Barbour
Test and Release Manager
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Test & Release Manager
Company Description
The Barbour story began in 1894 in South Shields in the North East of England. Founder John Barbour began supplying oilskins and other garments to protect the growing community of sailors, fishermen and dockers. Still family owned and now fifth generation, Barbour HQ remains in South Shields. Under the leadership of Chairman Dame Margaret Barbour, Barbour has grown into a lifestyle brand sold in over 55 countries worldwide including Europe, the US and Asia offering a wardrobe of stylish functional clothing, footwear and accessories inspired by the unique values of the British countryside. The iconic Barbour Bedale and Barbour Beaufort wax jackets continue to be made by hand in the factory in South Shields. In 2020, Barbour launched Wax for Life, an overarching name for all of Barbour’s wax services designed to encourage customers to extend the life of their wax garments. Wax for Life includes re-waxing and repairs (first introduced in 1921) and Barbour Re-Loved an upcycling circularity initiative. Each year over 70,000 wax garments are sent back to Barbour globally to be repaired, rewaxed or altered.
Position Overview
J. Barbour & Sons has an exciting opportunity for an experienced Test & Release leader to join our growing IT team. This role is critical to ensuring Barbour delivers high-quality, low-risk technology changes that support business growth, operational efficiency and an exceptional customer experience. Through strong testing governance, release assurance and automation practices, the Test & Release Manager will help safeguard the stability and reliability of Barbour’s core business platforms.
The Test & Release Manager is responsible for defining, governing and continuously improving Barbour’s enterprise-wide testing and release management capabilities across the business systems landscape. The role ensures that all application changes, enhancements, upgrades and supplier-led releases are delivered with appropriate levels of quality assurance, risk management and business confidence.
The post holder will own the testing strategy, governance framework, standards, methodologies and assurance processes across System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and regression testing activities. Working closely with IT, business stakeholders, implementation partners and software vendors, the Test & Release Manager will ensure that technology changes are introduced in a controlled and predictable manner with minimal disruption to business operations.
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The role also leads the development and implementation of Barbour’s test automation strategy and release assurance approach across a portfolio of SaaS and low-code platforms including Infor M3 ERP, Centric PLM, Salsify PIM, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Vince.
The role is based at head office in South Shields and the expectation is 4 days in the office and 1 day of home-working.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Test Governance & Quality Assurance
- Define, implement and maintain Barbour’s testing governance framework, standards, policies and procedures.
- Establish testing methodologies covering SIT, UAT, regression testing, non-functional testing and release validation.
- Ensure compliance with quality gates, develop risk-based testing approaches, manage defect management processes, and define testing KPIs and quality metrics.
Test Planning & Delivery
- Develop and oversee test strategies, test plans and test execution activities for enterprise applications.
- Coordinate SIT and UAT activities across business and technology teams, ensuring appropriate test environments and test data are available.
- Review and approve deliverables from internal teams and third-party suppliers, and facilitate test readiness reviews for production deployments.
Release Management & SaaS Release Assurance
- Own the end-to-end release governance process, release calendars, standards and controls across Barbour’s application landscape.
- Coordinate the assessment and validation of supplier-led SaaS releases, managing business impact assessments, rollback/contingency plans, deployment validation and release communications.
Test Automation Strategy
- Define and execute Barbour’s enterprise test automation strategy.
- Identify opportunities to automate regression, integration and business process testing across key platforms (e.g., Infor M3 ERP, Centric PLM, Salsify PIM, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Vince).
- Evaluate automation frameworks, embed tooling into delivery lifecycles, and validate SaaS upgrades efficiently.
Low-Code Platform Testing
- Define testing standards, quality controls, governance and assurance processes for low-code applications, workflows and citizen development.
- Support business teams in adopting high-quality testing practices within low-code environments.
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Stakeholder Management
- Act as the subject matter expert for testing and release management, building strong relationships across business leaders, technology teams, implementation partners and vendors.
- Chair governance forums, provide regular risk and quality reporting, and influence teams toward quality-focused delivery.
Skills and Experience
- Strong understanding of enterprise testing disciplines including SIT, UAT, regression, integration and end-to-end testing.
- Proven experience developing and implementing testing governance frameworks, quality assurance standards and release management processes in complex enterprise environments.
- Experience managing SaaS application release cycles, vendor-driven updates and supplier-led releases.
- Solid understanding of test automation frameworks, tools and strategic implementation approaches.
- Knowledge of change management, risk management, IT service management principles, and delivery methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, hybrid).
- Experience with business-critical ERP, PLM, PIM, e-Commerce (e.g., Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify) or integration platforms (e.g., SQL, MuleSoft).
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, planning and prioritisation capabilities with a demonstrated ability to manage concurrent projects and releases.
- Excellent leadership, stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to challenge constructively and manage third-party suppliers.
- Professional certifications in testing, quality assurance, release management or project delivery (e.g., ISTQB, ITIL, Agile) are desirable.
Benefits
- Discretionary Company bonus scheme
- Staff discount
- Staff shop
- Healthcare cash plan
- 25 days holiday as standard increasing with length of service plus bank holidays
- Access to training and development activities to support your career development
- Free onsite parking
- Subsidised canteen
- Operate hybrid & flexible working
- 4pm finish on a Friday
- Wellbeing support
- Refer a friend bonus scheme
- Reward & Recognition Program
- Length of Service Rewards
Note: In the event that a sufficient volume of suitable applications are received, the post may close prior to the specified closing date. Please apply as soon as possible if interested.
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