QE Automation Lead - Inside IR35 - Up to £850 per day
QE Automation Lead - Inside IR35 - Up to £850 per day
- Hybrid in Central London (3 Days)
- January Start Date
- 12-Month Initial Contract
We're looking for a senior quality engineering leader to run automation across a fast-moving, API-centric platform that processes data in Real Time. You'll lead a team of 20+ engineers, set the automation strategy, and be accountable for how confidently and consistently we release.
You'll work closely with product owners, business analysts and engineering leadership. You'll build a high-performing team that reduces manual regression effort, expands automated coverage and gives delivery squads lasting ownership of quality.
Key responsibilities
People leadership
- Lead, line manage and develop a team of 20+ quality engineers, including objective setting, performance reviews and career progression
- Build team capacity through hiring, onboarding and succession planning
- Coach and mentor engineers and senior team members in automation-first, risk-based testing
- Foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and shared ownership of quality
- Manage resourcing, workload allocation and delivery priorities across multiple squads
Strategy and delivery
- Own the automation roadmap and backlog, prioritising by business impact and technical risk
- Define and govern the test strategy for complex integrations and Real Time data flows
- Set standards for regression, functional, API, integration and end-to-end automation, and ensure they are consistently applied
- Guide the evolution of our established Python-based test framework, staying hands-on where it matters
Release assurance
- Embed automated testing and evidence into CI/CD pipelines and release quality gates
- Use test results and defect trends to identify risks, and report them clearly to senior stakeholders
- Raise the quality and consistency of the evidence used to sign off releases
- Champion reusable patterns, documentation and playbooks across the organisation
Stakeholder engagement
- Partner with engineering, product and delivery leaders to align quality priorities with business goals
- Represent QE in planning, governance and release forums
- Support squads in building sustainable, self-owned testing practices
What you'll bring
- A proven record in software testing, quality engineering or test automation, with credible hands-on experience
- Experience leading, managing and developing large or multi-disciplinary engineering teams
- Strong Python test automation skills
- Strong AWS cloud experience
- Experience extending and maintaining established automation frameworks
- Broad experience across API, integration, functional, regression and end-to-end testing
- Experience with complex integrations and Real Time or high-volume processing environments
- A solid understanding of CI/CD-based automated test execution
- Working knowledge of Git and Jira
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a knack for spotting coverage gaps and quality risks
- Strong communication and influencing skills at all levels
- Background in financial services
Advantageous
- Familiarity with REST APIs, JSON, XML, HTTP, API authentication and SQL/database validation
- Understanding of performance and load testing principles and microservice architectures