Test Lead (DHCR Programme)

NHS Scotland; Scotland; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

NHS pension

Annual leave 27 days

Job summary

NHS Scotland is seeking a highly capable Test Lead to join the Digital Health and Care Record Programme on a fixed-term basis. You’ll lead testing strategies across complex systems, coordinate with product, engineering and clinical stakeholders, and drive automation to improve delivery speed and quality.

Working within a multidisciplinary Agile team, you will ensure services are reliable, secure, accessible, performant and fit for purpose, guiding testing efforts from requirements through to

Qualifications

• Strong experience leading testing and quality assurance across complex digital products or programmes.
• Experience coordinating functional, integration and end-to-end testing in multidisciplinary Agile teams.
• Ability to develop and implement effective test automation strategies across UI, API and integration layers.

Responsibilities

• Define and lead the testing approach for a complex, integration-rich digital service.
• Provide leadership across all aspects of testing and quality assurance to ensure reliability, security and performance.
• Collaborate with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to understand requirements and embed testing throughout the lifecycle.
• Coordinate testing across multiple teams, dependencies and environments to ensure timely delivery.

Skills

Test leadership

Quality assurance

Agile methodologies

CI/CD

Stakeholder management

Tools

AWS

Azure

CI/CD tooling

Job description

On 1 April 2026, NSS and NES became one national organisation, focused on continuity today and a stronger, more connected service for tomorrow.

As part of this transformation, NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) have joined to form a new organisation: Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland). This new organisation will play a pivotal role in supporting the renewal and ensuring the long-term sustainability of health and care services across Scotland.

Flexible Location: PSD Scotland is a remote-friendly employer with staff based throughout Scotland. We support office-based and hybrid working arrangements. We welcome conversations about alternative working patterns-please get in touch during the application process to discuss.

Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Full Time, 36 hours per week

Fixed-term or Secondment** Until 31st March 2028

• For NHS applicants, an NHS secondment will be offered in the first instance. For non-NHS applicants, a fixed-term or secondment would be considered.

You must have eligibility and entitlement to work in the UK which is required to be maintained throughout your period of employment.

Who We Are

PSD Scotland unites expertise from NES and NSS in a way that will allow us to accelerate national programmes to support the NHS to deliver better care, now and in the future.

We support staff with education and training, provide the tools and data that improve services, and run vital national functions such as procurement, logistics and blood, tissue and cell services.

The function of PSD Scotland Technology Service is to develop and lead a programme of work and services that supports both the corporate functions that allow PSD Scotland to work and deliver its strategic objective and to deliver against Scotland's Digital Health and Care Strategy

Our Technology

We are in the business of providing safe, secure and innovative technology products and services that aim to improve outcomes across education, training, workforce, health and care in the public sector in Scotland. Using modern cloud-based technology we deliver sustainable products and services for the future

The Opportunity

We are looking for a highly skilled and motivated Test Lead to join the Digital Health and Care Record Programme, a major Scottish Government initiative focused on transforming how health and care information is accessed and used across Scotland.

You will play a key role in defining and leading the testing approach for a complex, integration-rich digital service that will bring together information from multiple health and care systems and present it through a secure web application for clinicians and other authorised users.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary Agile team, you will provide leadership across all aspects of testing and quality assurance, helping ensure that the services we deliver are reliable, secure, accessible, performant and fit for purpose.

You will work closely with product managers, business analysts, software engineers, architects, delivery managers, clinical stakeholders and other test professionals to understand requirements, identify quality risks and embed testing throughout the product lifecycle.

Do you enjoy leading testing within highly skilled, multidisciplinary Agile teams?

Do you want to play a key role in delivering high-quality digital services that will directly support clinicians and improve health and care outcomes across Scotland

Do you enjoy understanding complex systems and validating how information flows across multiple applications, APIs, services and external integrations?

Do you have experience defining test approaches and coordinating functional, integration, end-to-end, regression and non-functional testing across complex digital services

Do you enjoy developing automation strategies and identifying where automated testing can improve delivery speed, reliability and confidence?

Do you enjoy working at pace, managing competing priorities and adapting your testing approach as products, technologies and requirements evolve?

Working within the Technology Services team will give you the opportunity to influence how quality engineering is delivered across an important national digital health and care programme and help establish approaches and practices that can be adopted across future digital services.

Does this sound like you?

What We Love To See

Test Leads bring a broad range of technical, leadership and delivery experience. If you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply:

• Strong experience leading testing and quality assurance across complex digital products or programmes, defining appropriate test strategies, approaches and plans within multidisciplinary Agile teams.
• Ability to work closely with product, business analysis, engineering and clinical stakeholders to understand requirements, identify quality risks and ensure acceptance criteria and end-to-end user journeys are clear, testable and appropriately covered.
• Strong hands‑on experience across functional, system, integration, API, end‑to‑end, regression and exploratory testing, particularly within complex environments involving multiple systems and third‑party integrations.
• Experience developing and implementing effective test automation approaches across UI, API and integration layers, with a strong understanding of CI/CD and how automated testing can improve delivery speed, reliability and confidence.
• Ability to lead and coordinate testing across multiple teams, systems, suppliers and environments, managing dependencies, test data, defects, risks and competing priorities through to successful delivery.
• Good understanding of non‑functional quality considerations including performance, resilience, security, accessibility and compatibility, with the ability to ensure these are considered throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Experience working with modern cloud‑based architectures and delivery practices, with an understanding of technologies such as AWS or Azure, APIs, microservices, containerised applications and infrastructure as code.
• Ability to provide clear, evidence‑based reporting on product quality, test progress, defects, risks and release readiness, communicating complex technical information effectively to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Strong leadership, coaching and mentoring skills, with the ability to support testers and wider team members, promote knowledge sharing and encourage shared ownership of quality across the team.
• A strong continuous improvement mindset, proactively identifying opportunities to improve testing processes, automation, tooling, environments and team ways of working, while demonstrating sound judgement, initiative and the ability to influence others.
• Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary
• Ability to work on own initiative, to organise and prioritise own workloads, to meet strict deadlines

Benefits Which Matter

As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, you can enjoy an extensive range of benefits including:

• Life‑work balance - with opportunities for flexible working and hybrid working
• Generous NHS pension scheme
• Annual incremental salary progression (up to the maximum of the salary band) plus annual NHS salary scale review
• Annual Leave - 27 Days increasing in line with service plus 8 days public holiday
• NHS discounts and more

Diversity and Inclusion

Developing a successful national service for Scotland means considering the diverse needs, perspectives, and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland. We are focused on hiring the very best talent and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Our aim to ensure that everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has a positive recruitment experience- regardless of the outcome.

We welcome applications from all under‑represented groups, including racially minoritised people and disabled people. It is not essential to be in Test Lead role right now-you may be returning from a career break (e.g., maternity, paternity, caring) or coming from another field. Your experiences can bring a fresh perspective to our work.

If you are considering applying and would like to discuss the opportunity, any adjustments or alternative work patterns, please contact Sri Hari Narra ([e-mail])

Next Steps

• NHS candidates will be considered firstly on a secondment basis, and so are strongly encouraged to discuss this with their current NHS employer at the earliest opportunity, ideally prior to application.

It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsored BEFOREsubmitting your application form.

To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.

As part of the pre‑employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards willcheck your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre‑settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK websitehere.

For specific types of post, if you do not have the necessary eligibility to work in the UK, it might be possible (though not guaranteed) to secure sponsorship via a UK Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker Visa. However, this is only possible if the employer is a licensed Sponsor, and if the post does not fall below the current minimum salary threshold or 'going rate'. Further information on these criteria can be foundhere.

If you have any queries regarding the NHS Scotland National Recruitment Portal or the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to contact our recruitment partners, the East Region Recruitment Service, at: [e-mail]