Quality Assurance Lead
- newcastle upon tyne, england, United Kingdom
- £60 - £110 Per Hour
Job Description
Our client is a well-established business operating within the financial services sector, providing innovative technology solutions to support complex financial operations. They are committed to delivering high-quality software and continuously investing in automation, modern engineering practices and product innovation.
The Opportunity
They are looking for an experienced QA & Automation Team Lead to lead their Quality Assurance function and drive the evolution from predominantly manual testing to a modern, automation-first approach.
This is a hands-on leadership role, ideal for someone who has successfully transformed QA teams, implemented automation strategies and enjoys improving software quality through scalable processes and technology.
You’ll lead a team of QA Engineers while remaining technically involved, helping shape testing frameworks, embedding quality into development workflows and championing continuous improvement across the engineering function.
What They're Looking For:
- Leading the transition from manual testing to automated testing.
- Managing and mentoring QA Engineers.
- Defining QA strategy, automation frameworks and testing standards.
- Embedding quality into Agile development and CI/CD pipelines.
- Remaining hands‑on with automation, debugging and technical problem solving.
- Driving continuous improvement across software quality processes.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead and mentor a team of QA Engineers.
- Conduct regular one‑to‑ones, performance reviews and development planning.
- Allocate work, prioritise testing activities and ensure effective team delivery.
- Foster a collaborative, accountable and high‑performing QA culture.
- Support recruitment, onboarding and capability development.
QA Strategy & Quality Ownership
- Own and evolve the overall QA strategy.
- Define testing standards, release criteria and quality processes.
- Ensure appropriate test coverage across new features and regression testing.
- Review requirements early to identify quality risks and improve testability.
- Act as the key quality representative across Engineering and Product teams.
Test Automation & Delivery
- Lead the design and implementation of automated testing frameworks.
- Define testing strategies covering functional, integration, API, end‑to‑end and non‑functional testing.
- Improve regression coverage and maintainability of automation suites.
- Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
- Support hands‑on testing activities where required.
- Develop quality metrics and meaningful QA reporting.
- Monitor defect trends, release quality and testing effectiveness.
- Identify opportunities to improve tooling, processes and delivery practices.
- Drive continuous improvement initiatives across the QA function.
- Explore practical applications of AI within software testing.
- Evaluate tools that improve automation, productivity and test coverage.
- Encourage experimentation with AI‑assisted testing approaches.
- Stay up to date with emerging QA technologies and industry trends.
- Work closely with Product Managers, Software Engineers, Business Analysts and stakeholders.
- Promote a quality‑first culture throughout the software development lifecycle.
- Communicate testing progress, quality risks and release readiness effectively.
- Support User Acceptance Testing where appropriate.
- Proven experience leading a QA team.
- Demonstrated success transitioning organisations from manual to automated testing.
- Strong experience designing and maintaining automated test frameworks.
- Experience defining QA strategies for complex software products.
- Strong understanding of Agile development methodologies.
- Experience with API, integration, regression and end‑to‑end testing.
- Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
- Excellent analytical, communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to balance quality, delivery timelines and commercial priorities.
- Experience within financial services, fintech or another regulated industry.
- Knowledge of trading systems, electronic markets or complex financial platforms.
- Experience with Playwright, Cypress, Selenium or similar automation tools.
- Exposure to AI‑assisted software testing solutions.
- Performance, resilience or security testing experience.
- Previous experience within a scaling technology business.