Test Manager in London

Looking for a role that will have a meaningful impact in IT? We are looking for a Test Manager to be responsible for establishing, leading, and continuously improving software testing capability across projects and BAU initiatives within Markel International.

What part will you play? If you're looking for a place where you can make a meaningful difference, you've found it. The work we do at Markel gives people the confidence to move forward and seize opportunities, and you'll find your fit amongst our global community of optimists and problem-solvers. We're always pushing each other to go further because we believe that when we realize our potential, we can help others reach theirs.

The opportunity: The role combines leading 3rd Party Test vendors, both onshore and offshore testers, with hands-on delivery oversight. It also involves long-term planning, including building a Test Centre of Excellence (TCoE). The position requires full adoption of test automation aligned with modern engineering practices. The Test Manager will be responsible for testing across projects and programmes, providing leadership, governance, critical issue management, and assurance to key partners.

What you'll be doing:

• Test Leadership and Governance: Own and define the end-to-end test strategy aligned to business objectives, regulatory requirements, and delivery methodologies. Act as the central test expert and escalation point for all project and programme testing activities. Establish and implement test standards, policies, methodologies, and quality gates appropriate for a regulated London Market insurance environment. Provide test status reporting, risk assessment, and quality assurance to senior stakeholders, and programme boards. Ensure testing provides sufficient assurance for regulatory, audit, and compliance expectations.
• Test Centre of Excellence (TCoE): Design, implement, and mature a TCoE to standardise testing practices across Markel International. Define reusable assets, templates, metrics, and tooling to improve efficiency and consistency.
• Test Automation: Define and be responsible for the test automation strategy, roadmap, and adoption plan across systems and platforms. Drive the shift from manual-heavy testing to a scalable, maintainable automated testing model.
• Vendor and Resource Management: Lead 3rd party testing partner providing onshore and offshore testing services. Hold 3rd party testing partner accountable for quality, delivery, and continuous improvement.
• Delivery Support and Quality Assurance: Partner with 3rd party testing partner lead, project managers, product owners, delivery leads, and business collaborators to ensure testing is fully embedded in delivery plans. Ensure appropriate test approaches are applied across functional, system, integration, UAT, regression, performance, and non-functional testing. Lead testing across commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS), SaaS, pro-code, and low-code solutions.

Our must-haves:

• The successful candidate has strong leadership presence with the ability to inspire change and adoption.
• Is commercially aware and comfortable leading supplier relationships.
• Is an experienced Test Manager or Senior Test Lead preferably within financial services, ideally London Market or specialty insurance.
• Has strong understanding of insurance systems, underwriting, claims, policy administration, or delegated authority.
• Has demonstrable experience handling 3rd party testing vendors, including offshore teams.
• Has solid understanding of ITIL Service Management practices, particularly, Change, and Release management.
• Is experienced at establishing or operating a Test Centre of Excellence.
• Has solid understanding of test automation frameworks, tools, and CI/CD integration.
• Has experience across both Agile and traditional delivery models.
• Has exposure to low-code platforms and SaaS solutions (desirable).
• Has professional testing qualifications (e.g. ISTQB Advances Test Manager or equivalent) (desirable).
• Has experience supporting large London Market insurance transformation or core system replacement programmes (desirable).

Who we are: Markel Group (NYSE – MKL) a Fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20+ countries, is a holding company for insurance, reinsurance, specialist advisory, and investment operations around the world.

We're all about people | We win together | We strive for better | We enjoy the everyday | We think further.

What's in it for you? A great starting salary plus annual bonus & strong benefits package… 25 days paid holiday plus Bank Holidays, with the opportunity to buy/sell extra leave. Fantastic company pension scheme, private medical and dental cover, life assurance, travel insurance cover, income protection, season ticket loan as well as other great benefits on offer. There are countless opportunities to learn new skills and develop in your career and we can provide the support needed to do just that.

Are you ready to play your part? Choose 'Apply Now' to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you. Markel celebrates the value of a diverse workforce that brings experience and expertise from a wide variety of backgrounds and life circumstances. Whatever your background, if you feel you meet the requirements of this role then we want to hear from you. We are also happy to consider candidates who are looking for flexible working patterns.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided with all reasonable accommodations to be able to participate in the job application or interview process and to perform essential job functions if successful.