QA Chapter Lead

Are you a passionate advocate for quality excellence? Do you thrive in an environment where attention to detail is paramount? Look no further - a great opportunity awaits you as QA Chapter Lead. 

We are seeking a passional QA Leader to refine and champion our QA best Practice and support the Chapter Members within our SmartComms, RPA Automation and Content Management areas.

We aim to continuously elevate the capability to enable Admiral’s continued efforts to be a market leader in financial services.

It is within our remit to create data products, services and opportunities for our business and our customers. We focus on simplicity, security, speed and significance in all that we do.​ Our mission is to deliver value in the form of efficient and effective tooling and decision-making processes for  Admiral, to help drive value and service to Our customers and Our business.

You will work within the Claims tribe comprised of Junior Test Automation Engineers, Software Engineers, Squad Leads and Product Owners, whose primary focus is to design and develop innovative solutions for a variety of internal stakeholders.

About You

We are looking for an enthusiastic and curious individual, who can think creatively to solve problems and meet user requirements. You must have a keen interest in testing and quality assurance, applying shift-left, test-first principles with hands on experience of Leading Technical Test Teams who focus on automating testing, designing, and implementing testing automation frameworks.

As we work within the Scaled Agile framework, we are looking for someone who can work both independently and as part of a team within a fast-paced and changing environment. This requires an individual who can deliver to agreed timelines, communicating effectively, and thinking innovatively.

Experience of working in an integrated team, refining and prioritising a backlog and delivering in an Agile methodology is a must.

Job Purpose

The main responsibilities of a Chapter Lead are to build up the right capabilities in the technical people in the Tribe, equipping them with the skills, tools, and standard approaches to deliver functional excellence, and ensuring that they are focused on delivering value to the business. At the same time, we would expect the Chapter Lead to perform as a Quality Assurance Community of Practice Champion within their specific functional discipline within their designated Squad. A Chapter Lead is required to understand the Testing Framework, review pull requests and ensure squads deliver good quality code coverage.

The Chapter Lead takes responsibility for the line management of the technical people within the tribes.

Accountabilities

• Accountable for recruitment, development and retention of technical resources including career pathway development for all technical squad members.  
• Accountable for defining and setting compensation, benefits, and promotions for all members of the relevant Chapter.
• Accountable for providing and applying effective performance management processes and mechanisms supporting squad leaders and product owners in increasing squad performance.  
• Accountable for providing an inclusive environment where Chapter members have freedom and safety to innovate, experiment, and learn from failure.
• Accountable owner and role model for applying the following values: productivity, quality, transparency, and openness into the Chapters ways of working and production of outcomes.  
• Accountable for providing open and effective communication channels leading to greater knowledge transfer within the Chapter. 
• Accountable for ensuring engineering, design and testing standards and practices comply with Admiral IT governance and architectural standards while performing in a heavily regulated environment.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for providing line management duties for all Squad technical members within the relevant Chapter with a view to focussing on coaching and mentoring techniques that align to both agile principles and Admiral values.
• Responsible for technical resource recruitment, retention, and overall onboarding process for all Squad level technical members of the relevant Chapter.
• Responsible for supporting both personal and technical skills development for all Squad level technical members enabling greater Squad operational performance.
• Responsible for providing effective career development for all Squad level technical members of the relevant Chapter.
• Responsible for effectively administrating Chapter member’s compensation, benefits and promotion processes
• Responsible for enabling Squads to meet their expected outcomes by supporting them in problem identification, root cause analysis, and decision-making.
• Responsible for improving Squad performance by applying effective performance management controls leveraging input from relevant Squad Lead and Product Owners leading onto providing corrective actions when necessary.
• Responsible for identifying, teaching, or championing the required software and hardware engineering skills needed to support the development of high-quality code, components, systems, and solutions
• Responsible for supporting all Chapter members in living the following values in everything they do: productivity, quality, transparency, and openness over internal politics
• Responsible for serving as a senior coach and advisor to Agile Squads. 
• Responsible for supporting Squad Leads and Product Owners in knowledge transition between both Squads and the wider Organisation by applying clear and concise communication channels

. Key Interactions

• Regular 1 to 1s with Chapter Squad level technical members.
• Performance reviews and 121’s in line with Cornerstone.
• Close relationship with Tribe leadership focussing on understanding the development needs of their people.
• Participate in Portfolio Sync and checkpoint sessions and support teams by helping them remove systemic impediments

Knowledge and Experience Required

• Extensive knowledge of customer experience (CX) interaction and integration as part of software development process (can be through scrum/ lean agile or standard SDLC)
• Extensive knowledge and experience with Line management through both coaching and mentoring techniques
• Knowledge and experience in Scrum development practices, using associated tools for testing and continuous integration & deployment
• Knowledge and experience with design & Implementation of Test Automation Frameworks following the Testing Pyramid
• Knowledge of identification and management of specific engineering, design and testing standards and practices that comply with internal organisation IT governance and architectural standards while performing within a heavily regulated environment
• Knowledge and experience in the use of tools such as: Jira, Confluence etc.

Desirable Knowledge and Experience

• Automated Integration testing of API’s (Soap/Rest)
• Automated delivery of software though CICD with automated testing
• Understanding and implementing best practices for secure software development

Interview Process

There will be at least one stage, possibly two- stage interview process via MS Teams.

Salary, Benefits, and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons we’re consistently voted one of the Sunday Times Best Big Companies to work for in the UK. We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

All colleagues will receive 33 days holiday (including banks holidays) when they join us, and this will increase with length of service, up to a maximum of 38 days (including banks holidays). You also have the option to buy or sell up to five days of annual leave in addition to your allocation.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here.