Quality Engineering (QE) Architect/Lead
3 days ago
York
\n Quality Engineering (QE) Architect/Lead - York (2/3 days) - 12 months - £400 \n Role \n QE Architect is the strategic and hands-on Quality Engineering leader responsible for defining, architecting, and governing the enterprise-wide quality engineering capability across the Tech Transformation portfolio. The role enables a product-led delivery model by embedding continuous testing, automation-first, shift-left quality practices, risk-based assurance, and flow engineering principles throughout the software development life cycle. \n Experience & Qualifications \n\n • 12+ years of experience in Quality Engineering, Software Engineering or Test Automation.\n, • Minimum 5 years' operating as QE Architect/Principal Quality Engineer or Enterprise QE Lead level.\n, • Proven experience designing and scaling enterprise automation frameworks.\n, • Demonstrable expertise implementing Quality Engineering capabilities across large transformation portfolios.\n, • Strong experience with cloud, APIs, enterprise integration and data platform testing.\n, • Experience supporting Agile, Product-led and DevOps delivery models.\n, • Experience implementing TDD, BDD and Continuous Testing practices.\n, • Experience within Financial Services, Insurance or highly regulated industries preferred.\n\n Key Responsibilities \n 1. QE Strategy, Architecture & Transformation \n\n • Define and maintain the Tech Transformation Quality Engineering Architecture and target-state quality operating model.\n, • Establish enterprise standards for automation, continuous testing, quality gates, test observability, and release assurance.\n, • Drive adoption of engineering-led quality practices aligned to DevOps and Flow Engineering principles.\n, • Design scalable QE frameworks that support Digital, Workbench, Data, AI and Integration platforms.\n, • Define and govern end-to-end integration testing to ensure seamless data flow, business process integrity, and operational reliability across core Policy, Claims, D365, Power Platform, API, and downstream enterprise systems\n, • Create reusable quality engineering assets, accelerators and reference architectures to increase delivery efficiency across programmes.\n, • Partner with Architecture, Engineering and Product leadership to embed quality from ideation through production.\n\n 1. Automation Architecture & Continuous Testing \n\n • Architect and evolve enterprise automation frameworks covering UI, API, Data, Integration, AI and Non-Functional testing.\n, • Drive automation-first delivery ensuring automated validation is Embedded throughout CI/CD pipelines.\n, • Define testing strategies across the testing pyramid, ensuring automation is implemented at the most effective layer.\n, • Establish standards for:\n \n, • UI automation\n, • API automation\n, • Contract testing\n, • Data quality testing\n, • Integration testing\n, • Accessibility testing\n, • Performance testing\n, • Security testing\n, • AI model validation\n \n, • Promote Test Driven Development (TDD), Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), Specification by Example and Shift-Left testing practices.\n, • Design quality engineering solutions supporting feature teams, platform teams and product squads.\n\n 1. AI-Led Quality Engineering \n\n • Lead adoption of AI-assisted and Agentic Testing capabilities.\n, • Define enterprise standards for AI-generated test design, test automation generation, self-healing automation and intelligent defect analysis.\n, • Drive effective use of GitHub Copilot, Claude and future AI engineering assistants.\n, • Establish approaches for ML model validation, prompt testing, AI workflow assurance and responsible AI testing.\n, • Identify opportunities to improve QE productivity through AI-driven risk analysis and predictive quality insights.\n\n 1. Technology & Platform Quality Architecture \n Own quality engineering strategy and architecture across: \n Digital CX Platforms \n\n • OutSystems\n\n Business Applications \n\n • Microsoft Dynamics 365\n, • Microsoft Power Platform\n\n Data & Analytics Platforms \n\n • GCP-based solutions\n, • SQL platforms\n, • AI product ecosystems\n, • Power BI\n\n Integration Platforms \n\n • Azure APIM\n, • Event-driven integrations\n\n AI & Intelligent Products \n\n • Underwriting Intelligence solutions\n, • ML-powered products\n, • Email Intake and Fraud/Coverage Assessment platforms\n\n 1. Engineering Excellence & Governance \n\n • Define enterprise quality KPIs and engineering metrics.\n, • Establish quality governance processes supporting risk-based decision making.\n, • Define release readiness standards and quality gates.\n, • Provide independent assurance for high-risk and business-critical initiatives.\n, • Lead defect prevention strategies using root cause analysis and quality trend insights.\n, • Standardise reporting using Power BI, Allure, Azure DevOps dashboards.\n, • Ensure regulatory, audit and operational risk requirements are appropriately addressed.\n\n 1. Capability Building & Technical Leadership \n\n • Act as the senior technical authority for Quality Engineering across the Tech Transformation portfolio.\n, • Coach and mentor QE Leads, SDETs, Automation Engineers and programme test teams.\n, • Develop engineering communities, standards and knowledge-sharing practices.\n, • Drive adoption of modern testing approaches across Product, Engineering and Delivery teams.\n, • Build internal capability and reduce dependency on external suppliers through coaching and framework reuse.\n, • Promote consistent engineering practices across all delivery teams.\n\n Required Technical Expertise \n Programming Languages \n Deep hands-on expertise in: \n\n • TypeScript, JavaScript, C#\n, • Python, PyTest, SQL\n\n Strong understanding of: \n\n • Object-oriented programming\n, • API development and testing\n, • Data engineering concepts\n, • Cloud-native architectures\n, • Microservices architectures\n\n Automation & Testing Tools \n UI Automation \n\n • Playwright, BrowserStack, Applitools\n, • Cucumber/Reqnroll\n\n API Automation \n\n • RestAssured, Postman, Newman, RESTSharp\n\n Email Services \n\n • mailinator\n\n Data Testing \n\n • PyTest, SQL Validation, Databricks Notebooks, Prefect\n\n Performance & NFR \n\n • JMeter, k6, Accessibility Testing (JAWS), Security Testing (OWASP ZAP)\n\n Delivery & DevOps \n\n • Azure DevOps\n, • Azure Repos, Pipelines\n, • Jira, Xray\n\n Reporting & Observability \n\n • Power BI, Allure\n\n AI Engineering \n\n • GitHub Copilot\n, • Claude\n, • Agentic AI Testing Solutions\n