Lead QA Tester
Knutsford (on-site)
Upto £60,000
We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Lead QA Tester to join a dynamic team located in the heart of Knutsford. As Lead QA Tester, you will be responsible for leading product validation efforts and building a robust testing framework for SaaS products. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in quality assurance, test automation, and leadership, ensuring that our products meet excellent standards of quality and reliability.
Responsibilities
Lead Product Validation:
- Oversee the entire QA process for product releases, including planning, execution, and reporting.
- Develop and execute comprehensive test plans, test cases, and test scripts to ensure thorough validation of product features and functionalities.
- Collaborate closely with Product Management, Development, and other stakeholders to understand requirements and define acceptance criteria.
- Conduct functional, regression, integration, performance, and security testing to identify and resolve issues.
- Manage the defect lifecycle, including identifying, logging, tracking, and verifying bugs in collaboration with the development team.
- Ensure all deliverables meet the quality standards and acceptance criteria before deployment.
2. Build and Maintain the Testing Framework:
- Design and implement a scalable and maintainable automated testing framework to improve test coverage and efficiency.
- Integrate automated tests into the continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline to ensure regular and reliable testing.
- Select and implement appropriate testing tools and technologies to support the testing framework.
- Develop and maintain automated test scripts for regression, performance, and security testing.
- Ensure the testing framework can support various testing types, including API, UI, and end-to-end testing.
3. Lead and Mentor the QA Team:
- Provide leadership, guidance, and mentorship to the QA team members.
- Conduct regular code and test case reviews to ensure high-quality standards are maintained.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging team members to learn and adopt new testing methodologies and tools.
- Develop and deliver training sessions and workshops to enhance the skills and knowledge of the QA team.
4. Collaborate with Cross-Functional Teams:
- Work closely with product managers, developers, and designers to understand requirements, provide feedback, and ensure testability.
- Participate in Agile ceremonies such as sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
- Communicate testing progress, results, and issues to stakeholders in a clear and concise manner.
- Advocate for best practices in quality assurance and contribute to process improvements.
Desired Skills & Experience?
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent work experience.
- Proven experience as a QA lead or senior QA engineer in a SaaS or software development environment. Strong knowledge of QA methodologies, tools, and processes.
- Experience with test automation tools (e.g., Selenium, JUnit, TestNG, Cypress).
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD).
- Excellent problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
- Strong leadership and mentoring skills.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
Core Competency Requirements
- Experience with performance and security testing.
- Knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodologies.
- Certification in software testing (e.g., ISTQB, CSTE).