QA Tech Lead

Your reason for being here… You’re here to change how quality works. Not just improve testing, but move us toward true Quality Engineering where quality is built in, owned by everyone, and enables fast, confident delivery.

This is a player-coach role. You’ll operate at both hands-on and strategic levels, shaping how multiple teams think about, design, and deliver quality. Working alongside engineering, platform, and architecture leaders, you’ll make sure quality is designed into systems from the start.

The way you roll… You think in systems, not silos. You’re pragmatic, delivery-focused, and comfortable working in ambiguity. You know that quality isn’t about slowing things down, it’s about enabling speed with confidence. You challenge where needed, but always with solutions. You lead through influence, not hierarchy, and you’re just as comfortable coaching a team as you are rolling up your sleeves and getting hands-on. You care about outcomes over process, and you favour effective approaches over anything heavy.

How you make it all possible…

· You define what good looks like for quality across multiple teams. That means creating a clear, risk-based approach that balances speed, confidence, and cost across UI, API, integration, and system layers.

· You lead the shift from traditional QA to a Quality Engineering model. You embed practices like shift-left, fast feedback, testability, and observability into everyday delivery. You coach engineers, product managers, and designers to build resilient, testable systems from the ground up.

· You bring consistency where it matters. You establish shared approaches to test design, automation, and ways of working, while still allowing teams the flexibility to move fast.

· You shape how automation works across the organisation. From UI to APIs to integrations, you define standards that support reliable, meaningful feedback in CI/CD pipelines. You guide teams on test distribution and the right balance across the test pyramid, working closely with engineering and platform teams on infrastructure, quality gates, and test data.

· You make non-functional quality a first-class concern. Performance, scalability, security, and accessibility aren’t afterthoughts they’re built in early. You introduce practical approaches to things like OWASP-aligned security, WCAG accessibility, and lightweight threat modelling, making them usable for delivery teams.

· You influence architecture. You advocate for patterns that improve quality, contract testing, observability-driven testing, and decoupled designs that allow independent validation. You help define what “release ready” really means, grounded in risk and system behaviour rather than checklists.

· You explore and enable AI in quality engineering. You evaluate tools for test generation, self-healing automation, and exploratory testing support, setting clear guardrails around reliability, traceability, and human oversight. You help teams move faster with AI without compromising confidence.

· And when it matters, you get hands-on. You step into complex or high-risk areas, pair with teams, and improve quality through doing.

· You’re also the voice of quality at leadership level. You communicate risks and trade-offs clearly, support delivery conversations with evidence, and ensure quality is always part of the bigger picture.

What’s in your toolbox…

· You bring strong experience in software testing and quality engineering, including time spent operating at a senior or lead level across multiple teams.

· You’ve defined and implemented test strategies in evolving environments, not just maintained them in mature ones. You’re confident across UI, API, and integration testing, with hands-on experience using modern automation tools like Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, Postman, or REST Assured.

· You understand risk-based testing, test design, and modern Quality Engineering principles deeply and know how to apply them pragmatically.

· You’ve worked with non-functional quality in real delivery contexts, including performance, security (such as OWASP Top 10), and accessibility (WCAG).

· You think beyond the code. You understand how architecture, distributed systems, and integration patterns impact quality, and you can influence design decisions to improve testability, resilience, and observability.

· You’re comfortable working with emerging practices, including AI-assisted development and testing. You can evaluate tools critically and define how they’re used safely and effectively.

· You lead through collaboration. You’ve led teams, influenced behaviours, and driven cultural change toward shared ownership of quality. You communicate clearly across engineering, product, and stakeholders, translating complexity into practical action.

Get to know us…

We’re one of the most unexpectedly all-round capable communications agencies that’s been on the go for years, ever since our head honcho set up shop in a shed back in 1980, in fact.

Since then, we’ve made it our mission to make anything possible for our many and varied clients, putting our creative flair into delivering strategic communication campaigns, digital solutions, film and videos, events, exhibitions, and a whole lot more in between. We’ve grown a lot, but we’ve kept everything that made us great, back from the very day we first started out. Our global HQ and largest studios are smack bang in the middle of the UK and well worth a visit to see for yourself!

Hang on, there’s more…

The role will be based primarily in one of our UK offices, but there will be times when you’ll need to work from our other places and undertake other related commercial duties both in the UK and overseas. Flexibility is key!

We’re a friendly team. We really, really welcome anyone who wants to become part of a brilliant company. If you’re passionate, with a cracking drive to deliver on our ‘anything’s possible’ mindset, we’d love to hear from you.

DRPG is an equal opportunities employer. We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you’re excited about this role, we would love to hear from you and look forward to receiving your application.

DRPG supports Armed Forces veterans and Reservists by offering a guaranteed interview to those who meet the minimum essential criteria and whose last long-term substantive employer was the Armed Forces. Please indicate if you are a veteran or Reservist in your application to help us monitor job applications from this community.