Quality Assurance - Engineering Manager

  Quality Assurance - Engineering Manager Location: Herne Bay, KentWorking Hours: 40 hours per week Purpose of Role Lead and coordinate the day-to-day activities of the QA team, ensuring verification and validation are planned, executed, traceable and reported effectively across New Product Development, Sustaining Engineering and certification programmes. The role supports an end-to-end verification process using Jira, Xray and Confluence, while improving quality, reporting and appropriate use of test automation. Key Responsibilities 1. Team Leadership Lead and coordinate daily activities of QA Technicians. Allocate priorities, monitor workload and support coaching and development. Promote quality, ownership, accountability and continuous improvement. 2. Verification and Validation Coordinate verification and validation across engineering projects. Ensure tests are completed to agreed plans and schedules. Support test plans, procedures and specifications. Track progress, risks and issues, escalating concerns early. Ensure objective test evidence is created, reviewed and retained. 3. Test Management and Reporting Manage test cases, plans, executions, results and defects in Jira Xray. Maintain traceability from requirements through test cases, results and evidence. Create standard Confluence dashboards showing progress, coverage, defects and release readiness. Provide reliable QA input to programme, gate and release reviews. 4. Test Automation Support the QA Lead and Engineering teams in developing the EMS test automation capability. Identify suitable repetitive or high-value tests for automation. Contribute to tools, frameworks and an initial automation pilot. Promote maintainable automation where it improves quality, efficiency and repeatability. 5. Laboratory and Quality Support Coordinate daily operation of QA laboratories and test facilities. Ensure equipment is available, maintained, calibrated and fit for purpose. Support product readiness reviews, corrective actions and quality improvements. Key Deliverables Verification activities completed to agreed schedules. Complete and auditable requirement-to-test traceability. Current QA dashboards and reports available in Confluence. Effective use of Jira Xray for test management and evidence. Contribution to the introduction of appropriate automated testing. Well-managed QA facilities, resources and release-readiness evidence. Experience and Skills Essential Experience in QA, product test, verification or validation. Strong planning, organisation and practical problem-solving skills. Ability to coordinate and support a technical team. Clear communication and effective stakeholder management. Experience in an engineering or product-development environment. Desirable Experience with Jira, Xray and Confluence. Understanding of requirements traceability and verification evidence. Experience supporting test automation activities. Experience in fire detection, life safety or another regulated industry. Previous supervisory or team-lead experience. Success Measures Verification delivered to plan with risks raised early. Clear visibility of progress, coverage and release readiness. Effective utilisation and development of QA resources. Reduced late-stage verification issues and unplanned release risk. Increasing use of automated testing where it adds value. Consistent, objective evidence supporting product decisions. Initial Priorities Embed the agreed Jira Xray verification workflow. Establish requirement-to-test traceability across active programmes. Deliver standard QA dashboards in Confluence. Support the automation roadmap and initial pilot as part of a wider team. Establish effective daily routines and develop QA Technicians.