QA Test Lead - Bristol £85,000

I have a great opportunity for a QA Test Lead/ Principal Level Test Engineer to join my client based in North Bristol. They are a software house who ork on some really interesting products to help keep people on the front line safe and connected in high pressure situations. This is a fantastic opportunity to lead testing across a wide variety of projects for a fab, rapidly growing scaleup. They are the nicest bunch of people and projects range from bespoke mobile applications and server side tech  through to cloud based systems and hardware integrations.
 
You’ll need to be happy coming into their Bristol office three days a week, and due to the nature of the work, you must either hold a British passport or have been a resident in the UK for the past five years, as employees are required to undergo security clearance due to the nature of some of the work they are involved in (just as a side note they only work on products designed to protect people, so all very tech for good not bad!) 
 
They currently have a growing Test Team of 8 and are now looking for a Principle to be a senior figure within the team. The roles  focus will be a mix of hands on and more hands off strategic responsibilities. Whilst  you’ll remain hands on when needed, the bigger emphasis is helping to influence and set thetest strategy, and help with  directing test efforts across complex products. They want someone who can help to drive best practice across multiple engineering teams as their testers are split amongst several teams. You’ll  help embed a culture of quality and work closely with developers, product owners, and stakeholders to ensure testing is embedded from the earliest stages, with requirements that are realistic, testable, and clearly understood.

Some of the products can be very complex with connected hardware elements to the software, so, ideally they would love someone who has worked on this sort of thing before. The role will initially be more focused on leading manual testing across a range of mobile apps, integrated hardware, and cloud systems, but, at the same time, you’ll play a central role in shaping the company’s continued investment in automation and AI. Current tooling for automation  includes Playwright and also  Python based tech. 

What you’ll be doing

Setting and evolving test strategy across one or more high complexity projects.
Coordinating and directing the work of test engineers (permanent staff and contractors).
Championing automation and influencing tooling choices (Python, Pytest, Appium, Espresso, CI/CD pipelines).
Leading the test lifecycle end-to-end: from planning and execution through to triage, reporting, acceptance, and release support.
Coaching and mentoring less experienced testers, helping to build a culture of collaboration and advocacy for quality.
Driving continuous improvement in test processes, practices, and stakeholder engagement.
Exploring new approaches,  including AI-driven tooling and experimentation , and encouraging the team to stay ahead of the curve. 
What they are looking for

Experience leading or coordinating test activities, with the confidence to set direction and influence strategy.
Someone who is excited by tech and likes  to keep up to date with new tools, industry trends and AI
A solid background in manual testing, across, mobile/ hardware, or complex systems
Some knowledge of test automation (Playwright, Python, Kotlin, ADB, Appium, Espresso etc ) and a willingness to drive its adoption
An interest in exploring AI Technologies - they are really big on this!
Familiarity with CI/CD environments (Jenkins, GitLab) and broader modern QA practices.
A curious, pragmatic mindset with the drive to constantly improve.
This is a place where testers are genuinely valued. You’ll have the opportunity to shape the future of testing, influence strategic decisions, and help deliver technology that genuinely matters. The salary  range is  from £65,000 to £85,000 depending on experience. 

If you’d like to hear more, please apply below to Sam Miller at SR2 – Socially Responsible Recruitment