Head of QA

About Splash Damage

We believe that games play better with friends. For more than 20 years, we’ve been creating team-based multiplayer experiences that have entertained tens of millions of players all over the world and forged countless new friendships along the way.

Our studio culture is rooted in our open, friendly, and collaborative environment. Our games are made by people from all over the world, from our entry-level Fresh Talent hires to industry veterans, and we believe that fostering that diverse culture is the best way to build both our games and our studio. We have won numerous awards, including a ‘World-Class’ accreditation by Best Companies and being named one of the UK’s 100 Best Large Companies to work for.

While our offices are based in Bromley, UK, our people have access to progressive working patterns that give them the flexibility to decide how to do their best work.

**Benefits**:
We offer a comprehensive benefits package for you and your family, including:

- Work your way with access to progressive working patterns including hybrid and fully remote
- Substantial performance-related pay system on top of your basic compensation, along with enhanced pension contributions and our life assurance scheme
- Bespoke VISA and relocation packages for you and your family, with support from our team throughout the whole process
- 25 days of holiday and 8 Bank Holidays a year, plus our annual studio closure between Christmas and New Year’s
- Private Medical and Dental Cover for you and your family, along with a 24/7 digital GP service
- Extensive Mental Health support, with Line Manager Mental Health training, a group of Mental Health First-Aiders, and on-site or remote counselling
- Our bespoke Learning and Development course framework to help you grow as an employee, manager, and leader
- Industry-leading fully paid 30 weeks maternity leave & 10 weeks paternity leave

The Role

The Head of QA is a senior position within our organisation who defines the QA strategy and approach for all our company’s products. The role requires strategic thinking and planning, providing expertise throughout the entire development life cycle of each product at Splash Damage, and ensuring quality assessments are baked into every phase.

This role is a natural progression from a QA Manager position; therefore, you must have a proven track record of building high performing QA teams, managing the function, and being an advocate for the department. You will be taking responsibility for ensuring all development tasks meet quality criteria through test planning, test execution, quality assurance, and issue tracking.

**Responsibilities**:

- Defining the QA strategy, approach, and execution across our projects in development.
- Coaching and directing the QA Leadership Team; providing clear objectives, as well as agreeing action areas (where support is needed).
- Providing leadership and technical expertise to the studio within Test Automation and Quality Assurance.
- Overseeing interviews, inductions, training, and performance evaluations for all QA Leads.
- Ensuring all development teams adhere to our principles, guidelines, and best practices for Quality Assurance.
- Working with Production and other departments to ensure all projects are shipped on time, and to the highest quality.
- Developing a roadmap for building required test expertise where necessary while working with Production, HR, and Recruitment to ensure all QA resourcing needs are clear and fulfilled at all times.
- Identifying all QA requirements and ensure your department is accurately represented.
- Building and fostering good working relationships with outsourcing partners to ensure necessary support functions are in place. E.g., compatibility testing, standards compliance.
- Usage of bug tracking tools to analyse and understand key metrics to inform stakeholders and facilitate decision making at all levels.
- Defining and implementing critical knowledge transfer and communication processes with internal and external teams.
- Defining and implementing metrics, reporting mechanisms, and project/test management methodologies.
- Continually improve the operational efficiency and effectiveness of the QA effort by assessing current quality assurance practices and incorporating new strategies.
- Be an internal advocate and spokesperson for all things QA. Clearly communicate issues, risks, concerns, and successes to stakeholders.
- Helping guide our investments into the right tooling and infrastructure for all QA areas.
- Holding Production and Development teams to account with late deliverables to QA.
- Provides actionable data to inform decision making when driving quality across the organisation.
- Coordinates with our external QA partners; ensuring our internal teams are providing suitable onboarding with test plan direction, OFT documents, TFC guidance, etc.
- Helps leadership to build strong, long-term QA plans for the business; integrating