Head of QA and Testing

Admiral is a high-growth digital business that increasingly leverages modern technology to realise its ambitions. Our technology teams are at the heart of our success, and we continue to grow our engineering excellence as a fundamental enabler to achieving business outcomes and providing great customer service.

The Head of Quality Assurance (QA) and Test is a critical role responsible for setting the quality standards across Admiral IT, partnering closely with tribes to embed those standards within the delivery life cycle. This individual will be a key contributor to Admiral IT’s engineering function. You will lead large, matrix-managed teams and drive QA strategy, planning and execution across IT.

Scope of Role

This is a leadership role that requires the role holder to be a ‘leader of leaders’ capable of providing direction to teams of more than 100 people and supporting an investment portfolio of >£100m.

Job Purpose

• Enable the delivery of outstanding products and services by embedding the right QA frameworks, tools and capabilities across the teams
• Establish and embed the right operating model for QA across IT, working closely with relevant engineering, platform and application teams, to include strategic use of third parties
• Standardise, simplify and scale QA processes, tooling and methods so that the team can deliver value quickly, securely and to the right level of quality
• Create the right environment to attract, assess and retain top talent, including developing relevant compensation packages and enabling teams to continuously maintain and improve their technical and non-technical skills
• Keep abreast of technology developments in the broader marketplace, and make recommendations, ensuring these are understood and where appropriate, exploited across the business to increase business value derived from systems and processes
• Lead individuals and groups in significant strategic change and/or during times of organisational change. Support and guide the work of groups of senior staff, including allocation of management and supervisory responsibilities to senior individuals.

Accountabilities & Responsibilities

• Refine related operating model and governance to reflect aountability for Admiral Quality Assurance across teams
• Provide technical and thought leadership to IT Leaders, tribes, QA Leads, test engineers and stakeholders
• Provide oversight and technical direction for the test engineering lifecycle to embed ‘shift left’ activities across requirements analysis, test design, system integration requirements verification, test deployment and resourcing strategy to include performance and security testing
• Direct the development of the QA strategy, methodology, discipline and framework, with a focus on continuous improvement in areas of automated testing and agile testing, in line with best practice
• Ensure appropriate QA environments exist and are maintained for all products/services, working closely with the Platform team
• Establish and manage appropriate metrics to provide accurate estimates for new efforts, measure quality of output, verify compliance with standards, monitor performance, measure QA maturity and implement corrective actions in any areas as necessary
• Collaborate with Business and Technology leads to develop, build out, and execute Integration programs
• Lead team and ensure appropriate tools and methodologies are leveraged and adopted
• Monitor test reports and other relevant outputs to ensure that appropriate severities and priorities are being assigned to defects, root cause analysis is being performance and areas of improvement are being implemented.
• Provide reporting on QA to relevant stakeholders and forums.
• Foster and develop employees through oversight of relevant career framework, working with QA Chapter Leads to provide direction and mentoring to team members
• Manage and own supplier/vendor relationships for Quality Assurance & Test
• Role model the behaviours that encourage a high standard of delivery, whilst ensuring these are focussed on achieving measurable outcomes
• Ensure an ongoing a culture of compliance, risk and control, are factored into design and delivery as relevant.
• Ensure that the customer is ‘front and centre’ in everything that the organisation does, making sure that we treat customers fairly
• Make a significant contribution to the culture of the department, ensuring that we uphold the four pillars of “Communication, Equality, Reward and Recognition and Fun”

Experience and Skills

Leadership and Industry

• Extensive experience with leading large-scale QA programs, performing quality engineering and test automation
• Extensive experience on Test Automation tools, frameworks, and best practices
• Significant knowledge of standard testing best practices, such as test environments, test documentation, test results, defect tracking and handling, data testing, interface testing, test data management, and user interface testing
• Significant capability establishing right-sized teams using a blend of in-house and third-party resources, ensuring business and QA maturity outcomes are met
• Working knowledge of DevOps Principles and Practices (CI, CD, Continuous Testing, etc.), modern cloud-native software architecture and working in a hybrid environment (on-premise and cloud)
• Extensive experience with Agile working practices
• Working knowledge of tool and technologies like Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GIT, JIRA, ALM, AHA
• Experience and awareness of CISO governance frameworks, standards, controls and auditing documentation covering both business and technology solutions
• Well versed with approaches like BDD, Keyword Driven and Data Driven test automation
• Experience in collaborating effectively across a variety of IT and business groups, across regions, roles, and able to interact effectively with all levels
• Flexibility to work in ambiguous situations, highly matrix environments, and support other cross program work-streams
• High level of integrity, energy and sense of urgency to make things happen
• Proven ability to support, encourage and develop team members

Optional

• Experience of working in a FTSE 100 or equivalent business with a large (1000 FTE+) IT function
• Experience operating within regulated environments including external regulated consumer products and service offerings
• Experience with development best practices is helpful
• ISTQB Practitioner-level certificate

Location

We are open to discussion around remote working possibilities (UK only)

Our Commitment to You

At Admiral, we are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace. Admiral is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, reproductive health decisions, or related medical conditions), national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, or any other legally protected status.

All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment.

Salary, Benefits and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we’re consistently voted one of the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to Work For in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here; https://admiraljobs.co.uk/employee-benefits/.

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