Vallum Associates
Quality Assurance Test Lead
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QA Test Lead - Energy Sector - Inside IR35
6 months initial contract
Inside IR35 via umbrella
One day a week in London office
We're looking for a QA Lead to join a Quality Assurance and System Integration Testing team within a Portfolio Delivery Services function at an energy company whose mission is to ensure every product or project impacting the organisation's applications is deployed to production with the highest quality — proactively preventing defects and incidents before they reach live environments.
The Role
As QA Test Lead, you'll work across all product and project stakeholders to ensure quality metrics are reviewed, agreed and understood, promoting and embedding QA best practice throughout the delivery lifecycle. You'll build a consistent testing framework across the organisation and its third-party service providers, and own the implementation and maintenance of testing plans that keep delivery on track.
What you'll do:
- Maintain QA strategies covering unit, functional, performance, stress, and acceptance testing
- Drive a "Shift Left" approach across suppliers, prioritising defect prevention over detection
- Define and enforce quality gates for supplier deliverables, ensuring testing completion criteria are met before progression
- Monitor and govern third-party supplier testing quality, validating against agreed test strategies
- Audit supplier test processes, artefacts, and outcomes for consistency
- Embed quality practices across the full product lifecycle — planning, development, and delivery
- Work with SMEs and the business to close gaps in data capture for test cases and defects
- Establish bi-directional traceability between test cases, execution, and defects
- Partner closely with Product, Projects, and internal Testing teams to meet deadlines
- Lead quality process definition across the programme, including formal and informal review, testing, and inspection regimes
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QA Test Lead - What we're looking for:
- Extensive experience as a Test Lead, including managing supplier/third-party testing engagements with a focus on test governance and quality oversight
- Experience working the Shift Left QA principle within Agile & DevOps teams
- Expert-level Azure Test Plan experience
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to produce clear test reporting
- Comfortable working both independently and collaboratively
- A quick learner, able to adapt readily to project needs
- Data, analytics, or BI-based system testing experience preferred
- API and microservices testing experience preferred
- Energy or financial sector experience preferred
- Experience working with offshore/near-shore third-party suppliers is a plus
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QA Test Lead - Desirable:
- Azure DevOps skills (Git repositories, pipeline execution)
- Experience implementing quality gates and supplier auditing frameworks
- SQL knowledge for test data validation and troubleshooting
- 2+ years' experience in the electricity domain
- Knowledge of Safe Agile methodologies
- Experience with cloud-based testing environments and tools
- Familiarity with data-driven testing
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