Group IT Test & Release Manager in Bromborough

Salary: £60,000 - 70,000 per year

Requirements:

• Significant experience in test management, release management, or quality engineering leadership.
• Experience managing testing and releases across complex enterprise application landscapes.
• Strong understanding of enterprise SaaS platforms such as Workday, Freshworks, ERP, or other integrated business systems.
• Experience working in agile, hybrid, or fast-paced transformation environments.
• Strong knowledge of ITIL change, release, and service transition principles.
• Experience coordinating multiple concurrent releases and delivery streams.
• Strong understanding of API testing, integration testing, data validation, defect management, environment management, and production readiness.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Ability to work across applications, infrastructure, security, data, suppliers, and business teams.
• A practical approach to governance with the ability to maintain control without unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Strong attention to detail, organisation, and ownership.
• Helpful to have experience in operationally intensive or multi-site businesses, large-scale transformation programmes, ERP environments, Azure DevOps, Jira, ServiceNow, test automation, CI/CD practices, ITIL certification, or ISTQB qualifications.

Responsibilities:

• Define, implement, and improve the enterprise-wide testing and release management framework.
• Establish consistent testing standards, governance processes, and quality gates across technology and transformation projects.
• Own end-to-end testing activities including test planning, SIT, UAT, regression testing, integration testing, release validation, and production verification.
• Ensure testing coverage across business processes, integrations, data flows, and operational dependencies.
• Introduce risk-based testing approaches that support fast-paced transformation delivery.
• Identify opportunities to introduce automation and improve quality, repeatability, and delivery speed.
• Manage defect governance, including prioritisation, root cause tracking, and remediation.
• Own and govern the release management lifecycle across multiple platforms, suppliers, and delivery teams.
• Coordinate releases across critical systems including Workday, Freshworks, and integrated enterprise platforms.
• Manage release calendars, dependencies, approvals, rollback plans, and operational readiness.
• Oversee environment governance, release readiness, and refresh cycles.
• Work with infrastructure, security, platform engineering, and third-party suppliers to support successful release delivery.
• Provide clear reporting on testing progress, release readiness, quality risks, and delivery status.
• Support agile delivery teams while maintaining strong governance and operational control.
• Drive continuous improvement across testing, release, and deployment processes.
• Support post-implementation reviews and contribute to lessons learned following incidents or major releases.

Technologies:

• API
• Azure
• CI/CD
• DevOps
• ERP
• ISTQB
• Support
• ITIL
• JIRA
• Security
• ServiceNow
• Cloud
• Embedded

We are Panda, a leading resource recovery business with almost 3,000 people across multiple brands, and we are committed to protecting our people, supporting our customers, and creating a positive impact for the communities and environments we serve. We are going through a major business and technology transformation, and this UK-based Group IT role sits within our Group IT function, reporting to the Head of Group IT Solutions & Data Platforms. This is a key opportunity to shape how technology change is delivered across our organisation, build modern and scalable testing and release practices, and work closely with senior stakeholders on critical transformation programmes. We value people, excellence, ownership, trust, and integrity, and we are committed to attracting and retaining a skilled and diverse workforce that reflects the communities in which we operate.