directly with customer executives to shape strategy reduce delivery risk and ensure solutions work in real retail operations not just in demos If youre excited to build and scale modern automated quality practices (including AI-assisted testing) in a clean SDLC this role is for you.

Join Toshiba's Global Commerce Solutions Digital Transformation group as a senior Quality leader supporting Professional Services programs across Retail customers.

The Software Quality Director (Professional Services Retail) owns the end-to-end quality strategy and execution for customer-facing programs ensuring releases are reliable scalable secure and operationally ready for real-world retail environments. You will operate as a trusted advisor to customer leadership and internal executives aligning quality plans to business use cases requirements store operations and rollout objectives.

This role sets the vision for scalable quality engineering modern test automation performance validation and AI-enabled test planning/execution. You will lead QA managers and partner closely with Professional Services Product Engineering Support Security and Customer Success to ensure quality is measurable transparent and outcome-driven.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a high-level quality advisor to customer leadership (e.g. VP/Director of IT Operations Store Systems) aligning on success metrics risks rollout readiness and operational acceptance criteria.
• Translate business objectives (store uptime transaction integrity associate productivity inventory accuracy rollout timelines) into test strategies and release gates.
• Lead joint customer/internal reviews on quality status defect trends go/no-go readiness and post-release learnings.

Quality strategy focused on business outcomes

• Define and drive a QA strategy that is anchored in retail business use cases workflows and operational scenarios not just process compliance.
• Ensure requirements are testable traceable and aligned to customer value (e.g. POS flows promotions loyalty back office device workflows integrations).
• Build practical quality governance that complements Agile delivery while prioritizing operational reliability and measurable outcomes.

AI-enabled test planning and execution

• Incorporate AI to accelerate test design scenario generation risk-based prioritization test data creation defect clustering and regression selection.
• Establish standards to ensure AI-assisted testing is explainable secure auditable and improves coverage/efficiency without sacrificing rigor.

Modern quality engineering & automation

• Scale automation across UI/API/integration layers; expand continuous testing in CI/CD with clear quality gates.
• Drive performance reliability and scale validation aligned to retail peak periods and store/network variability.
• Strengthen test environments test data management observability release readiness playbooks.

Leadership & capability building

• Lead mentor and grow QA leaders and engineers across functional automated performance and systems testing.
• Embed with delivery teams when needed to model best practices and unblock quality risks.
• Establish consistent metrics (defect leakage escaped defects coverage cycle time reliability customer incidents) and use them to drive improvement.
• Develop and maintain quality roadmaps aligned to Professional Services program plans and customer rollout waves.
• Create risk-based test strategies covering functional integration system regression performance usability and operational readiness.
• Author/review lifecycle deliverables: customer-facing quality plans test reports traceability release readiness criteria and risk assessments.
• Ensure defect management discipline: triage prioritization aligned to business impact and closure transparency.
• Partner with Security to incorporate cybersecurity and risk assessments appropriate for retail deployments.
• Own the quality tooling ecosystem: requirements/test management CI pipelines reporting dashboards and test environments.

Must Have Requirements

• Bachelors degree (or higher) in Computer Science Electrical Engineering or equivalent experience.
• 10 years in software quality assurance / quality engineering including automation and test strategy ownership.
• 8 years leading teams/managers; demonstrated ability to scale practices across multiple initiatives.
• Strong customer-facing leadership experience able to communicate with and influence customer executives and internal senior leaders (SVP/CTO-level).
• Proven ability to drive quality based on business use cases requirements clarity and operational workflows.
• Experience delivering B2B and/or B2C software in production environments with uptime and performance expectations.
• Expertise with SDLC tooling (requirements CI/CD test management defect tracking) and metrics-driven quality management.
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal); able to produce clear customer-ready plans and executive updates.

Preferred

• Retail domain experience (POS payments promotions loyalty store systems peripherals integrations).
• Hands-on experience applying AI/ML tools to testing (scenario generation risk prioritization regression optimization defect analytics).
• Programming/scripting experience (e.g. Python JavaScript Java C#) and modern automation frameworks.
• Experience in regulated/validated environments and traceability documentation (a plus not required).

Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions is a dynamic billion-dollar global company based in Research Triangle Park NC providing retail store solutions to your favorite brands. Have you ever been in a hurry and made use of the self-checkout at Lowes Foods earned fuel rewards at Kroger or just paid for purchases at retailers such as Walmart Michaels Carrefour The Gap Calvin Klein Boots Cencosud BJs or Costco? These are just a few examples of our in-store solutions and impressive customer base that made us the world's installed market share leader.

The nature of retail is changing quickly so if you share our Together Commerce vision of a seamless two-way participatory shopping experience lets get together to drive the new economy.

Benefits

• Group health coverage (medical dental & vision)
• Employee Assistance Programs
• Pre-tax spending accounts
• 401(k) plan (with company match)
• Company provided life insurance
• Pet Insurance
• Employee discounts
• Generous paid holiday schedule paid vacation & sick/personal days

EEO

Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer that evaluates qualified applicants without regard to age ancestry color religious creed disability marital status medical condition genetic information military or veteran status national origin race sex gender gender identity gender expression and sexual orientation or any other protected factor. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories consistent with legal requirements.

Individuals who need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process should email to request an accommodation.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION

We at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions firmly believe that our people are an integral part to the success of our customers. Furthermore were committed to Diversity Equity and Inclusion for all our people as highlighted by our 5 Core Principles (Create Outreach Foster Belonging Unleash Opportunity Diverse Cultural Engagement and Culture of Transparency). Were passionate about our customers the retail industry and becoming a more responsible company as we help create a brighter future.