Lead Quality Assurance Engineer - FTC 6 Months

Department: Digital Viscom – Development / Product Team

Reporting to: Systems Development Manager

Direct Reports: Quality Assurance Engineer(s)

Location: Delta Park / Hybrid

About The Delta Group

The Delta Group are Europe's leading visual communications specialist delivering dynamic multi-channel marketing services to brands and retailers across the globe. Our model combines insight, creative, production, execution and optimisation to provide clients with a broad range of effective and impactful point-of-purchase visual communications. We are committed to service excellence in-store, outdoor and online. We are dedicated, knowledgeable and client-focused people who aspire to make a difference every day. We value the long‑term partnerships we have with our clients and work collaboratively to lead effective change and empower our clients' strategic goals.

Our services – comprised of three units: Creative, Display and Technology – are designed to reduce the complexity of international marketing campaigns across multiple markets and languages whilst maintaining consistency, increasing localisation and responsiveness. We're owner‑managed and independent, leading small teams of influential thinkers, meaning we have the agility of a small business but the resources of a large one. Our belief is that in a changing industry, we must be a company that can change with it.

Role Purpose

This role is a leadership opportunity within Delta's Product Team. As QA Lead, you will set the quality vision for the WorkstreamX suite of products and our broader client‑facing systems — owning the end‑to‑end QA function, and partnering closely with the CPO, developers and product managers to embed quality at every stage of the software development lifecycle. This is not purely a hands‑on testing role. You will define and drive the QA strategy, build out our automation capability, own our quality frameworks and standards, and act as the primary quality voice in product and release decisions. You will also line‑manage the Quality Assurance Engineer, providing day‑to‑day guidance, career development support, and workload oversight. The right candidate will bring both the technical depth to challenge and support the engineering team and the leadership capability to influence quality thinking across the organisation.

Key Responsibilities

• QA Strategy & Leadership
• Own and drive the overall QA strategy for the Delta Product Team, aligned to business and product goals
• Define, implement and continuously improve QA standards, processes and frameworks
• Act as the primary quality authority in release decisions, sprint reviews and product planning discussions
• Lead the transition to a structured, specialist‑led QA function — working across the business to build understanding, buy‑in and enthusiasm for improved quality practices
• Report on quality health, test coverage, defect trends and process improvements to the CPO and senior stakeholders
• Champion a quality‑first culture across the development team, influencing behaviours at all levels
• Evaluate and introduce new tools, methodologies and approaches that improve the team's quality capability
• People Leadership & Mentoring
• Line‑manage the QA Engineer, providing clear direction, regular 1:1s and meaningful performance feedback
• Support the professional development of QA team members, identifying training needs and growth opportunities
• Act as a technical mentor — reviewing test approaches, providing constructive guidance and raising the bar on quality practice
• Build team capacity and resilience, planning resource allocation across workstreams and sprint cycles
• Test Oversight & Hands‑On Delivery
• Oversee the full test lifecycle across all active product workstreams — functional, regression, integration, UAT and performance
• Take a hands‑on role in complex or high-risk test scenarios, setting the standard for thoroughness and rigour
• Review and approve test plans, test cases and QA sign‑off documentation produced by the team
• Own and manage test environments and QA tooling — ensuring stability, access and fitness for purpose across manual and automated test runs
• Verify and hold final accountability for the release of deliverable software
• Manage defect triage and escalation, ensuring issues are prioritised and resolved effectively
• Test Automation & CI/CD
• Lead the evolution of Delta's automated testing capability — setting the framework strategy and driving coverage growth
• Oversee integration of automated tests into the Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline and promote shift‑left testing practices
• Ensure automation frameworks remain maintainable, scalable and aligned with the product's architecture
• Identify opportunities to extend automation into performance, load and security testing
• Quality Assurance & Governance
• Create and maintain software quality assurance plans in accordance with project and company requirements
• Assess projects for compliance with development plans, internal standards and client requirements
• Establish and own defect management workflows, root cause analysis processes and quality metrics reporting
• Support the assessment of subcontracted or third‑party development partners against required quality standards
• Participate in software maturity reviews, lifecycle reviews and release governance processes
• Cross‑Team Collaboration
• Work closely with the CPO, Systems Development Manager and product managers to align quality goals with product roadmap priorities
• Work collaboratively with developers, product managers and wider stakeholders to map current ad‑hoc testing practices, identify gaps, and co‑design a QA framework that works for the whole team
• Contribute to agile sprint planning and refinement, providing quality risk assessments for new features and releases
• Collaborate with developers on code review for test code and foster shared ownership of quality across the team
• Engage with clients or stakeholders on quality‑related matters where required

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

Essential

• 4–7 years of experience in QA, software testing or software quality engineering
• Demonstrable experience leading or mentoring a QA team, or strong readiness to step into a lead role
• Deep experience with both manual and automated testing approaches across complex product environments
• Strong proficiency with at least one automation framework (e.g. Selenium, Playwright, Cypress) and associated scripting languages
• Experience owning or significantly contributing to a QA strategy, not just executing within one
• Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines — ideally Azure DevOps
• Skilled in prioritising test effort based on business risk — able to make pragmatic trade‑offs between coverage and delivery pace
• Confident working at senior level: communicating quality risks, influencing decisions and presenting to leadership
• Strong understanding of agile/scrum methodologies and how quality fits within iterative delivery
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills — able to translate technical quality issues for non‑technical audiences

Desirable

• Experience testing SaaS, B2B or marketing technology products — familiarity with Delta's product domain is a plus
• Exposure to performance, load or security testing tools (e.g. k6, JMeter, OWASP ZAP)
• Knowledge of quality management standards (e.g. ISO 9001) and formal QA plan writing
• ISTQB Advanced Level (Test Manager) certification or equivalent
• Experience with BDD frameworks such as Cucumber or SpecFlow
• Familiarity with .NET / C# application environments
• Experience contributing to or leading QA hiring processes