QA Lead in Birmingham

Location: Remote-first (2 days/month in Birmingham office)

About Us

At Data & AI Literacy Academy we believe that data literacy is for everyone. We’re not just delivering courses; we’re transforming how people think about and engage with data, building confident, capable teams in every sector. As a fast-growing EdTech company, our mission is to make data accessible, relatable and actionable across all roles. We design and deliver dynamic, role-specific programmes that empower individuals to use data meaningfully in their everyday decisions.

As a Quality Assurance Lead, you'll be responsible for ensuring software quality across the product lifecycle. Sitting across both product and engineering, you'll construct and execute test plans, support engineers in identifying edge cases and designing robust test suites, and provide first-line triage when issues are reported. You'll bring structure and consistency to how we test, document and communicate quality, with a strong emphasis on building towards automation wherever possible.

Why this role is exciting

• This is a rare opportunity to be the founding QA hire and build the quality function from the ground up.
• Own QA end-to-end as our first dedicated quality hire.
• Set the strategy, the standards and the tooling, then grow the function as the company scales.
• Establish testing practices and a culture of quality across an engineering org.
• Build and eventually lead a QA team, hiring and mentoring as the function matures.
• Work as a peer to Engineering and Product leadership, influencing how features are built and how quality is measured.
• Build and expand test automation to improve speed, coverage and confidence in releases.
• Have a direct, visible impact on the reliability of the product our users depend on.

You’ll be defining what "good" looks like here, not inheriting someone else's playbook.

What you’ll be doing

• Setting QA strategy and standards: Define the QA strategy for the organisation from scratch: the framework, methodologies and standards that will form the foundation of quality practice across engineering. Select and implement the testing and automation tooling the team will build on. Work with Engineering and Product leads to define QA processes that enable rapid change without sacrificing quality. Build a culture of quality by embedding quality thinking into every stage of the development lifecycle, from sprint planning through to release.
• Building and growing the function: Lay the groundwork for a QA team: define the roles, ways of working and hiring bar as the function grows. Mentor engineers on testing practices and, over time, hire and lead QA team members. Act as the organisation's authority on quality, the person others look to for direction on testing approach and risk.
• Constructing test plans: Collaborate with product managers and engineers to translate requirements into structured, comprehensive test plans. Identify risks, assumptions and dependencies early in the development cycle. Define clear acceptance criteria and test coverage goals for each feature or release.
• Executing and reporting: Run test plans across manual and automated workflows. Document results in a standardised format that gives the team consistent, actionable visibility into quality. Own the reporting cadence and flag trends, recurring issues or gaps in coverage.
• Supporting engineers with edge cases and test design: Partner with developers to surface boundary conditions, failure modes and unexpected user behaviours. Drive the design of test suites that go well beyond the happy path, with a focus on automating repeatable tests. Champion a quality-first mindset across the team.
• First-line support and triage: Act as the initial point of contact for software issues reported by internal stakeholders or end users. Reproduce bugs, assess severity and gather the context engineers need to resolve them quickly. Route and elevate issues appropriately, keeping reporters informed throughout.

What we’re looking for

• Proven experience as a first or early QA hire, having built a quality function from the ground up: defining processes, selecting tooling and establishing standards where none existed.
• Experience setting QA strategy and influencing how an engineering org approaches quality.
• Significant experience in software testing or QA.
• Experience with test automation frameworks (Selenium, Cypress, Playwright or similar).
• Experience writing and maintaining automated test scripts.
• Solid understanding of testing methodologies (functional, regression, exploratory, smoke, integration).
• Strong written communication. Your bug reports, test plans and process documentation need to be clear and actionable.
• Great attention to detail and a natural instinct for asking "what if?"
• Organised and able to manage multiple test cycles and priorities at once.
• Comfortable using bug-tracking tools such as Jira or similar.

Nice to have (but strongly valued)

• Experience hiring, mentoring or leading other QA engineers.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and how automated testing integrates into them.
• Experience with test management tools like TestRail or Zephyr.
• ISTQB or equivalent certification.

You’ll thrive in this role if you

• Like bringing order and consistency to messy or undocumented processes, and have done it before from a blank page.
• Enjoy breaking things as much as building them.
• Care deeply about the end-user experience.
• Get satisfaction from finding the bug nobody else spotted.
• See repetitive manual testing as a problem to solve through automation.
• Want the autonomy and ownership that comes with defining a function, not just running one.

You might be a great fit if you've…

• Joined a company with little or no QA and left it with a working quality function.
• Chosen and rolled out testing tooling and automation frameworks that a team then standardised on.
• Written detailed bug reports that engineers actually thanked you for.
• Built test plans or checklists, even informally, to validate a feature or release.
• Written automated tests or scripts to save yourself and others from repetitive work.
• Mentored colleagues on testing practices, formally or informally.
• Provided technical support and enjoyed the detective work of reproducing issues.

Define and own the quality function for a product our users depend on, with the mandate to shape it from day one. Work across product and engineering, building relationships and influence in both. Grow into a leadership role as the QA function and team expand. Develop deep expertise in test strategy, automation and quality processes. Join a collaborative team that values rigour, clear communication and continuous improvement.

Fully hybrid working model, with one two-day onsite session per month in Birmingham.

Ready to Apply? We’re excited to learn more about you. If this sounds like your next challenge, don’t hesitate to apply! Applicants must have the right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.