Programme Test Manager

Role/Job title: Programme Test Manager

Duration of assignment: 12 months

Mode of working: Hybrid - 3-days onsite

Location: Edinburgh / Manchester - Associate is required to travel Dublin and London at once in a month or as mutual agreement with customer. Do you have

Do you have extensive Programme Test Manager experience on large, complex transformation and migration programmes, Demonstrable ownership of testing across multiple workstreams, vendors and locations, including offshore teams and Strong Policy Administration System experience within Life, Protection, Pensions, Annuities or Long-Term Savings?

If yes to all the above then our client is seeking a proven Programme Test Manager to lead end-to-end testing for a complex protection insurance transformation and migration programme. You will integrate distributed test streams, strengthen quality governance and provide programme leadership with a single, evidence-based view of quality, risk and release readiness. The programme includes implementation and customisation of a new Policy Administration System and migration of approximately 280,000 in-force policies across the UK and Ireland.

Your responsibilities:

• Define, own and maintain the programme-wide Test Strategy across all delivery streams.
• Develop and govern the Integrated Master Test Plan across platform delivery, customisation, migration, business testing, releases and cutover.
• Lead and quality-assure Test Managers and Test Leads across multiple vendors, locations and delivery teams.
• Establish common standards, quality gates, entry and exit criteria, metrics, reporting cadence and evidence requirements.
• Own programme-level assurance across system, integration, end-to-end, migration, regression, UAT, non-functional and operational readiness testing.
• Lead migration assurance, including transformation validation, reconciliation, controls, exception management, dress rehearsals and production verification.
• Establish cross-vendor defect governance and maintain end-to-end traceability from requirements through testing, defects and acceptance evidence.
• Coordinate test environments and test data, ensuring appropriate security, compliance and data controls.
• Provide concise executive reporting on coverage, defect health, dependencies, residual risk and release readiness.
• Provide evidence-based quality-gate and go/no-go recommendations, driving recovery actions where testing is fragmented or delayed.

Your Profile

Essential skills/knowledge/experience:

• Extensive Programme Test Manager experience on large, complex transformation and migration programmes.
• Demonstrable ownership of testing across multiple workstreams, vendors and locations, including offshore teams.
• Strong Policy Administration System experience within Life, Protection, Pensions, Annuities or Long-Term Savings.
• Significant data migration testing experience, including reconciliation, transformation validation, exception analysis, rehearsals and production verification.
• Proven ability to define programme test strategies, integrated plans, quality gates and enterprise-level governance.
• Strong defect governance and management-information discipline, translating complex data into a clear readiness position.
• Experience governing UAT, business acceptance, operational readiness, major releases, cutover and production assurance.
• Strong executive stakeholder management, including engagement with Programme Directors, CIOs, Steering Committees and senior business leaders.
• Experience in regulated UK or Irish Financial Services, with strong audit, traceability and evidence disciplines.
• Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps or equivalent test management and delivery tools.

Desirable skills/knowledge/experience:

• Testing experience across both UK and Irish regulated entities.
• Knowledge of commission, finance, actuarial, valuation or general-ledger testing.
• Experience with SaaS-based Policy Administration Platforms.
• Experience introducing CI/CD, automation and shift-left practices within hybrid Agile and Waterfall programmes.
• Experience stabilising or recovering fragmented testing structures or software-quality challenges.
• ISTQB Advanced Test Manager certification or equivalent professional accreditation.