At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a team to ensure top-notch quality for consumer-facing products and drive automation.
- Company: Global, an inclusive employer committed to diversity and innovation.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, growth opportunities, and a supportive work environment.
- Other info: Join a dynamic team with a focus on collaboration and cutting-edge technology.
- Why this job: Shape the quality strategy for products enjoyed by millions and make a real impact.
- Qualifications: Experience in automated testing, leadership skills, and a passion for quality engineering.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
This job is with Global, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.
Your Role: Lead Test Engineer
Keeping our audiences entertained with their favourite podcasts, radio shows, video content and playlists, the Consumer Growth team builds best-in-class tech to help our teams create, finesse and deliver this content day after day. From internal studio tools to our Global Player product across mobile, smart speakers, smart TV and in-car platforms, we're always looking for new ways to make our content look and sound great.
As a Lead Test Engineer in the Consumer Growth team at Global, reporting to the Head of Engineering, you will own the quality strategy for Global's consumer-facing products, leading a team of QA Engineers and driving automation across Global Player and other key surfaces.
Key Responsibilities
- Automation leadership (30%): Set the technical direction for our automated test suites across web and mobile, ensuring they provide a strong quality bar and fast, reliable feedback to engineering teams.
- Team leadership & development (25%): Line-manage and mentor QA Engineers, setting clear goals, supporting growth within our progression framework and fostering a culture of quality across the team.
- Quality ownership & releases (25%): Own confidence in our releases, coordinating QA activity, triaging issues, tracking quality metrics such as bugs and incident rates, and reporting clearly to stakeholders.
- Test strategy & process improvement (20%): Work with other engineering leads to define and evolve our test strategy, identifying gaps in coverage, processes or tooling and proposing pragmatic improvements.
What You'll Love About This Role
- Think Big: Shape the end-to-end quality strategy for products used by millions, from Global Player to new consumer experiences across multiple platforms.
- Own It: Take ownership of our quality gates and automated test suites, making clear, data-informed decisions that directly influence release readiness.
- Keep it Simple: Design test approaches, pipelines and tooling that are maintainable, efficient and easy for engineers and QA to work with every day.
- Better Together: Partner closely with engineering, product and delivery leads, building strong relationships and helping teams ship high-quality features at pace.
What Success Looks Like
- In your first few months, you'll have taken ownership of our release quality gate and recommended clear, practical improvements to how we assess release readiness.
- Worked with your team to set meaningful, achievable growth goals within our progression framework.
- Built strong relationships with engineering and product leads, aligning on delivery plans and quality expectations.
- Established a roadmap for evolving our test strategy, CI/CD test pipelines and automated test suites across platforms.
What You'll Need
- Automated testing: Strong experience writing and maintaining automated tests for web and mobile applications. Experience with TypeScript or Python is essential; familiarity with tools such as Appium and/or Playwright is highly beneficial.
- Quality engineering mindset: A solid understanding of reliability, performance and user experience considerations across a range of client platforms.
- CI/CD experience: Hands-on experience integrating test suites into CI/CD pipelines and improving how and when tests run.
- Test suite performance: Experience optimising test suite runtimes, including test case parallelism and other performance techniques.
- Scalable test architecture: Knowledge of how to architect large test suites for maintainability, clarity and minimal duplication.
- AI curiosity: An interest in exploring AI engineering techniques to increase efficiency in test design, test data generation and agent-based quality checks.
- Testing craft: Strong experience designing test plans, identifying edge cases and running effective exploratory testing.
- Leadership & mentoring: Experience leading or mentoring test or QA engineers, influencing technical direction and ways of working.
- Cloud & tooling awareness: A basic understanding of AWS infrastructure, Kubernetes and modern engineering tooling, or a willingness to learn.
Lead Test Engineer employer: Global
Global is an exceptional employer that fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration, making it an ideal place for professionals looking to make a significant impact in the tech industry. With a strong emphasis on employee growth and development, you will have access to numerous opportunities to enhance your skills and advance your career while working alongside visionary leaders in a dynamic environment. Located at the forefront of technological advancement, Global offers unique advantages such as exposure to cutting-edge AI initiatives and a commitment to continuous improvement.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Lead Test Engineer
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Global or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Global.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Global.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Global that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Lead Test Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Global.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Global and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Global
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Global uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
