About the Role
Crear Group is seeking an experienced QA Lead to take ownership of the quality assurance strategy and coordinate testing activities across a complex, multi-squad technology transformation programme.
The programme involves Back End services, microservices, API integrations, workflow orchestration and distributed systems operating within a highly governed delivery environment.
The successful candidate will establish and maintain a consistent QA operating model, ensuring that quality standards, test coverage, defect management, traceability and reporting are effectively managed across multiple delivery squads.
This is a QA leadership and coordination role, requiring strong technical understanding alongside the ability to influence delivery teams, manage quality risks and provide clear recommendations on release readiness.
You will work closely with architects, developers, business analysts, DevOps engineers, product teams and independent verification and validation (IV&V) stakeholders to ensure that quality is Embedded throughout the delivery life cycle.
Key Responsibilities
QA Strategy & Governance
Define, implement and maintain the programme-wide QA strategy, standards, processes and quality gates.
Establish a consistent QA operating model across multiple development squads.
Define and monitor quality metrics, test coverage, defect trends and release-readiness criteria.
Identify, assess and escalate quality risks, providing clear recommendations to programme leadership.
Ensure appropriate governance, traceability and audit readiness throughout the testing life cycle.
Test Planning & Technical Assurance
Oversee test planning and execution across API, integration, contract, regression, negative and end-to-end testing.
Ensure adequate coverage of complex business workflows, microservices interactions and distributed-system behaviours.
Coordinate validation of authentication, authorisation, roles and permissions, claims, tenant isolation and service-to-service communication.
Promote risk-based testing approaches, ensuring effort is focused on business-critical and technically complex scenarios.
Review test designs, coverage and evidence to ensure they meet agreed quality standards.
Multi-Squad Coordination & Delivery
Coordinate QA activities across multiple Agile delivery squads, ensuring consistency in execution and reporting.
Work closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Solution Architects, Developers and DevOps teams to address quality concerns early.
Lead defect triage and resolution coordination, ensuring clear ownership, prioritisation and timely closure.
Manage testing dependencies across teams, environments, releases and external suppliers.
Support release planning and provide evidence-based quality assessments to inform go/no-go decisions.
Quality Reporting & Independent Validation
Establish clear traceability between requirements, acceptance criteria, test cases, execution results, defects and supporting evidence.
Produce concise, meaningful QA status reports covering progress, coverage, defects, risks and readiness.
Coordinate with independent verification and validation (IV&V) teams, supporting evidence preparation, defect clarification and issue resolution.
Ensure testing artefacts and evidence are appropriately maintained for governance, audit and compliance purposes.
Review the use of AI-assisted testing and test generation to ensure outputs are reliable, reviewed and aligned with quality standards.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Proven experience as a QA Lead, Test Lead or Senior Quality Assurance Manager within complex software delivery programmes.
- Demonstrable experience coordinating QA activities across multiple Agile development squads or delivery teams.
- Strong understanding of Back End-oriented testing, including APIs, microservices, integrations and distributed systems.
- Experience defining QA strategies, test plans, quality gates, defect management processes and release-readiness criteria.
- Practical understanding of API testing, integration testing, contract testing, regression testing and end-to-end business workflow validation.
- Ability to assess quality risks relating to authentication, authorisation, access controls, service interactions and data integrity.
- Experience working with developers, solution architects, DevOps engineers and other technical stakeholders.
- Strong knowledge of requirements traceability, test evidence management, quality metrics and reporting.
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving, stakeholder management and communication skills.
- Professional fluency in written and spoken English.
Desirable Skills & Experience
- Experience working on integration-heavy, cloud-native or distributed technology platforms.
- Familiarity with workflow orchestration technologies and BPMN-based business processes.
- Understanding of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks and quality controls within DevOps environments.
- Experience working in government, defence, regulated industries or other security-conscious delivery environments.
- Experience collaborating with external IV&V, independent assurance, audit or compliance teams.
- Familiarity with API testing and automation tools such as Postman, REST Assured, Karate or equivalent.
- Experience using Jira, Azure DevOps, Xray, Zephyr or similar test and defect management tools.
- Exposure to AI-assisted testing, automated test generation or intelligent QA tooling.
- ISTQB certification or an equivalent recognised QA qualification.
About You
We are looking for a practical, organised and delivery-focused QA professional who can combine technical credibility with effective leadership.
You will be comfortable challenging delivery teams constructively, identifying quality risks before they become critical and establishing structured QA practices without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.
You should be able to operate independently, maintain visibility across multiple workstreams and communicate confidently with both technical teams and senior programme stakeholders.
Above all, you will take ownership of quality outcomes and help the programme make informed, evidence-based release decisions.
About Crear Group
Crear Group is a UK-based management and technology consultancy helping organisations turn vision into results.
We work with organisations across the public and private sectors to deliver complex transformation programmes, combining strategic advisory, technology expertise and practical delivery capability.
Our services span Strategy & Transformation, Technology & Digital, Customer & Service Design, and Commercial & Procurement.
We believe in combining technical excellence with collaborative working, accountability and a strong focus on measurable outcomes.