QA Lead

The role:

You will join the Engineering team as the first dedicated member of the Quality team, playing a critical role in establishing the Quality Assurance process across our Engineering teams. In the near term you will be responsible for a hands-on role working within the development teams to understand requirements and design, in order to create and execute suitable manual or automated test plans that will ensure the quality of Bondsmith’s software while following a continuous delivery SDLC.

In the process, you will assist the development teams in improving their own testing approach, including guidance on creating automated unit and integration tests. Testing will be across multiple technology stacks, including front end web applications, back-end batch systems, customer integrations and internal tooling.

In the longer term you will take responsibility for setting and delivering on Bondsmith’s testing strategy, working with the CTO and others to improve the efficiency and robustness of testing across the Engineering department, and growing and leading the QA function.

Key Responsibilities:

• Manual Testing:
  • Collaborate with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders to understand requirements and develop test strategies.
  • Create, document, and execute comprehensive test plans and test cases to ensure software meets quality standards.
  • Perform manual testing on new features and bug fixes across various platforms
  • Identify, record, and track bugs and defects through issue tracking systems, ensuring they are prioritised and resolved appropriately.
• Process Development:
  • Establish and document QA processes, best practices, and standards to ensure high-quality releases.
  • Continuously assess and improve the QA process to optimize efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Work with developers to improve testing strategies and process
• Automation & Tooling:
  • Develop a long-term strategy for test automation, including selecting appropriate tools and frameworks.
  • Begin the development of automated test scripts for regression testing and other repetitive testing tasks.
  • Maintain and expand automation test coverage over time, ensuring efficient and reliable testing practices.
• Team Building & Leadership:
  • Act as a mentor and guide to other team members, providing QA expertise and best practices.
  • Assist in recruiting and building a QA team as the company grows, defining roles, and responsibilities within the QA function.
  • Lead and manage the QA team, providing direction, coaching, and performance feedback.
• Collaboration & Communication:
  • Work closely with development teams to ensure that QA is integrated into the development process from the start.
  • Participate in key meetings such as sprint planning, daily standups, and retrospectives, to represent QA.
  • Communicate QA results and risks to stakeholders, ensuring transparency and collaboration throughout the project lifecycle.

Requirements:

What we expect of you:

• 5+ years of experience in software quality assurance, including time in a leadership or senior role
• Proven experience in manual testing, with a strong understanding of QA methodologies and processes
• Hands-on experience with test automation tools and frameworks (e.g., Cucumber, Selenium, Cypress etc.)
• Understanding of performance and security testing
• Experience in developing and implementing QA processes from scratch
• Proficiency in configuring and using JIRA for project management
• Excellent communication skills – able to work in collaboration with engineers, product, and other business functions to understand requirements and set appropriate quality thresholds
• Strong analytical skills, with attention to detail
• Proficient in English
• (Desirable) Experience working in fintech;
• (Desirable) Experience with Test Driven Development and Continuous Delivery principles**;**
• (Desirable) Working knowledge of infrastructure tooling e.g. Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform;

Ideally you would be:

• Confident, and able to take initiative in a delivery-focused environment;
• Independent, autonomous working style;
• Able to learn quickly in a dynamic fast-paced industry;
• Enjoy working as part of a high-performance team;
• Hard-working, innovative and taking pride in their work;
• Willing to mentor more junior members of the team;
• Always looking to improve and bring new ideas and suggestions to the team;
• Passionate about creating innovative solutions for customers;