Quality Assurance Manager

The Bank of London Group; City of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading UK banking institution is seeking a QA Manager to oversee quality assurance for their payment systems. This role requires expertise in payment systems, automation testing, and team leadership. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in developing test strategies and managing QA teams, ensuring reliability and quality throughout the SDLC. A commitment to diversity and inclusion is part of the company culture, aiming for a collaborative work environment.

Qualifications

• Deep experience testing complex payments systems with knowledge of ISO 20022 and SWIFT messages.
• Strong experience with tools for testing RESTful APIs.
• Ability to write and execute complex SQL queries for data validation.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and secure approval for Test Strategy and Test Plan documents.
• Define scope, objectives, and resource needs for testing phases.
• Lead QA engineers and mentor team members.

Skills

Payments Domain Expertise

API/Service Testing

Database Proficiency

Tools

Communication

Leadership

Tools

Selenium

Cypress

Postman

Rest Assured

Jira

Confluence

Jenkins

GitHub Actions

Job description

Job Description

Bank of London is one of only six UK clearing banks with direct access to the country's payment systems. Built on modern, cloud-native technology, we provide businesses with secure, API-driven banking that's fast, compliant, and built for growth. Our role is simple: help ambitious businesses turn their plans into reality by removing barriers and simplifying complexity. If you want to work where technology meets banking, where security comes first, and where your work directly enables business ambition, you're in the right place.

As the QA Manager, reporting to the CTO, you will be responsible for defining and implementing the end-to-end quality assurance strategy for major payments and banking programs, including real-time, cross-border, and domestic payment systems (e.g., SWIFT, SEPA, Faster Payments, CHAPS). You will lead a team to ensure all systems meet high standards of reliability, performance, and security. This is a crucial role that requires leadership in test automation, development of comprehensive test strategy documents, and maintaining the ability to personally execute manual testing for complex or sensitive scenarios when necessary. You'll work closely with Product Owners, Development Leads, and Compliance Teams to drive a culture of quality throughout the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and secure approval for detailed Test Strategy and Test Plan documents for major payments programs, aligning with business objectives and regulatory requirements.
• Define scope, objectives, success criteria, entry/exit criteria, and resource needs for all testing phases (System, Integration, UAT, Performance, Regression, Security).
• Design, implement, and maintain scalable and robust automated test suites for API, UI, and back-end services, specifically targeting payments message flows and transaction processing.
• Select and recommend appropriate testing tools and frameworks (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Postman/Rest Assured) and drive continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices.

Reporting

• Oversee and actively participate in the execution of functional, regression, performance, and security testing.
• Oversee and execute manual testing for complex, high-risk, or exploratory scenarios where automation is not feasible or appropriate.
• Manage defect tracking, prioritisation, and resolution processes.
• Provide clear, concise, and timely reports on testing progress, risks, and quality metrics to senior management and stakeholders.
• Own communication with external vendors / partners by tracking reported defects, following up on resolution progress, validating fixes, and ensuring timely and high-quality delivery of all defect-related commitments. Escalating issues when quality or delivery expectations are not met.

Team & Process Management

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of QA engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence and continuous improvement.
• Establish and enforce best practices for testing processes, standards, and documentation.

Skills and Qualifications

• Payments Domain Expertise: Deep, verifiable experience testing complex payments systems, including knowledge of ISO 20022, SWIFT messages, domestic clearing schemes, or card scheme flows.
• API/Service Testing: Strong experience with tools like Postman or Rest Assured for testing RESTful APIs, particularly for transaction-based services.
• Database Proficiency: Ability to write and execute complex SQL queries for data validation and back-end testing in relational and/or NoSQL databases.
• Tools: Hands‑on experience with test management (e.g., Jira/Confluence) and CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with proven experience writing high‑level strategic documents (Test Strategies) for executive review.
• Proven track record of successfully implementing and scaling test automation frameworks from scratch or significantly improving existing ones.
• Leadership: Experience managing offshore QA engineers.

Diversity

Bank of London is an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusion, diversity and belonging. All qualified applicants are welcome and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, age, religion or religious expression, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity and expression, transgender, national origin, or military veteran status.

Seniority level

• Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

• Full‑time

Job function

• Finance

Industries

• Banking