QA Lead in Hook

QA Lead
Hybrid - Attached to our Solihull, London or Hook office
Full Time, Permanent
Band 4 / £50,000 - £60,000 (dependent on experience)

Here at Serco, we're looking for a QA Lead to be responsible for leading quality assurance across cross-functional agile squads, ensuring robust testing across applications, APIs, data pipelines, workflows, and cloud services.

You will design and oversee end-to-end testing strategies, drive automation and quality engineering practices, and lead a team of QA Analysts to ensure consistent, high-quality delivery. You will also play a key role in shaping modern testing approaches and embedding continuous improvement across the QA function.

As part of this you'll:

• Lead the design and execution of end-to-end testing across multi-system, integrated digital journeys
• Coordinate integration testing across APIs, events, workflows, and external supplier systems
• Ensure data and process integrity across system boundaries, including reconciliation, error handling, and audit validation
• Lead the development of automated API and integration tests and integrate them into CI/CD pipelines
• Implement and promote contract testing and service virtualisation to reduce delivery dependencies
• Maintain and enhance reusable automated regression suites covering critical business services
• Support and oversee non-functional testing including performance, security, usability, and accessibility
• Ensure solutions meet compliance requirements including security standards, GDPR, and organisational controls
• Work closely with engineers, architects, BAs, and delivery teams to ensure shared quality standards and early test engagement
• Participate in Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, and definition of done
• Provide QA input into design reviews, technical solutions, and release planning
• Lead QA Analysts, providing guidance, coaching, and technical oversight to ensure high performance
• Drive continuous improvement in automation, test coverage, tooling, and QA processes
• Contribute to runbooks, release readiness documentation, and test environment coordination
• Define and maintain test data strategies including synthetic, masked, and production-like datasets

What you'll need to do the role:

• 7+ years' experience in software testing or QA engineering within digital or cloud environments
• Proven experience in QA leadership or senior QA responsibility roles
• Strong experience across functional, integration, regression, and system testing
• Hands-on experience with test automation tools (e.g. Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, Robot Framework)
• Strong understanding of defect management and test lifecycle processes
• Experience working in Agile or hybrid delivery environments
• Strong communication skills with ability to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience leading or mentoring QA engineers or analysts
• Working knowledge of SQL, JSON, and XML
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (e.g. Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Actions)
• Understanding of API testing and microservices architectures
• Awareness of cloud platforms (Azure or AWS)
• Basic scripting skills (Python, JavaScript, PowerShell) - desirable
• Experience with enterprise platforms (e.g. ServiceNow, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Appian, Maximo) - desirable
• Experience testing in event-driven or API-first architectures - desirable
• Knowledge of performance, accessibility, and security testing frameworks - desirable
• ISTQB Agile or Test Automation certifications - desirable
• SC clearance may be needed (or willingness to obtain it)

What we offer:

• Flexible working considered
• Pension - 6%
• Chance to contribute to innovation in the public services
• A company passionate about diversity and inclusion
• Serco discounts which include cinema, merlin entertainment and online shopping discounts, and discounts on mobile phone plans and leisure centre memberships.
• A range of benefits to support the health and wellbeing of you and your family such as Employee Assistance Programme, Simply Health Cash Plans, and more.
• A wealth of career development training to suit your future aspirations. These range from role specific training, leadership coaching, formal study and much more to support you to build your career with Serco.
• A safe and supportive culture.