Senior QA Lead (FX Trading Platforms) - Contractor Inside IR35 in London

The Role

As a Senior QA Lead, you will work at the intersection of data, technology, and business, helping our clients turn complexity into clarity and insights into impact. You will collaborate with multidisciplinary teams in an international environment and contribute to projects that drive performance, innovation, and sustainable growth.

Job location: London, UK (Hybrid, 3 days in Canary Wharf)

Contract type: Contractor Inside IR35

Target start date: ASAP

Working hours: Full‑time (40h/week)

Compensation: £550 - £650 per day (based on expertise)

Your Impact

• Define and own the end‑to‑end QA strategy for FX trading, pricing, and execution systems (front‑to‑back and into reporting).
• Establish test frameworks, governance standards, quality gates, and best practices across environments.
• Lead QA planning: test strategy, test plans, and regression suites, aligned to CI/CD.
• Lead QA engineers and manage test leads/UAT testers to champion quality engineering across the program.
• Plan and run large‑scale UAT, including communications and readiness for environment/location changes.
• Perform functional, integration, regression, and performance testing for low‑latency, real‑time FX platforms.
• Validate real‑time data flows (pricing feeds, market data, execution paths) and data integrity using SQL.
• Implement CI/CD‑aligned testing to ensure scalable, reliable, and repeatable delivery.
• Partner with developers, architects, product, and business SMEs to cover functional and non‑functional requirements.
• Identify quality gaps and drive improvements in tooling, process, and delivery.

What Makes This Role Challenging

• Operating in complex, latency‑sensitive trading environments with real‑time market connectivity.
• Balancing rigorous quality with pragmatic delivery under time‑critical constraints.
• Coordinating across multiple business lines, stakeholder groups and cultures.
• Collaborating in migration initiatives.
• Owning outcomes with high autonomy, increasing responsibility, and visible impact.

What We’re Looking For

Must‑haves

• 10+ years of QA experience, with proven ownership of testing strategy for complex platforms.
• FX domain expertise (4+ years) covering pricing/quoting, order execution, trade capture, risk, market connectivity, settlements, reconciliations, and reporting.
• Demonstrated leadership experience, including managing QA leads, coordinating large user groups (UAT), and driving end‑to‑end quality outcomes across teams.
• Strong SQL skills to validate data flows, troubleshoot issues, and support analysis across systems.
• Automation mindset and hands‑on experience with test automation (e.g., Selenium, Playwright).
• Solid grounding in QA methodologies, test design, defect management, and CI/CD integration.
• Experience leading UAT at scale (planning, user segmentation, communications, execution, and sign‑off).
• Excellent analytical, documentation, and communication skills; ability to partner with technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work independently, make sound decisions, and drive end‑to‑end quality outcomes.
• Fluency in English.

Nice‑to‑haves

• Knowledge of Snowflake and modern data platforms (including data catalogue validation and data quality controls).
• Exposure to data centre migrations, environment cutovers, and change communications to large user populations.
• Knowledge of performance testing for latency‑sensitive systems (e.g., JMeter, Gatling) and observability practices.
• Expertise in multiple FX products.
• Prior experience managing test leads and coaching QA teams in regulated financial environments.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and encourage applications from all backgrounds, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.