Lead QA Engineer

Lead QA Engineer Location: London, EC3V Working Pattern: Hybrid Contract: Permanent Salary: £60,000 Hours: Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm The Opportunity We are seeking an experienced Lead QA Engineer to join a growing Technology team and take technical ownership of the QA approach across the delivery lifecycle. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will combine test strategy, automation, technical testing and team leadership to ensure high-quality products and reliable releases. Working closely with the QA Manager, Software Engineers, Product Managers, DevOps and wider business stakeholders, you will establish effective testing standards, drive automation and champion a risk-based, shift-left approach to quality. The role will also play an important part in introducing and embedding AI-assisted testing technologies to improve test coverage, efficiency and the overall quality of delivery. Key Responsibilities * Define and lead the QA strategy, automation approach and quality objectives for assigned products and releases. * Translate business and technical requirements into effective, risk-based test strategies. * Champion shift-left testing and ensure requirements and acceptance criteria are testable and traceable. * Lead test planning, test design and hands-on execution across the delivery lifecycle. * Perform and oversee functional, integration, regression, smoke, exploratory and acceptance testing. * Design, review and maintain high-quality test cases, scripts and test data. * Own and develop the test automation strategy, prioritising high-value and business-critical coverage. * Develop, review and maintain automated tests and reusable automation frameworks. * Work closely with DevOps and engineering teams to integrate automated testing and quality gates into CI/CD pipelines. * Introduce and utilise AI-assisted testing tools, including AI-supported test generation, self-healing automation, synthetic test data and defect analysis. * Investigate complex test failures and defects, supporting root-cause analysis and resolution. * Provide technical leadership, coaching and mentoring to QA Engineers. * Work collaboratively with developers, architects, product teams and business stakeholders to identify and manage quality risks. * Produce clear reporting on test coverage, execution, defects, risks and release readiness. * Drive continuous improvement across QA processes, automation coverage, efficiency and quality metrics. About You You will be an experienced QA Engineer, Senior QA Engineer or Lead QA Engineer with a strong technical background and a passion for delivering high-quality software. You should have experience in: * Manual and automated software testing. * Developing and maintaining automated test frameworks. * Web, mobile and API testing. * Functional, integration, regression and exploratory testing. * CI/CD pipelines and DevOps environments. * Agile development methodologies and ceremonies. * Risk-based and shift-left testing approaches. * Test management, defect tracking and reporting. * Diagnosing complex technical issues and supporting root-cause analysis. * Coaching, mentoring or providing technical guidance to other QA professionals. Experience or an interest in AI-assisted testing tools and technologies would be highly desirable, particularly where these can be used to improve automation, coverage and testing efficiency. You will also need excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to explain technical quality risks clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. What You Can Expect This is an excellent opportunity to take a leading role in shaping the organisation's QA strategy, automation capability and quality culture. You will have the opportunity to remain hands-on technically while influencing standards, mentoring colleagues and introducing modern testing practices and technologies. If you are an experienced Lead QA Engineer looking for a role where you can make a genuine impact on testing strategy, automation and software quality, we would love to hear from you. Apply today for further information and to be considered for this opportunity