Quality Assurance Practice Lead

**Over**view**: The QA Practice Lead will work within Product Engineering and provide a key element in driving the Target “Product Operating Model”. As we embark upon our Technology Transformation agenda, the focus on Quality Assurance is ever prevalent and the need to deliver a world class capability is as must. This is a great opportunity to build a practice from a greenfield perceptive, get involved in real transformation with leading Tech and working with smart dynamic people. **Job Purpose**: As the Quality Assurance Practice Lead you will be responsible for leading the provision of a comprehensive QA Practice to meet the needs of Technology and Product Teams aligned to Business capabilities. Providing effective leadership for this IT Function, maximizing the outputs and quality of this critical Technology Capability. You will be a strategic leader who champions the use of Quality Assurance to deliver effective solutions to Product Teams & Technology. A recognized leader with substantial experience of leading Quality Assurance & Test Practises, who champions expert knowledge to drive disciplines, standards and processes to others. **Key Responsibilities**: - Leading and embedding the Quality Assurance Operating Capability throughout Technology and Product Teams - Responsible for the Delivery of the Enterprise Quality Assurance Strategy and the execution to its approach and content. - Accountable for the Delivery of the Enterprise Test Strategy and the execution to its approach and content. - Lead, manage and develop a large, multi-Platform skilled team of QA professionals and maximize the potential of people, teams and Platforms to achieve the best-in-class efficiency and effectiveness for Testing Services - Setting up a World Class Testing Centre of Excellence focusing on leading edge Frameworks for Automation, Performance, Security and Accessibility to drive efficiency and effectiveness - Owns the strategic technical direction for Quality Assurance through identification of future trends/requirements within scope of expertise and contribution to the development of new concepts which drive the overall Technology Capability - Leads, motivates and develops QA colleagues to ensure that individual and collective performance is of the required standard and meets both current and future needs of Technology - Collaborate with software engineering and product teams to ensure quality is designed in from the inception of the design process, that we can measure quality reliably and predictably throughout development enabling key decisions by Technology and Product Teams - Responsible for Test Tool standardisation across the Department focusing on Strategic Tool Sets along with open-source capabilities - Accountability for strategic partner and supplier relationships within QA to ensure Technology and Business Directorates benefit strategically and commercially through world class supplier management and governance. - Introduce value added feedback loops through QA that allow the whole engineering team to Build -> Measure > Learn - Excellent relationship, influencing skills and experience of managing multiple and diverse stakeholder groups. - Responsible for permanent and contingent labour recruitment within the Quality Assurance job family, in addition to career path guidance and development. - Responsible for setting up a QA/Test Community for learning, development and collaboration to aid the Head of Profession for QA **Performance Objectives**: - Execute Quality Assurance Assessment to determine the maturity of TMHCC and benchmark against industry best practice. - Establish the Quality Assurance Practice roadmap and implementation agenda to achieve best in class service offering - Build effective and efficient relationships with partner resource augmentation models to fulfil Demand & Capacity Management, Best Practice, Innovation and Tooling Strategy **Skills and Experience Specification**: **Essential**: - 10+ years of Quality Assurance & Test Management experience with significant delivery exposure in leading Test Practices and setting up a Testing Centre of Excellence - Significant experience delivering QA Services across Digital, Agile (Scrum, DevOps) and Waterfall delivery models - Considerable exposure in leading Test Transformation on Test Driven Development (TDD) and Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) - Experience in implementing Automation initiatives and programmes across the SDLC - Excellent stakeholder management skills operating at C-Level, Director and Head of Role with the addition to working in a highly pressurized and fast paced environment - Proven track record of leading large teams (50+) across multiple locations - ISTQB-BCS Certified Test Manager Advanced Level and ISTQB Certified Tester Expert Level *** **Desirable**: - Prince 2 Foundation or Practitioner accreditation - Certified Scrum Master (CSM) - Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification “Tokio Marine HCC is a leading s