Test Programme Manager in Southampton

Fixed Term Contract Duration - 11 Months

About the Business

Quilter plc is a leading wealth management business, helping to enable brighter financial futures for every generation. Quilter oversees £141.2 billion in customer investments (as at December 2025). It has an adviser and customer offering spanning financial advice, investment platforms, multi-asset investment solutions, and discretionary fund management. The business is comprised of two segments: Affluent and High Net Worth.

Affluent encompasses the financial planning business, Quilter Financial Planning, the Quilter Investment Platform and Quilter Investors, the multi-asset investment solutions business. High Net Worth includes the discretionary fund management business, Quilter Cheviot, together with Quilter Cheviot Financial Planning – offering a highly personalised service to private clients, charities, trustees, and professional partners. Quilter Cheviot has presence throughout the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands.

At Quilter we never stand still. Our foundations are rooted in our extraordinary expertise, which is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers, but we have great ambitions to stay one step ahead and make an even greater difference to the people and communities we serve, including our colleagues. Our business is transforming, continually modernising, and becoming even more customer centric. So, if you want to be bold in the pursuit of your ambitions, bring new ideas, and challenge and evolve what we do, it’s the perfect time to join us!

About the Role

Level 5 Department: Technology Delivery Location: London or Southampton Contract type: Fixed Term Contract- 12 Months

The Test Programme Manager is accountable for end‑to‑end test delivery across a complex technology programme, owning programme‑level dependencies and senior stakeholder engagement to ensure delivery milestones are underpinned by robust, credible assurance. The role exists to identify and surface delivery risk early, safeguard test integrity under delivery pressure, and actively manage and escalate cross‑programme and cross‑supplier dependencies to enable safe, controlled, and predictable release outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the single point of accountability for testing transparency and assurance at programme and portfolio level.
• Identify and actively manage the critical path for testing across a complex technology delivery.
• Provide senior stakeholders with clear, evidence‑based views of quality, progress, risk and readiness to deploy, including early visibility of delivery risk driven by testing or unresolved dependencies.
• Own and lead the Testing Reporting Office (TRO), delivering accurate, timely and decision‑focused reporting on test readiness, execution and quality.
• Own and maintain a programme‑level dependency map linked to testing outcomes, covering people, systems, data, environments, suppliers and external constraints.
• Act as the primary escalation and resolution point for stakeholder concerns related to testing readiness, cross‑programme dependencies and delivery risk.
• Proactively manage stakeholder expectations, challenging unrealistic commitments and aligning scope, timelines and quality outcomes to agreed risk appetite.
• Ensure testing is planned early, with dependencies explicitly reflected in plans, milestones and testing strategies.
• Actively manage cross‑programme and cross‑portfolio dependencies, sequencing delivery realistically, protecting the critical path, and escalating conflicts early with clear options and impacts.
• Hold delivery teams and suppliers accountable for test readiness, defect management and exit criteria, actively challenging overly optimistic test plans and preventing testing compression to protect delivery dates.
• Drive alignment across technology, business and third‑party teams to reduce late integration risk.
• Mandate that releases are supported by credible assurance of quality, not solely milestone completion.
• Work with the Senior Test Manager to reduce late‑stage defects and rework caused by missed dependencies or rushed testing.
• Manage and monitor the programme test budget, providing guidance and decision‑making support to underlying projects.

About You

Experience & Skills

• Proven experience leading test delivery on complex programmes with multiple delivery streams and system integrations.
• Strong working knowledge of software testing lifecycle and environments, sufficient to challenge plans and assure quality.
• Demonstrated ability to manage inter‑team and third‑party dependencies in large organisations.
• Experience operating in regulated or risk‑aware environments where quality and assurance are non‑negotiable, ideally experience within financial services sector.
• Comfortable holding suppliers and senior stakeholders to account.
• In‑depth knowledge and demonstrable application of different project and programme delivery methodologies including Scaled Agile Programmes.
• Excellent facilitation and presentation skills.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management and influencing skills demonstrating the ability to translate technical and complex challenges into simple, clear updates, issues and/or risks for senior stakeholders.
• An inspirational people‑manager preferably skilled in both a line and matrix management environment.

Qualifications include: Prince2, MSP, APM, Scrum Master, ITSQB Test Manager, Stakeholder Management and Risk Management.

Inclusion & Diversity

We value diversity and strive to promote inclusivity in all aspects of our culture. We believe in equal opportunities for all, ensuring that no applicant encounters less favourable treatment based on anything but their skills, qualifications, experience, and potential. We celebrate the unique contributions of a diverse workforce and create a respectful, nurturing environment where every colleague can thrive.

Values

• Do the right thing: We act with integrity and are proudly committed to going above and beyond in service of our clients and the support we provide our communities.
• Always curious: We continuously seek new ideas and knowledge so we’re one step ahead of our clients’ needs. We look for inspiration everywhere and encourage experimentation, recognising that this is how we create brilliant solutions for brighter futures.
• Embrace challenge: We aim high to transform our potential into meaningful outcomes. With ambition as our driving force and a steadfast commitment to growth, we succeed for the good of every generation.
• Stronger together: Combining our diverse talents, we accomplish more collectively than we ever could do alone. We speak openly, actively listen, and support each other, and constructively challenge and embrace new ideas. We seek empowerment and demonstrate ownership and trust, with the confidence to make impactful decisions.

Core Benefits

• Holiday: 182 hours (26 days)
• Quilter Incentive Scheme: All employees are eligible to participate in incentive scheme, to incentivise business performance and their contribution.
• Pension Scheme: A non‑contributory company pension scheme that can be boosted through personal contributions.
• Healthcare Cash Plan: Jersey employees only.
• Benefit Allowance: A cash benefit allowance is payable in lieu of some of our core benefits. In addition to our core benefits, we offer a range of flexible benefits to UK employees that you can choose from and pay for conveniently via a salary deduction.