Testing and Training Lead in Kingston upon Thames

Location: 6-8 Penrhyn Rd, Kingston upon Thames KT1 2BB, UK

Salary: 46,968 - 52,194 per year

Employment: Full time

Category: Housing

Posted: 2026-08-20

Valid to: 2026-09-04

Apply: Application Link

Employer: Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames

About the Borough: Found in zone 6 with good transport links in and out of London, Kingston is a vibrant and diverse university town which creates the rich sense of community shared across the borough and its Residents. Kingston boasts an idyllic riverside location, good shopping and great restaurants, as well as a mix of modern and historic town centre. Kingston has lots of open parklands and cycle routes that help connect the district town centres into an enjoyable place to live and work.

About the Service and Team: The Housing Service is undertaking a large-scale digital housing project to implement the NEC Housing Management System. The post holder will work closely with housing services, IT, finance, customer services, and the NEC delivery team to support a compliant, low-risk, and user-focused system implementation.

About the Role and Our Ideal Candidate:

• Lead the testing and training strategy for the new NEC Housing Management System to ensure system robustness and staff readiness.
• Develop and own the comprehensive Training and Testing strategies aligned with council governance and audit standards.
• Conduct needs analysis, design role-based training programs, and oversee the creation of accessible materials for diverse user groups.
• Lead all testing phases (SIT, UAT, Regression) and manage the defect triage process in collaboration with NEC partners and internal teams.
• Work closely with Housing, IT, and Finance teams to ensure system readiness and provide assurance to the Programme Board.

About you: Are you a detail-oriented professional with a passion for delivering high-quality systems? We are looking for a Training & Testing Lead to spearhead the implementation of our new NEC Housing Management System (HMS). You will play a pivotal role in ensuring the system is robust, compliant, and that our staff are fully equipped to embrace new, agile ways of working. This is a unique opportunity to drive continuous improvement and deliver meaningful outcomes for our communities.

Essential: We're looking for someone with a strong understanding of social housing processes and housing management services and systems, ideally with experience using NEC HMS or similar platforms. You should have a proven track record of coordinating User Acceptance Testing alongside operational teams, alongside excellent documentation, reporting, and stakeholder engagement skills. Crucially, you should be able to break down complex system and process changes, ensuring they are clear and easy to understand for everyone, regardless of their technical background.

Desirable: It would be a great bonus if you have hands-on experience with NEC Housing Management System implementations and have worked within housing services. We also value a strong understanding of public sector standards, particularly those relating to accessibility, equality, and data protection, as this helps us ensure our services are inclusive for all.

Our Offer to You: As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we're committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We're constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits to enable staff to achieve a work life balance, some of which include:

• A generous annual leave entitlement of 25-32 days, plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply) depending on service and grade.
• Enhanced Maternity, Paternity, shared parental, adoption and dependents leave.
• Three volunteering days per year in Kingston.
• Hybrid working (dependent on the role).
• Flexible and agile working arrangements using Google Chromebooks.
• Learning and development portal offering a range of courses.
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres.
• Interest free season ticket loans.
• Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme.
• Electric vehicle leasing scheme.
• Confidential health & wellbeing and counselling support.

Application Process: Apply online outlining what skills, abilities and experience you can bring which makes you an ideal candidate for this role. Please refer to the requirements outlined in the job profile when completing your application and check your CV details have been uploaded correctly in the relevant sections.

We understand and recognise the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the workplace and are embracing AI where appropriate, to boost our productivity and streamline how we deliver our Council services efficiently; to provide the best possible outcomes for our residents and communities. However, we reserve the right to reject applications where it is apparent that AI-generated content has been used in isolation and without personalised responses. At Kingston we value authenticity and are looking for individuals who can clearly demonstrate their own skills, experience and motivation for the role that they are applying for and embrace and demonstrate our STAR values. Here at Kingston we have core values of Transparency and this is to be demonstrated during the application process and completion of the supporting statement and will be further tested at interview and selection stage for those who progress forward.

The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received, it is strongly advised that you complete and submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

As part of our award winning Diversity Programme we anonymise all applications received to reduce conscious and unconscious bias enabling every application to be reviewed on the knowledge, skills and experience shown in your application. We encourage our interview panels to be as diverse as possible (age, cultural, neurodiverse etc.) to reduce bias where possible. We are fully committed to removing barriers and enhancing the diversity of our workforce.

Additional Information: We are proud to be a diverse and welcoming Borough and we strive to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve, and instil a sense of belonging in our staff. We celebrate and respect differences and appreciate the value of having a diverse workforce, therefore we welcome applications from under represented groups.

To support our workers and their families we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are also proud to be a disability confident employer and guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for a role. As an accredited London Living Wage Employer all our employees are guaranteed the London Living Wage regardless of their length or type of contract.

The UK has a points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance. Sponsorship availability varies and is subject to eligibility requirements and budget limitations. As a result, we cannot guarantee sponsorship for all roles and will evaluate sponsorship requests on a case-by-case basis.