QA Engineering People Manager - Product team

QA Engineering People Manager - Product team

Remote/Home Based, UK

Aker Systems was founded in 2017 by a team of experienced technology professionals who recognised an opportunity to provide highly secure enterprise data platforms to large organisations. We build and operate ground‑breaking, ultra‑secure, high‑performance, cloud‑based data infrastructure for the enterprise. Our proprietary technology solutions drive performance and reduce costs while helping our clients to improve the management and sharing of data across their organisations.

In 2024, Aker Systems won the Breakthrough Culture Awards highlighting growth companies putting culture first. In 2020 Aker Systems was recognised as a ‘One to Watch’ on the Sunday Times Tech Track. The Company was also recognised at the Thames Valley Tech Awards 2020; winning the Thames Valley Tech Company of the year, the Emerging Tech Company and High Growth Tech Business categories.

We encourage people of all different backgrounds and identities to apply. We are committed to maintaining an inclusive, and supportive place for you to do your very best work.

We are seeking a QA Engineering People Manager to drive and evolve our quality engineering strategy across our highly secure, cloud‑native platform. Operating at the intersection of security, scalability, and performance
, you’ll work within the Product & Innovation team—collaborating closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and Architects to ensure built‑in quality from concept to deployment. You will champion Behaviour‑Driven Development (BDD), lead the development of automated test frameworks
, and guide teams in testing distributed, event‑driven architectures deployed on AWS, Azure, and GCP
. If you're passionate about combining hands‑on QA engineering with technical leadership in a highly secure, mission‑critical environment
, this is your role.

• Define and own the end‑to‑end QA strategy across frontend, backend, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure
• Champion BDD practices
  , enabling teams to define and automate executable specifications using Gherkin/Cucumber in Kotlin/Java
• Build and maintain automated test frameworks that support microservices and Kafka‑based event‑driven systems
• Lead frontend testing using Playwright
  , ensuring a seamless and secure user experience
• Shape performance, load, and resilience testing strategies for distributed and containerised services
• Integrate automated tests within CI/CD pipelines using Git Hub Actions, Docker, Kubernetes
  , and modern Dev Ops workflows
• Mentor and coach QA engineers to create a culture of ownership, accountability, and quality‑first thinking
• Collaborate with Engineering, Product, and Architecture to drive testability into design
• Manage a team of QA Engineers with responsibilities including performance coaching and management, engagement and team building
• Mentor and drive the team to deliver to the standards our customers require
• Provide constructive and real‑time feedback to your direct reports through goal setting, regular 1:1s, personal development conversations and annual appraisals
• Drive engagement, productivity and motivation through your team by analysing, discussing and acting on insights from the employee engagement survey specific to your area. Encourage team camaraderie and collaboration. Resolve any conflicts within the team promptly and effectively thus ensuring a positive and productive working environment
• Successfully onboard and train new hires, complete probation milestones and processes, create robust inductions and provide career development support and guidance

• Languages/Frameworks
  :
  Kotlin, Java, Spring Boot
• Frontend
  :
  React, tested with Playwright
• Test Automation
  :
  Custom BDD frameworks in Kotlin/Java
• Cloud Platforms
  : AWS (Azure and GCP also in use)
• CI/CD
  :
  Git Hub Actions, Git Lab CI, Jenkins

• Significant experience as a Lead QA Engineer in a product or platform engineering team
• Deep expertise in BDD and writing executable specifications (feature files, scenarios)
• Proven hands‑on experience in automating test suites using Kotlin or Java
• Comfortable testing both frontend UI an…