Programme Test Manager in Manchester

Position: Programme Test Manager Location: Edinburgh / Manchester (Hybrid-3 days a week from office) 12 months contract position Any other working conditions-Associate is required to travel Dublin and London at once in a month or as mutual agreement with customer. The Role As Programme Test Manager, you will lead end-to-end testing for a complex protection insurance transformation and migration programme. You will integrate distributed test streams, strengthen quality governance and provide programme leadership with a single, evidence-based view of quality, risk and release readiness. The programme includes implementation and customisation of a new Policy Administration System and migration of approximately 280,000 in-force policies across the UK and Ireland. Your responsibilities: * Define, own and maintain the programme-wide Test Strategy across all delivery streams. * Develop and govern the Integrated Master Test Plan across platform delivery, customisation, migration, business testing, releases and cutover. * Lead and quality-assure Test Managers and Test Leads across multiple vendors, locations and delivery teams. * Establish common standards, quality gates, entry and exit criteria, metrics, reporting cadence and evidence requirements. * Own programme-level assurance across system, integration, end-to-end, migration, regression, UAT, non-functional and operational readiness testing. * Lead migration assurance, including transformation validation, reconciliation, controls, exception management, dress rehearsals and production verification. * Establish cross-vendor defect governance and maintain end-to-end traceability from requirements through testing, defects and acceptance evidence. * Coordinate test environments and test data, ensuring appropriate security, compliance and data controls. * Provide concise executive reporting on coverage, defect health, dependencies, residual risk and release readiness. * Provide evidence-based quality-gate and go/no-go recommendations, driving recovery actions where testing is fragmented or delayed. Your Profile Essential skills/knowledge/experience: * Extensive Programme Test Manager experience on large, complex transformation and migration programmes. * Demonstrable ownership of testing across multiple workstreams, vendors and locations, including offshore teams. * Strong Policy Administration System experience within Life, Protection, Pensions, Annuities or Long-Term Savings. * Significant data migration testing experience, including reconciliation, transformation validation, exception analysis, rehearsals and production verification. * Proven ability to define programme test strategies, integrated plans, quality gates and enterprise-level governance. * Strong defect governance and management-information discipline, translating complex data into a clear readiness position. * Experience governing UAT, business acceptance, operational readiness, major releases, cutover and production assurance. * Strong executive stakeholder management, including engagement with Programme Directors, CIOs, Steering Committees and senior business leaders. * Experience in regulated UK or Irish Financial Services, with strong audit, traceability and evidence disciplines. * Proficiency with Jira, Confluence, Azure DevOps or equivalent test management and delivery tools. Desirable skills/knowledge/experience: * Testing experience across both UK and Irish regulated entities. * Knowledge of commission, finance, actuarial, valuation or general-ledger testing. * Experience with SaaS-based Policy Administration Platforms. * Experience introducing CI/CD, automation and shift-left practices within hybrid Agile and Waterfall programmes. * Experience stabilising or recovering fragmented testing structures or software-quality challenges. * ISTQB Advanced Test Manager certification or equivalent professional accreditation