Head of Quality - Ministry of Justice - G6 in Manchester

We’re recruiting for a Head of Quality here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative LAA Digital team. As a Head of Quality, you will provide organisational leadership to foster a cohesive quality strategy across the organisation. You will build capability across the profession and product teams, ensuring teams are equipped to support the strategic direction. You will provide guidance, coaching and mentorship to teams to adopt and embed modern quality practices to deliver the digital services that Legal Aid Providers, citizens and case workers use daily. You will advocate for early, sustainable quality activities and a proactive, quality first, risk aware culture. Your role will be instrumental in influencing quality metrics, governance and continuous optimisation of strategies, test plans and methodologies. This role requires a high level of strategic thinking, technical understanding, capability building and the ability to influence organisational change. You will be responsible for the line management structure of other quality professionals within the organisation.

You will be part of a forward thinking and innovative community, working closely with the engineering community, product managers, user researchers, designers, business analysts, and delivery managers to champion quality and testing excellence. We cultivate an inclusive, diverse, transparent and agile environment. We believe in building quality into our products, systems and services and that quality is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and execute a long-term quality and testing strategy, ensuring alignment with business and user needs.
• Work with the Head of Engineering to lead, guide, and influence testing and quality engineering practices across the organisation, ensuring scalable, sustainable, and robust methodologies are in place.
• Drive the integration of quality practices at every stage of the software development lifecycle to embed a culture of built-in quality.
• Promote the strategic use of automation, ensuring teams are equipped to implement effective, scalable automation frameworks that support efficient and repeatable testing.
• Shape and refine testing design principles, governance, metrics, and reporting, ensuring insights are used to drive continuous improvement and informed decision-making.
• Develop capability across the quality profession, mentoring and coaching teams, and supporting their professional growth.
• Engage with cross-government communities to share knowledge, collaborate on best practices, and contribute to the broader testing strategy within the public sector.
• Build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture within the testing profession, ensuring an environment that encourages learning, experimentation, and innovation.
• Champion a quality-driven mindset, ensuring testing and quality are seen as shared responsibilities across teams.
• Monitor emerging technologies, tools, and trends, ensuring that the organisation stays at the forefront of quality engineering innovation.
• Oversee supplier and vendor relationships, ensuring third-party testing services align with organisational goals and quality standards.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

• Experience defining and implementing holistic quality strategies across large-scale digital projects.
• Expertise in applying and adapting testing methodologies across different development lifecycles, ensuring effective integration into Agile and DevOps environments.
• Knowledge of testing tools and automation frameworks, using them to improve efficiency, mitigate risk, and enhance overall quality assurance.
• Ability to use change management initiatives, enabling teams to adopt sustainable quality engineering practices without compromising productivity.
• Experience in ensuring teams are set up to support quality needs and work to agreed standards.
• Building an inclusive, diverse testing culture, fostering an environment where innovation and collaboration thrive.
• Ability to champion and advocate quality engineering both internally and externally, shaping best practice, while promoting innovation.
• Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.