Senior QA Lead - Buckhill

Buckhill is a global technology company with offices in the UK and Croatia. As a strategic technology partner to the London Market, we deliver modern insurance solutions through agile, cross-functional delivery teams leveraging AI capabilities, a growing partner ecosystem, and a culture rooted in innovation and collaboration. We support continuous learning and invest in the growth of our Bucks, fostering an environment where people thrive. With the option for remote work, we've expanded our global footprint, building a diverse and multicultural team making a real impact.  

Role summary:  

We are looking for an experienced Senior QA Lead to define and drive the company-wide QA strategy within an agile environment. You will be responsible for setting the QA vision in alignment with business objectives, ensuring the highest quality standards across all products and development streams. 

This role is pivotal in embedding QA practices within the Scrum framework and fostering a culture of quality and continuous improvement across the organisation. You will lead the team of 8 QA engineers and support their professional growth and technical capabilities. 

The ideal candidate is a proactive leader who embraces agile principles, drives testing automation and continuous delivery, and fosters a strong Definition of Done culture - where testing and quality assurance are fully integrated into development and completed within each Sprint. You will bring deep expertise in modern QA practices, large-scale software testing, and test automation, helping build high-performing, cross-functional Scrum teams that consistently deliver high-quality products. 

The Senior QA Lead will:

• Define and implement a comprehensive QA strategy aligned with company goals and agile continuous delivery practices that support early and continuous testing, including shift-left testing approaches. 
• Collaborate with Product and Delivery teams to ensure that QA processes and practices are embedded into the planning, refinement, and execution of Sprints to achieve a true Definition of Done that includes testing. 
• Identify areas for improvement in the QA process and implement changes to enhance quality and efficiency. 
• Drive the adoption of automation and continuous testing practices in functional, performance, and non-functional testing that support iterative delivery. 
• Continuously optimise the balance between manual and automated testing, ensuring alignment with technical feasibility and business objectives to maximise efficiency and product quality. 
• Evaluate and introduce new tools and frameworks to optimise testing efficiency. 
• Ensure the company's testing strategy, practices, and tools are well documented and maintained. 
• Oversee and lead the team of QA engineers, helping them develop their skills and knowledge while ensuring QA is embedded throughout the Sprint lifecycle. 
• Conduct performance reviews and provide regular feedback to support individual development. 
• Mentor and support team members, delegating tasks and responsibilities effectively and fostering a team culture that supports professional growth and technical expertise. 
• Establish tracking and analysis of key QA metrics to monitor QA trends and drive continuous improvement in a fast-paced, agile environment. 
• Ensure the team maintains all test activities and artefacts (e.g., test plans, test cases, defect reports, and metrics) and makes them transparently available to internal stakeholders. 
• Ensure compliance with security, regulatory, and performance standards. 

Desired Qualifications & Skillset 

• A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related fields 
• 7+ years of experience in QA, with at least 3 years in a leadership role (team lead, manager, or higher). 
• A strong understanding of the modern DevOps approach to product development, including agile testing practices emphasizing the shift-left testing approach and automated testing within CI/CD pipelines. 
• Proven experience in managing QA teams within a Scrum environment.  
• Demonstrated ability to implement and coach agile testing strategies that ensure testing is completed within the Sprint. 
• Strong expertise in automation frameworks and tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright). 
• Experience with testing web-based applications across the full stack (UI, API, databases). 
• In-depth knowledge of cloud-based testing environments. 
• Deep expertise in various testing methodologies, including functional, integration, regression, performance, security, and usability testing. 
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills. 
• Ability to manage and motivate a team of QA engineers 
• Ability to align QA objectives with business and product goals.