The Operational Acceptance Test (OAT) Lead will be responsible for ensuring that the solution is operationally ready for production deployment, validating that systems, processes, support models, and business operations can function effectively in a live environment.
This role focuses on non-functional assurance, business operability, and service readiness, covering areas such as process validation, integration stability, monitoring, support readiness, and failover capability across the ecosystem.
Key Responsibilities
1. OAT Strategy & Planning
• Define and own the Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT) strategy and approach aligned to program objectives
• Develop OAT plan, scope, entry and exit criteria, and schedules
• Ensure alignment with business Go-Live milestones, release plans, and cutover strategy
• Collaborate with service transition and program teams to integrate OAT within the overall delivery lifecycle
2. Operational Readiness Validation
• Validate that systems are ready for real-world operational scenarios including end-to-end business processes
• Ensure readiness for batch processing, job scheduling, monitoring, alerting, and logging
• Verify operational workflows across billing, metering, customer operations, and financial processing
Confirm that business operations can be sustained under production conditions
3. Non-Functional & Service Testing
• Lead validation of system stability, reliability, availability, and operational performance
• Assess backup, recovery, and disaster recovery readiness
• Validate business continuity processes and operational resilience
• Ensure that systems meet defined operational SLAs and performance expectations
4. Integration & Production Simulation
• Validate end-to-end integrations in production-like scenarios across all upstream and downstream systems
• Verify third-party system interactions and data exchanges
• Ensure validation of batch and real-time processing capabilities
• Simulate realistic business volumes and operational scenarios wherever feasible
5. Environment & Test Data Readiness
• Ensure availability and readiness of production-like environments for OAT execution
• Coordinate test data preparation aligned to real business and operational scenarios
• Manage environment scheduling, dependencies, and data refresh cycles
• Ensure compliance with data privacy and regulatory standards
6. Defect & Issue Management
• Manage OAT-specific defects and operational issues throughout the lifecycle
• Prioritize issues based on business criticality and operational impact
• Lead defect triage sessions with cross-functional teams including support and infrastructure
• Ensure timely resolution of all critical operational risks
7. Service Transition & Support Readiness
• Validate readiness of production support teams including L1, L2, and L3
• Ensure completeness of runbooks, SOPs, and knowledge base documentation
• Validate incident, problem, and change management processes
• Support seamless handovers from project delivery teams to operations
8. Governance, Reporting & Go-Live Assurance
• Provide clear OAT dashboards and operational readiness reporting to stakeholders
• Track readiness KPIs, defects, risks, and dependencies
• Support Go/No-Go decisions with data-driven operational insights
• Ensure all operational acceptance criteria are met prior to Go-Live
9. Risk & Compliance Management
• Identify, track, and mitigate operational risks and readiness gaps
• Ensure adherence to regulatory, compliance, and audit requirements
• Drive closure of all critical operational issues before production deployment
• Support governance reviews and readiness checkpoints
Desirable skills/knowledge/experience:
Experience
• 10–15 years in Testing, Quality Engineering, or Service Readiness roles
• 5+ years of experience in Operational Acceptance Testing or service transition roles
• Experience in large-scale transformation programs with complex integrations
• Experience in utilities or energy domain is strongly preferred
Technical & Functional Skills
• Strong understanding of end-to-end system operations and enterprise ecosystems
• Experience with integration validation, batch processing, and operational workflows
• Knowledge of ITIL processes including incident, problem, and change management
• Experience with test management tools such as Azure DevOps or JIRA
• Understanding of environment and test data management practices
Leadership & Governance Skills
• Strong experience in operational readiness planning and execution
• Ability to coordinate across multiple vendors and stakeholder groups
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills at program level
Experience in managing risks, escalations, and Go-Live readiness
Preferred Qualifications
• ITIL Certification preferred
• ISTQB Certification
• Experience in UK Utilities domain
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure
• Experience in dual run
