Consultant/Quality Assurance Lead

Duties and responsibilities:

• Working in close co-operation with the business customers and teams, the Quality Assurance Manager applies analytical and business skills to evaluate existing and identify new or enhanced systems, products and processes which advance business objectives
• Establishes and has overall responsibility for the goals, policies, and procedures for the end to end software quality assurance function
• Determines the tools, techniques, staffing and methodologies that ensure the efficient release of quality software features and new products in line with SAFe Agile built-in quality principles
• Creates strategies and specific objectives for the quality function ensuring working agreements are established with internal and external teams
• Ensuring that a quality framework is established and documented in line with confirmed strategies and objectives, and any required updates or changes post review sessions are incorporated and socialised with all programme stakeholders as part of continuous improvement efforts
• Ensuring that the quality framework is embedded into the adopted ways of work and that teams are equipped to align to the defined quality processes and controls
• Drives continuous improvement activities
• Develops budgets/policies/procedures to support the organisations objectives
• Contributes to the governance authorities within the division
• Drive maturity in the adoption of a test-driven design and development approach
• Manage the quality aspects around planning, designing, building and implementation of IT services including defects, new development and major enhancements to systems, and across system ecosystems
• Ensures planning and implementation of quality checks to ensure that quality elements and standards as per the defined quality framework are adhered to, including: 
• Requirements elicitation and elaboration both functional and non-functional o Analysis efforts and artifacts o Architecture efforts and artifacts o Delivery and test efforts and artifacts
• Ensures the Definition of ready and the Definition of done at epic / feature / user story levels are agreed, documented, maintained, and socialised across and within value streams as well as delivery teams
• Ensure effective coordination of all quality assurance activities across teams together with the responsible delivery leads
• Monitors and ensures adherence to Definition of ready and Definition of done as agreed and defined
• Reviews, evaluates, and analyses complex information for the purpose of ensuring the department meets established quality standards and remains compliant
• Ensures test efforts are comprehensive to ensure overall quality deliverables: o Develops, manages, and executes all phases of quality assurance testing, including analysis of product requirements to Process Improvement Budget & Cost Control Stakeholder Relations Qualifications produce end to end test requirements o Ensures requirements coverage based on agreed standard
• Develop and continuously seek to improve organisational standards, policies and procedures within span of control and monitor implementation to ensure full compliance
• Build a continuous-improvement culture within the testing teams
• Assist and advise during engineering initiatives to improve best practices and streamlined software delivery while striving for continuous improvement
• Contribute to working practices to support multiple streams of development projects, feature teams and cross-functional teams.
• Provide input into departmental budgeting process
• Effectively manage all quality aspects for the platform function and its objectives in line with approved budgets, report variances as required and recommend / implement remedial action within span of control
• Assess expenditure and resolve gaps
• Manage third-party vendors, ensuring effective cost management of third-party suppliers.
• Build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders
• Provide specialised and technical support to internal and external stakeholders in matters relating to the platform team
• Negotiate solutions with business stakeholders
• Represent the organization by providing input, motivations and opinions on business, product and technical strategy
• Drive knowledge-sharing, collaboration and information exchange across the wider enterprise
• Develop key relationships within the group with a view on capitalising, learning from other technology areas
• Develop key relationships with 3rd party service providers
• Manage offshore service providers where necessary to adequately provide capacity and speed of delivery
• Handle vendor relationships to deliver products and services
• Establish and operate a Quality Assurance community of Practice to drive the adoption of best practises and defined ways of work.

Qualifications and experience:

• Degree / Diploma in Technology / Information Management
• Relevant Qualification in Quality Assurance and Governance Principles
• Post Graduate Degree in Technology / Information Management
• SAFe Agile certification
• 8+ years relevant experience of which 5 years management experience in terms of quality assurance and testing in a software development environment
• Demonstratable experience in the adoption of Test Driven Design and Development
• Previous experience in business analysis and associated best practice principles preferred
• Deep technical expertise and a good understanding of the underlying business processes and systems
• Experience of working in a high-pressure environment and working to tight deadlines
• Experience of working with multiple third-party vendors
• Experience in advocate development practices like test-driven development, continuous integration and continuous deployment
• Experience in working on several successful projects in the web and mobile environment
• Previous exposure to full life cycle systems development
• Solid understanding of agile methodologies
• Exposure to complex change environment and experience in project integration
• Exposure to IT project and programme management, IT lifecycle and ITIL processes