Lead Quality Engineer

Lead Quality Engineer Osprey Flight Solutions - Full-time - Remote - Reports to Head of Engineering Why this role, why now Quality engineering is going through its biggest shift in years: AI agents that can generate, run and evaluate tests on their own, with engineers supervising rather than clicking through test cases by hand. Most quality leads are retrofitting this onto a test suite someone else already built. At Osprey, you'd design it from the ground up, an agentic AI testing framework and a “Quality Firewall” that lets any engineer ship code safely, built by you, for a platform that's still small enough to shape. You'd be joining as Osprey scales its engineering function, working alongside a Senior Software Engineer (or above) background you'll already recognise, hands-on in .NET and React, and stepping into a role with real technical authority: you own the quality strategy, not just enforce someone else's. What you'll be doing

• Define and own Osprey's quality strategy, and get hands-on fixing root-cause issues yourself when it matters, not just directing others to.
• Design and lead the adoption of an agentic AI testing framework, from evaluation through to embedding it in the team's day-to-day workflow.
• Build and continuously improve a “Quality Firewall” that lets any engineer contribute code safely and consistently.
• Design the test architecture: what's automated and what isn't, and where unit, integration, end-to-end and contract testing each earn their place.
• Run RCA meetings and use the data, escaped defects, change failure rate, coverage, to drive real fixes, not just dashboards.
• Build the pipeline that gives engineers production-like, anonymised test data on demand.
• Push shift-left practices into design and planning, not just testing at the end.
• Coach and mentor engineers across Product Engineering, DevOps and Data Engineering, not just your own team. What you'll bring
• A track record as a Senior Software Engineer or above, with hands-on experience in .NET and React.
• Deep knowledge of test architecture, and a clear view on when automation is, and isn't, the right call.
• Real hands-on experience using AI to accelerate quality engineering, not just familiarity with the idea of it.
• Experience embedding quality into CI/CD: quality gates, static analysis, feedback loops that actually get acted on.
• A coaching and influencing track record, comfortable partnering with stakeholders and mentoring engineers who don't report to you. Even better if you have
• Experience in compliance-aware environments: traceability, audit trails, data integrity.
• A background defining non-functional quality standards: performance, security, accessibility. A summary of what's on offer
• Holiday: 25 days' paid annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Pension: Osprey matches your contribution at 4% of gross basic salary (on top of your own 4%) via the Smart Pension scheme, with an optional salary sacrifice arrangement that saves on National Insurance for both sides.
• Private healthcare: Comprehensive AXA cover from the end of probation, including inpatient/day-patient treatment, cancer cover, a 24/7 virtual GP, a health support line, and cashback on dental (up to £400/year) and optical (up to £200/year) costs.
• Life insurance: A tax-free lump sum of up to 4x basic salary from the end of probation, with an employee assistance programme, virtual GP access and will-writing support.
• Financial wellbeing: Free access to Lifetime, a financial coaching app with a personal wellbeing coach, an annual financial plan and educational tools, plus optional access to a regulated financial advisor.
• Family-friendly policies: Maternity, paternity/secondary carer, adoption and shared parental leave, fertility and IVF support, flexible working, and carer's/emergency leave.
• Other perks: Cycle to Work scheme, an eyecare contribution through the AXA plan, professional membership and subscription fees paid where relevant to the role, and a £1,500 referral bonus once the person you refer completes probation.