[Hiring] Lead QA Engineer @Aker Systems

Role Description

We are seeking a highly experienced Lead QA Engineer to spearhead quality assurance initiatives across our agile delivery teams. You will be responsible for defining and executing the overall testing strategy, ensuring rigorous QA practices across all phases of software delivery. This role demands strong leadership, technical proficiency, and a collaborative mindset to work across teams and stakeholders.

• Own the QA strategy and ensure robust test planning, execution, and reporting across all phases of delivery.
• Lead and mentor QA engineers, establishing best practices in both manual and automated testing.
• Collaborate with business analysts, developers, and product owners to define acceptance criteria and translate business requirements into comprehensive test plans and scenarios.
• Design, implement, and maintain test automation frameworks, with a focus on CI/CD integration (e.g., GitLab, Jenkins, Drone).
• Plan and execute functional and non-functional testing including performance, security, and regression testing.
• Ensure quality gates are met before software is released into production.
• Analyse complex data flows and verify data quality in ETL/data pipeline environments.
• Act as the primary point of contact for all testing-related matters, including risk and issue reporting, and stakeholder communication.
• Review and optimize existing QA processes, tools, and documentation.
• Ensure compliance with quality standards, policies, and governance procedures.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in leading QA efforts in complex, data-centric environments (including data migration, ETL, and streaming platforms).
• Expertise in backend testing, preferably in Linux-based environments.
• Strong understanding of Kafka and Docker from a QA standpoint.
• Proficiency with testing tools and frameworks such as Selenium, FitNesse, SoapUI, Cucumber, and performance testing tools (e.g., LoadRunner).
• Automation experience using Python, Shell Scripting, Java, MySQL, or Perl.
• Solid knowledge of BDD/TDD methodologies and hands-on experience using tools like Cucumber and Gherkin.
• Hands-on experience with Agile management tools such as Jira and build tools like Maven.
• Demonstrated ability to design test strategies for cloud-based applications (AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Excellent analytical skills to evaluate test outcomes and trace defects to root causes.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to articulate testing status, risks, and issues to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Requirements

• Experience developing or maintaining end-to-end automation frameworks integrated with CI/CD pipelines.
• Familiarity with security and compliance testing in government or highly regulated environments.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Company paid medical insurance and life assurance
• Pension scheme
• Annual training allowance
• Wellbeing allowance
• Virtual GP
• Employee Assistance plan
• And more

Equal Opportunities

Aker Systems fosters a diverse environment that encourages openness in its communications and is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status or other personal characteristics. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity because they help challenge us and find new groundbreaking technical solutions.