Nexify Infosystems
Programme Test Manager
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Role: Programme Test Manager
Location: London
Duration: 12+ Months Inside IR35 (No Sponsorship)
Job Description:
The Program Test Manager will serve as the principal quality leader overseeing the end-to-end testing lifecycle for a multi-year, mission-critical core Mortgage System of Record (SoR) Migration. This pivotal leadership role is responsible for establishing the overall Quality Strategy, managing complex multi-vendor test execution, validating intricate data migration pipelines, and ensuring zero disruption to live mortgage servicing and origination operations during cutover.
The ideal candidate brings deep domain expertise in retail mortgage lifecycles (Originations, Servicing, Arrears, Collections, and Escrow/Accounting) paired with a proven track record of orchestrating large-scale core system replacements within regulated financial institutions.
Key Responsibilities
1. Test Strategy & Program Planning
- Author and establish the Master Test Strategy (MTS) encompassing all phases: System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Performance & Scalability, Disaster Recovery, Data Migration Verification, and Operational Readiness.
- Establish clear quality gates, entry/exit criteria, and automated governance frameworks across the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC).
- Design cutover dress rehearsal strategies, parallel-run testing models, and rollback verification procedures.
2. Execution Management & Quality Operations
- Direct day-to-day testing operations across QA teams federated as part of the application.
- Maintain central oversight of defect management, ensuring rapid triage, root-cause classification, SLA enforcement, and resolution tracking.
- Monitor, Manage and Escalate complex multi-tier environment dependencies, continuous integration delivery pipelines, and mock migration dry runs.
- Establish and socialise standard KPI dashboards measuring defect density, code coverage, requirements traceability, and migration accuracy.
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3. Data Migration & System Integration Validation
- Oversee the end-to-end testing of data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) from legacy mainframes/SoRs to the target cloud-native core mortgage platform.
- Lead the verification of historical loan balances, interest calculation engines, amortization schedules, escrow ledgers, and customer transaction histories.
- Drive end-to-end API and event-driven integration testing between the new SoR and downstream systems (e.g., General Ledger, CRM, Credit Reference Agencies, Regulatory Reporting engines).
- Execute automated field-level reconciliation, delta catch-up processing, and edge-case validation across millions of loan records.
4. Risk & Issue Governance
- Maintain an active Quality Risk Register, identifying technical, operational, and resource bottleneck risks before they impact program milestones.
- Serve as the primary Quality Lead for Program Steering Committee meetings, presenting transparent quality metrics, defect burn-down charts, and release readiness recommendations.
- Define and enforce strict Go / No-Go operational compliance controls for major cutover events.
- Ensure full alignment with internal audit standards, regulatory mandates, and data protection guidelines.
5. Stakeholder & Vendor Management
- Act as the trusted advisor to C-level executives, Product Owners, Business Operational Leads, and Enterprise Architects regarding program quality and stability.
- Manage vendor SLAs and deliverable quality for third-party QA offshore and onshore partner teams.
- Partner with Business Change teams to facilitate User Acceptance Testing (UAT) execution, business scenario sign-offs, and operational user training validation.
Required Qualifications & Experience
Education
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related quantitative field.
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Overall Experience
- Minimum 12+ years of professional experience in Quality Engineering and Software Testing within Financial Services or Banking.
Leadership Experience
- 5+ years in a senior Program Test Manager or QA Director role leading large-scale enterprise transformation programs ($20M+ budget footprint).
Migration Proven Track Record (Good to Have)
- Successfully led quality engineering for at least one major Core Banking or Mortgage System of Record migration.
Technical & Mortgage Domain Competencies
Technical & Quality Engineering Competencies (MUST)
- Data Migration Testing: Proficiency with automated data comparison tools, SQL query building, ETL testing workflows, and target-to-source reconciliation tools.
- Automation Frameworks: Familiarity with modern test automation tools (e.g., Selenium, Playwright, Tosca, Cypress, REST Assured) and CI/CD integration tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps).
- Test & Defect Management: Expert user of Jira, Xray, Zephyr, or ALM for end-to-end traceability and metrics dashboarding.
- Integration Protocols: Understanding of RESTful APIs, SOAP web services, Kafka messaging event buses, and microservices architecture.
Mortgage Domain Competencies (Good to Have)
- Full Loan Lifecycle: In-depth knowledge of Origination, Underwriting, Title & Closing, Servicing, Default Management, Escrow Administration, and Investor Reporting.
- Financial Calculations: Hands-on experience verifying interest accrual models, ARM rate adjustments, early repayment penalties, fees, and ledger accounting adjustments.
- Regulatory Knowledge: Deep understanding of relevant mortgage regulations (e.g., MCOB, RESPA, TILA-RESPA / TRID, HMDA, GDPR / Data Privacy laws).
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