Head of Quality Engineering

Ready to redefine what Quality Engineering looks like in an AI-enabled world? We're looking for an exceptional Head of Quality Engineering to lead a major transformation of our QA capability, moving us away from traditional, manual-heavy testing towards an automation-first, AI-augmented Quality Engineering function. This is not simply about managing testing. You'll own the end-to-end Quality Engineering strategy, setting the standards for quality across our digital products, platforms, enterprise systems, data and AI capabilities. You'll transform how we test, how our teams operate and how quality is embedded throughout the entire engineering lifecycle. What you'll be leading You'll have the opportunity to: Transform our QA operating model, moving from manual-heavy testing to automation-first engineering Introduce AI, agentic and autonomous testing, including AI-generated tests, self-healing automation, risk-based testing and AI-assisted defect triage Drive a significant increase in test automation across API, integration, end-to-end, regression, performance and non-functional testing Embed automated quality gates directly into CI/CD pipelines Champion TDD and BDD, making quality an upstream engineering responsibility rather than a final testing phase Shape and lead a distributed QA capability incorporating outsourced and nearshore partners Establish meaningful quality metrics covering automation, coverage, escape rates, cycle times and reliability Ensure our technology meets the quality, safety and traceability expectations of a regulated, patient-facing environment. What we're looking for - You'll already have significant experience leading a QA or Quality Engineering function and, importantly, you'll have successfully transformed one. Built and scaled sophisticated test automation frameworks Embedded automation into CI/CD and DevOps environments Led the transition from traditional QA towards modern Quality Engineering Got genuine hands-on understanding of AI-enabled and agentic testing Worked with tools such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, REST Assured or Postman Retained enough coding knowledge to confidently review or build test automation using technologies such as C#, .NET, TypeScript or Python Managed outsourced, offshore or nearshore QA teams Worked across both digital products and major ERP/CRM platforms Operated comfortably in Azure, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or similar environments. Experience within healthcare, pharma, medical devices, financial services or another regulated environment would be a real advantage, as would knowledge of Dynamics 365, SaMD, IEC 62304, ISO 13485 or clinical safety standards. Why this role? Because this is an opportunity to build rather than simply maintain. You'll have the mandate to challenge existing ways of working, introduce new technology and reshape the capability around a smaller, highly skilled Quality Engineering core. Ultimately, you'll help us answer one of the most important questions in technology delivery: “Is this safe and ready to release?” And you'll have the strategy, automation, data and evidence to confidently provide the answer.