JD Group Plc
QA Environments Practice Lead
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QA Environments Practice Lead
QA Environments CoE – Practice Lead
About JD Group & JD Sports Fashion
Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni-channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors, and Gym equipment. With over 60,000 colleagues globally and 3,400+ stores in 30 markets worldwide, JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 company since 2019. The company aims to become the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry, focusing on innovation, customer excellence, and people-driven growth.
Role Overview
The QA Environments CoE – Practice Lead oversees the coordination, governance, and operational management of non-production test environments across the technology landscape. This role ensures environments remain stable, secure, consistent, and aligned to production, enabling seamless delivery across programmes, projects, and product teams. Operating within Agile delivery models, the lead collaborates closely with QA, Engineering, Product, and Service teams to ensure environments are fit-for-purpose and optimised.
This is a non-managerial role focused on technical coordination, quality advocacy, and environment excellence within the QA CoE.
Key Responsibilities
Environment Leadership & Delivery
- Lead test environment activities across programmes and projects, ensuring provision and availability
- Define, maintain, and govern environment schedules and plans
- Provide accurate estimation, progress tracking, and status reporting
- Act as the primary coordination point for environment-related activities
- Deliver clear communication and reporting on environment availability, risks, and status
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Environment Planning & Coordination
- Define and maintain environment schedules, plans, and roadmaps
- Coordinate environment usage across concurrent programmes and product teams
- Manage conflicts, dependencies, and prioritisation of environment demand
- Align environment provisioning with project timelines and product backlogs
Environment Management & Operations
- Oversee day-to-day management of non-production environments
- Coordinate provisioning, configuration, and deployment activities
- Ensure environments mirror production in terms of configuration and data
- Manage data refreshes, deployments, maintenance, and system updates
- Track environment defects, risks, and issues until resolution
Governance, Compliance, & Standards
- Ensure adherence to Change, Release, and Configuration Management processes
- Maintain control of environment baselines (software, data, infrastructure)
- Ensure environments comply with security, audit, and regulatory standards
- Document environment configurations, processes, and procedures
Stakeholder Collaboration
- Work closely with QA, Engineering, Product, and Project Teams
- Remove environment-related blockers to support delivery teams
- Provide technical and operational guidance to multiple cross-functional teams
Continuous Improvement & Strategy Execution
- Contribute to QA Environments strategy within the CoE
- Identify and implement process, tooling, and automation improvements
- Promote modern practices (CI/CD, DevOps, Cloud-based environments)
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Skills & Experience
Core Experience
- Proven experience in QA, Test Environment Management, or related delivery roles
- Experience working in complex technology programmes and Agile environments
- Hands-on experience with non-production environments and test support activities
Technical & Domain Expertise
- Knowledge of test environment management concepts and lifecycle
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or equivalents)
- Understanding of environment provisioning, deployments, and data management
- Broad IT knowledge across infrastructure, applications, and integrations
Behavioural Attributes
- Strong planning, prioritisation, and organisational skills
- Ability to manage multiple competing priorities in fast-paced settings
- Clear and effective communication across technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Proactive and self-driven, with a delivery-focused mindset
- Strong collaborator with the ability to influence without direct authority
Why Join JD Sports?
Ensuring our colleagues thrive is central to our operations. We offer:
- Staff discount on JD Group and partner brands
- Personal development opportunities to grow within the company
Applicants are encouraged to align with people-led, innovative, and customer-focused objectives while driving operational excellence.
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