Test Manager - End User

Test Manager – End User Transformation £600 P/D - OUTSIDE OF IR35 6 Month Contract Remote with some travel to London We are looking for an experienced Test Manager to own the end-to-end test strategy, environment management and quality assurance for a major End User / Digital Workplace Transformation programme with a leading organisation in the financial services sector. This is a hands-on role, working across multiple technology workstreams and partnering closely with engineering, programme and customer testing teams. You will define what “good” looks like at each stage of design, testing and deployment, ensuring solutions are ready to progress through key quality and certification gates. Key Responsibilities

• Own and define the overall programme test strategy across End User, Collaboration, Cloud and Migration workstreams.
• Develop detailed test plans covering smoke, integration, performance, security, UAT and regression testing.
• Define and manage test environment requirements across Development, Integration, UAT and Pre-Production, including integration with customer test environments.
• Lead testing across Azure Cloud environments, End User platforms and associated technologies.
• Author and govern Acceptance Test Procedures (ATPs) across the programme.
• Work closely with Senior Engineers and technical workstream leads to oversee test execution and maintain quality standards.
• Manage defect lifecycle, triage and resolution, ensuring issues are progressed in line with programme milestones.
• Lead both manual and automated testing, with a willingness to remain hands-on where required.
• Support CI/CD pipeline testing and quality assurance throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Govern Pilot and Production wave certification, ensuring appropriate exit criteria are met.
• Produce programme-level test and quality reporting, including gate readiness, defect trends, exit criteria and residual-risk dashboards.
• Partner with the Customer testing and quality function to align testing, governance and compliance requirements.
• Work with communications and change teams to support User Acceptance readiness and user certification throughout the migration journey. Essential Experience
• 5+ years' experience as a Test Manager, QA Lead or equivalent within complex enterprise IT transformation programmes.
• Strong experience delivering testing for End User / Digital Workplace / EUC transformation programmes.
• Proven experience testing Azure Cloud environments.
• Strong understanding of both manual and automated testing approaches.
• Experience with CI/CD pipeline testing.
• Comfortable being hands-on and working closely with engineers and technical teams.
• Strong knowledge of test environment design and management.
• Experience managing the full defect lifecycle and operating within gate-based quality governance.
• Experience with test management tools such as Jira/Xray, Azure DevOps, qTest, ALM, Zephyr or similar.
• Strong experience authoring and managing Acceptance Test Procedures (ATPs).
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to translate technical testing matters for senior and non-technical audiences.
• Experience working in large, geographically distributed organisations and teams, including across multiple time zones and cultures.
• Comfortable working within a hybrid client/partner delivery model, with clear ownership and accountability. I ndustry Experience Experience within financial services is desirable but not essential. The priority is strong End User / Digital Workplace testing experience. Candidates with relevant experience from other regulated or complex enterprise environments — such as government, pharmaceuticals, energy or other large-scale organisations — will also be considered. Desirable Experience
• Banking or financial services experience.
• Performance and scale testing across VDI / Omnissa Horizon environments.
• Testing experience across Microsoft Teams Phone and Teams Meetings.
• Experience delivering complex, global End User transformation programmes.
• ISTQB Advanced Test Manager, TMMi or equivalent certification.