Test Manager

Test Manager – Manchester – Hybrid – Up to £80,000

Testing already matters here.

There’s an established team of up to 10 testers, a busy product roadmap and a technology leadership group ready to invest in where the function goes next.

They need someone to take ownership of it.

You’ll lead the testing strategy across the full platform, working ahead of delivery to understand what’s coming, where the risks sit and what needs to be in place before projects get moving.

Your time will go into the planning, technical direction and stakeholder work that gives the wider team confidence in what is being released.

What you’ll be getting hold of

• A team of manual and automation testers
• The end-to-end testing strategy across the platform
• Test planning for upcoming projects and product changes
• UAT across technical and business teams
• Automation built with Type Script, Cypress and Playwright
• The wider approach to performance and security testing
• The tools, processes and standards the function uses
• Career development and progression across the team

You won’t be expected to sit writing automated tests.

You do need to understand automation properly. Where it adds value, how it should be approached and whether the team is building something that will genuinely improve coverage and confidence.

The first few months are about getting under the skin of the current testing estate.

Review what’s already happening. Understand the team and the roadmap. Find the gaps and work out what needs improving.

By six months, they want a clear plan.

By nine, they want to see that plan landing and making a difference.

What they need from you

• You’ll have led a testing function or a sizeable test team before, with strong experience across:
• End-to-end test strategy and planning
• UAT and senior stakeholder management
• Manual and automation testing
• Reviewing and challenging an automation approach
• Developing testers and helping people progress
• Improving how testing operates across a software business

They are heavily invested in AI and already using tools such as Claude across technology.

You don’t need to arrive with a grand AI transformation programme. Some practical experience using it to improve test planning, documentation, standards or ways of working would go down very well.

Experience with in insurance, financial services or another regulated environment would be useful.

Why move for it?

You’ll have an established team, backing from technology leadership and the space to understand what’s there before deciding what needs to change.

The remit is genuinely yours.

Strategy, team, tooling, standards and where testing goes over the next few years.