QA Team Lead

Role Overview

• Define and own the end-to-end QA strategy for Artificial's product portfolio and growing library of customer specifications
• including testing standards, quality gates, acceptance criteria templates, and a risk-based test coverage model
• Recruit, onboard, and lead a QA team of 3-4 QA engineers (manual, automated, and hybrid profiles); establish team rituals, development plans, and a culture of quality ownership; manage workload allocation across concurrent product bets
• Design lightweight, effective QA processes that integrate into Shape Up product delivery cycles and more agile customer specification development
• including test planning during shaping, clear handoff protocols between engineering and QA, regression strategies, and Definition of Done criteria that include quality sign-off
• Establish the automation strategy and infrastructure
• automated regression suites, CI/CD integration, test environment management whilst working alongside the existing Performance and QA tooling efforts to avoid duplication and maximise coverage
• Embed QA touch points across Discovery (validating prototypes and assumptions), Delivery (sprint-level and bet-level testing execution), and Optimisation (production monitoring, defect trend analysis, instrumentation audits)
• Own the bug triage and routing process, connecting QA findings to the appropriate product and engineering teams via Linear; establish severity frameworks, SLAs for defect resolution, and a feedback loop from production issues back into test planning
• Define and track QA health metrics test coverage, defect escape rate, cycle time impact, regression pass rates — and use these to drive continuous improvement; contribute to the broader DDO+ measurement framework alongside Product Operations
• Forecast QA capacity needs against the product roadmap and bet pipeline; make testing constraints visible during Betting Table discussions; inform hiring plans with data on coverage gaps and delivery risk
• Partner closely with Engineering, Product Management, Solutions/FDEs, and Customer Success to align on quality expectations, reduce the reliance on Field Delivery Engineers for testing new facilities, and ensure consistent quality across customer deployments
• Provide quality reports, defect trend analysis, and release readiness assessments; deliver concise, regular updates to the CPO and stakeholders on QA maturity and risk

Requirements

• Significant experience (7+ years) in QA or software testing, with at least 3 years in a senior or lead role where you were responsible for building or scaling a QA function
• Proven track record of setting up QA teams from scratch or near-scratch
• including defining strategy, hiring, establishing processes, and delivering results within the first six months
• Built and led a QA team at a growing SaaS or platform company (e.g. ~75 → ~150 headcount)
• Deep expertise in both manual and automated testing methodologies, with hands-on experience designing automation frameworks and CI/CD-integrated test pipelines
• Strong understanding of modern product development practices
• Shape Up, Scrum, Kanban, or similar
• and experience embedding QA seamlessly into iterative delivery cycles
• Experience with test management and defect tracking tools (e.g. Linear, Jira, or equivalent)
• Excellent people leadership
• you can recruit, coach, and develop QA engineers while managing workload across multiple concurrent workstreams
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills at all levels, with the ability to articulate quality risk in business terms

Benefits

• Private medical insurance
• Income protection insurance
• Life insurance of 4 * base salary
• On-site gym and shower facilities
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay
• Team social events and company parties
• Salary exchange on pension and nursery fees
• Access to Maji, the financial wellbeing platform
• Company stock options managed through Ledgy
• Milestone Birthday Bonus and a Life Events leave policy
• Generous holiday allowance of 28 days plus national holidays
• Home office and equipment allowance, and a company MacBook
• Learning allowance and leave to attend conferences or take exams
• YuLife employee benefits, including EAP and bereavement helplines
• For each new hire, we plant a tree through our partnership with Ecologi
• Action The best coffee machine in London, handmade in Italy and imported just for us!