Test Manager

Test Manager - SC Clearance Required
Inside IR35: £550 - £600
Initially till March 2027, 6 months extensions to follow
Hybrid travel to London

The role

You'll lead System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) on a central government digital programme delivered by several supplier partners. You'll own testing end to end: plans, scripts, execution, defects and sign-off. You'll also assure the testing each partner delivers, acting as the department's quality lead across a virtual, multi-supplier test team.

What you'll do

• Review requirements and technical integration design documents to shape the test approach
• Write SIT test plans, scripts and test data from those requirements and designs
• Run SIT Go/No-Go calls, daily execution meetings and SIT exit meetings
• Direct a virtual, cross-partner SIT team in real time, so scripts are executed and test evidence is captured
• Write UAT scripts and run UAT with the business, through business-executed scripts or witness test sessions
• Make sure defects are raised, progressed and resolved, and challenge partners where a defect is disputed
• Produce test summary reports for each phase
• Review and assure all testing and test artefacts delivered by partners, across functional and non-functional phases
• Act as the QA advocate and point of contact, advising and leading partners on test best practice

Essential

• Owning System Integration Testing, not just participating in it
• Owning User Acceptance Testing, including leading and demonstrating to business users
• Leading supplier partners and their QA teams: reviewing their deliverables, giving direction and challenging where needed
• Confidence to steer a virtual SIT team spanning several partners, including holding the line on disputed defects
• Writing test plans and scripts from technical integration designs and requirements
• Test and defect management tools (e.g. Jira, Zephyr)
• Working knowledge of functional and non-functional test phases (system, performance, UAT, accessibility, migration) to assure partner delivery
• Managing parallel deliverables
• Building strong working relationships across multiple supplier test teams
• Excellent written and verbal communication; calm, level-headed and pragmatic under pressure

Desirable

• Testing AI or AI agents, or using AI-enabled testing tools
• Central government or wider public-sector delivery