About the position
Test Strategy & Execution (30%):
Define and own the overall test strategy, approach and KPIs for assigned programmes and releases.
Develop comprehensive test plans, test schedules and test cases aligned to requirements and acceptance criteria.
Drive test automation initiatives together with the relevant technical specialists - selecting suitable frameworks and ensuring coverage and maintainability.
Coordinate and manage end-to-end testing cycles including environment readiness, data setup and test execution.
Support User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with business stakeholders and ensure successful sign-off.
Defect Management (25%):
Be the key contact person for Defect Management - own the full defect lifecycle from identification to closure.
Ensure that defects are prioritised, managed effectively, and closure criteria are enforced.
Conduct regular defect triage meetings with development and product team.
Monitor defect aging and escalate overdue or blocking defects with urgency.
Drive root cause analysis for recurring defects and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
Produce defect analytics and trend reports (inflow/outflow, root cause analysis, defect density per component etc.)
Release Management & Deployment (25%):
Release Management including strategic release planning, orchestration of deployments, rollback strategies and post-release validation.
Define and enforce quality gates, exit criteria and measurable KPIs for Testing & Release Management.
Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to include non-functional testing in release plans.
Coordinate deployment windows with infrastructure, DevOps, and operations teams.
Monitor post-deployment health: smoke tests, error rates, log analysis.
Reporting, Governance & Continuous Improvement (20%):
Act as primary point of contact for test progress, quality risks and release readiness with stakeholders.
Establish and monitor quality metrics and reporting; escalate issues and recommend corrective actions.
Preparation and communication of test reports during test execution phases (SIT, UAT, E2E).
Drive continuous improvement within area of responsibility.
Promote best practices in testing, including shift-left testing, automation-first mindset and continuous improvement.
Actively use and promote the relevant AI4DevOps use cases.
WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?
Test Coverage: Critical paths covered, no blind spots - automated where it counts.
Defect Leakage: Defects caught before production - leakage rate < 5%.
Defect Backlog: Clean, actively managed - no defects aging beyond 90 days without reason.
Releases: Deployed on time, validated, rollback plans tested - success rate > 95%.
We don't need someone who writes test plans and hopes for the best. We need someone who takes ownership of quality end-to-end, and makes sure nothing ships that shouldn't.
Minimum Requirements:
Qualifications/Experience:
IT Degree / Diploma or relevant experience.
ISTQB Certifications (Advantageous).
10 to 15+ years’ experience in software testing and release practices with significant experience building test organisations and leading complex release programs.
Demonstrable track record delivering Test & Release Management for complex, multi-team software projects in Agile environments.
Essential Skills Requirements:
Test Lifecycle & Execution:
Deep expertise in the full test lifecycle: Strategy, planning, design, execution, defect management and reporting.
Deep expertise in testing execution phases: Functional, Systems Integration, Regression, UAT and End-to-end Testing.
Proficiency with test data management - you ensure the right data is available for meaningful test execution.
Proficiency with test management and defect tracking tools (e.g. Jira, Xray, Zephyr, TestRail).
Knowledge of test automation frameworks and tools (e.g. Selenium, Playwright, or equivalent).
Ability to mentor, coach and grow testing capabilities within the team.
Defect Management & Quality Analytics
Deep expertise with defect lifecycle management and root-cause analysis.
Experience implementing processes that reduce defect leakage to production.
Experience implementing test metrics dashboards and using analytics to drive quality improvements.
Ability to define and enforce quality gates, exit criteria and measurable KPIs for Testing & Release Management.
Release Management & Deployment
Deep expertise in Release Management including strategic release planning, orchestration of large-scale.
deployments, rollback strategies and post-release validation.
Risk identification and mitigation skills related to quality, timelines and releases.
Experience supporting continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
Stakeholder Management & Communication:
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
Ability to liaise with stakeholders at different levels: Product, Dev, Ops and Business teams.
Experience working in Agile/Scrum environments with cross-functional teams.
Clear, assertive communicator who makes go/no-go recommendations based on objective data - you can push back when quality is at risk.
Advantageous Skills Requirements:
Knowledge of processes and tools (ATC ecosystem).
Experience with ITSM processes (Incident, Problem, Change) and tools like ServiceNow.
Knowledge of performance / load testing tools (e.g. JMeter, Gatling, k6).
Knowledge of security testing approaches and common tools (e.g. OWASP, SAST/DAST tools).
Knowledge of cloud platforms and testing in cloud-native environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Knowledge of CI/CD pipeline management tools (GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
Familiarity with Jira and Confluence for tracking and documentation.
Desired Skills:
- Test Lifecycle & Execution
- Defect Management & Quality Analytics
- Test & Release Management
