QA Team Lead

About Artificial

At Artificial, we’re building the next generation of technology for the specialty (re)insurance market. Our mission is to transform how brokers and carriers operate in complex markets by removing operational barriers and enabling smarter, faster decision‑making. We use modern technology to solve real challenges for some of the world’s leading brokers and insurers. By automating the repetitive and structuring the complex, we help our partners unlock new opportunities for innovation and growth. You’ll be joining a collaborative team that values curiosity, ownership, and continuous learning. We work in an environment where ideas are heard, support is built‑in, and outcomes matter. Everyone here has the chance to make a tangible impact on our products, our customers, and the industry.

We've just raised $45M (£33M) in Series B funding from lead investor CommerzVentures, new investor Move Capital, as well as all existing shareholders. This investment round gives us the room to grow with confidence, continue to innovate, and ensure that Artificial remains the first choice for brokers and carriers seeking a smarter way to trade digitally. Join us, and take the chance to be a part of something that will change the landscape of insurance for generations.

About the role

Artificial's API‑first SaaS platform powers the full lifecycle of specialty (re)insurance - from broking to underwriting - through a proprietary DSL that makes products, workflows, and rules fully programmable. Customers get tailored configurations layered on top by our Forward Deployed Engineering team, making this one of the most flexible and technically ambitious platforms in the market. We're hiring a QA Team Lead to build and lead a dedicated Product QA function from the ground up. Part quality strategist, part test architect, part people leader - you'll define our QA strategy, hire and develop a team, and embed quality practices across the full product and configuration lifecycle. Working across our three product modes - Discovery, Delivery, and Optimisation - you'll establish QA as a core discipline at every stage of how we build, ship, and improve. This is a high‑impact role at a pivotal moment. Quality is currently under‑resourced and creating real delivery bottlenecks; you'll be the person who fixes that - standing up the team, tooling, processes, and culture to make it stick. You'll join an established team of insurance and technical experts as we scale to meet a growing client pipeline.

Testing Stack Summary

• Frontend/E2E: Playwright for end‑to‑end tests, Jest for frontend unit tests, with LLM‑assisted tooling and visual regression reporting baked into the PR workflow.
• Backend/Infra: Haskell (hspec/quickcheck) for backend testing, golden tests for the DSL compiler, load testing via Artillery/k6, and CI through Buildkite with OpenTelemetry monitoring.

Responsibilities

• QA strategy and framework: Define and own the end‑to‑end QA strategy for Artificial's product portfolio and growing library of customer specifications - including testing standards, quality gates, acceptance criteria templates, and a risk‑based test coverage model.
• Team building and leadership: Recruit, onboard, and lead a QA team of 3‑4 QA engineers (manual, automated, and hybrid profiles); establish team rituals, development plans, and a culture of quality ownership; manage workload allocation across concurrent product bets.
• Process design and integration: Design lightweight, effective QA processes that integrate into Shape Up product delivery cycles and more agile customer specification development - including test planning during shaping, clear handoff protocols between engineering and QA, regression strategies, and Definition of Done criteria that include quality sign‑off.
• Test automation and tooling: Establish the automation strategy and infrastructure - automated regression suites, CI/CD integration, test environment management whilst working alongside the existing Performance and QA tooling efforts to avoid duplication and maximise coverage.
• Quality across DDO+ modes: Embed QA touch points across Discovery (validating prototypes and assumptions), Delivery (sprint‑level and bet‑level testing execution), and Optimisation (production monitoring, defect trend analysis, instrumentation audits).
• Issue triage and defect management: Own the bug triage and routing process, connecting QA findings to the appropriate product and engineering teams via Linear; establish severity frameworks, SLAs for defect resolution, and a feedback loop from production issues back into test planning.
• Metrics and continuous improvement: Define and track QA health metrics test coverage, defect escape rate, cycle time impact, regression pass rates — and use these to drive continuous improvement; contribute to the broader DDO+ measurement framework alongside Product Operations.
• Capacity planning and hiring: Forecast QA capacity needs against the product roadmap and bet pipeline; make testing constraints visible during Betting Table discussions; inform hiring plans with data on coverage gaps and delivery risk.
• Cross‑functional collaboration: Partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, Solutions/FDEs, and Customer Success to align on quality expectations, reduce the reliance on Field Delivery Engineers for testing new facilities, and ensure consistent quality across customer deployments.
• Reporting: Provide quality reports, defect trend analysis, and release readiness assessments; deliver concise, regular updates to the CPO and stakeholders on QA maturity and risk.

About you

Skills, Experience, and Qualifications

• Significant experience (7+ years) in QA or software testing, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead role where you were responsible for building or scaling a QA function.
• Proven track record of setting up QA teams from scratch or near‑scratch - including defining strategy, hiring, establishing processes, and delivering results within the first six months.
• Built and led a QA team at a growing SaaS or platform company (e.g. ~75 → ~150 headcount).
• Deep expertise in both manual and automated testing methodologies, with hands‑on experience designing automation frameworks and CI/CD‑integrated test pipelines.
• Strong understanding of modern product development practices - Shape Up, Scrum, Kanban, or similar - and experience embedding QA seamlessly into iterative delivery cycles.
• Experience with test management and defect tracking tools (e.g. Linear, Jira, or equivalent).
• Excellent people leadership – you can recruit, coach, and develop QA engineers while managing workload across multiple concurrent workstreams.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills at all levels, with the ability to articulate quality risk in business terms.

We especially want to hear from you if you have:

• Experience in financial services, insurtech, or similarly regulated environments where quality and compliance are critical.
• Experience with performance testing, accessibility testing, or security testing as part of a broader QA remit.
• Worked with product analytics and monitoring tools (e.g. FullStory, Datadog, Sentry) to close the loop between production quality and test planning.
• Contributed to or owned a QA centre of excellence or community of practice.
• Familiarity with Shape Up, Team Topologies, or similar scaling frameworks.

Benefits

• Private medical insurance
• Income protection insurance
• Life insurance of 4 × base salary
• On‑site gym and shower facilities
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
• Team social events and company parties
• Salary exchange on pension and nursery fees
• Access to Maji, the financial wellbeing platform
• Company stock options managed through Ledgy
• Milestone Birthday Bonus and a Life Events leave policy
• Generous holiday allowance of 28 days plus national holidays
• Home office and equipment allowance, and a company MacBook
• Learning allowance and leave to attend conferences or take exams
• YuLife employee benefits, including EAP and bereavement helplines
• For each new hire, we plant a tree through our partnership with Ecologi Action
• The best coffee machine in London, handmade in Italy and imported just for us!

We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to building a team that reflects the diverse communities around us. If there’s anything you need to make the hiring process more accessible, just let us know—we’re happy to make adjustments. You’re also welcome to share your preferred pronouns with us at any point. Think you don’t meet every requirement? Please apply anyway. We value potential as much as experience, and we know that raw talent counts. As part of our hiring process, we’ll carry out some background checks. These may include a criminal record check, reviewing your credit history, speaking with previous employers and confirming your academic qualifications.