Lead Quality Assurance Engineer

Permanent

Salary: Up to £60,000

Location: UK, Remote (Travel to Cheltenham office 4 times a year)

Industry: Education Services

About the Client

Our client is a well-established, employee-owned organisation that provides specialist services to government bodies, educational institutions, professional organisations and employers across the UK and internationally. With a reputation built on trust, quality and expertise, they operate in a highly regulated environment where technology plays a critical role in delivering secure, reliable services.

How you ll spend your day

You'll take ownership of the quality assurance function, helping shape testing strategy and ensuring high-quality software is delivered across a range of business-critical digital platforms. Working closely with Development, Product and Business stakeholders, you'll champion quality throughout the software development lifecycle while mentoring others and driving continuous improvement.

You'll be responsible for:

• Leading the QA function, establishing testing standards, best practices and quality processes across multiple projects.
• Designing and executing comprehensive test strategies, plans and test cases covering functional, regression, integration and system testing.
• Managing defect lifecycles, ensuring issues are prioritised, tracked and resolved efficiently.
• Working closely with Developers, Product Owners and Business stakeholders to ensure requirements are fully understood and testable.
• Supporting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and helping ensure solutions meet business expectations before release.
• Identifying opportunities to introduce or expand test automation using tools such as Selenium, Cypress or Playwright.
• Using Azure DevOps (or similar tools) to manage test execution, traceability, reporting and defect management.
• Driving continuous improvement across QA processes, metrics and governance to improve software quality and delivery efficiency.
• Providing leadership, mentoring and guidance to QA team members while promoting a quality-first culture.
• Collaborating within Agile delivery teams to ensure quality is embedded throughout the software development lifecycle.

What you ll bring to this role

We're looking for an experienced QA professional who enjoys improving software quality, building robust testing processes and working collaboratively across technical and business teams.

You'll ideally have:

• Proven experience leading software testing or quality assurance activities within Agile software delivery environments.
• Strong hands-on experience with manual testing including functional, regression, integration and system testing.
• Experience creating test plans, test cases, test scripts, test data and managing defect lifecycles.
• Working knowledge of Azure DevOps or similar test management tools for test execution, traceability and reporting.
• Understanding of software development lifecycles, release management and modern QA best practices.
• Knowledge of test automation frameworks such as Selenium, Cypress or Playwright, with the ability to identify where automation adds value.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and organisational skills with exceptional attention to detail.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, able to clearly communicate testing progress, quality risks and release readiness.
• Experience mentoring colleagues and promoting quality-focused ways of working across delivery teams.

Desirable experience

• Experience building or evolving a QA function, introducing testing standards, governance and best practices.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and integrating automated testing into build and release processes.
• Experience testing complex web applications, integrations and data-driven systems.
• ISTQB certification (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience working within regulated or compliance-driven environments.

Perks & Benefits:

Time Off & Flexibility

25 days annual leave + bank holidays, with up to 5 days carry-over

Additional day off for your birthday

3 extra days off during the winter office closure

Christmas Eve half-day

Swappable bank holidays

Hybrid working as standard

Financial Wellbeing

Competitive pension scheme (5% employer contribution, matched up to 10%)

Life assurance (4x salary)

Group Income Protection (75% of salary for up to 5 years)

Employee referral scheme

Health & Wellbeing

Private BUPA healthcare (optional)

BUPA dental scheme (optional)

Employee Assistance Programme

Mental Health First Aiders and wellbeing support initiatives

Eye care contribution

Annual flu vaccination voucher

Family Support

Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay

Lifestyle & Perks

Cycle to Work scheme

Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme

Employee discounts and savings platform

Subsidised tickets to local cultural events

Learning & Development

Dedicated learning budget for every employee

Access to company-wide learning and development programmes

Culture & Community

Paid volunteering hours

Quarterly team lunch allowance

Regular company social events

Contribution towards home-working equipment

Weekly fresh fruit delivery to the office

What happens next?

One of our Recruitment Consultants will be in touch and inform you if you ve been successful to the next stage of the process or not, which is a qualification call where we will tell you more about the role and the client, and understand more about you, your experience and career aspirations.

Should we both wish to proceed, we will submit your details to the client and be in touch regarding the outcome and any further steps.

The interview process for this client consists of:

• Initial Teams interview followed by a final interview.

Equal Opportunities

We are committed to providing equal opportunities for all candidates and welcome applications from individuals regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital status, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law. As an employment agency for permanent and contract hires, we are dedicated to promoting a diverse and inclusive workforce, and we encourage applications from underrepresented groups to drive innovation and equality within the workplace.

Should you require any reasonable adjustments please let us know so we can accommodate for any interactions with us at Biometric Talent, but also inform the client to ensure reasonable adjustments are made to allow for a fair and equitable process.