QUALITY IMPROVEMENT MANAGER

It is our vision to connect the insurance community through market-leading technology. Our people are placed at the heart of this, and diversity, equity and inclusion are central to everything we do. We know the key to achieving success is to enable a positive, inclusive, and collaborative working culture, and, as part of our commitment, we have signed up for a number of pledges and programmes designed to support and nurture our people. No matter where you sit or which team you are a part of, we want you to know that you contribute in helping us to shape where the company will be in the future. We would love for each employee to be able to talk with pride about our company and, most importantly, consider Open GI to be an inclusive, fun and fulfilling place to work. Responsible for ensuring designated Technology programmes and projects identify and deliver measurable quality improvement. Working closely with Head of QA, Quality Architect and members of the QA Chapter this role will ensure that quality issues are identified early, and appropriate best practices are agreed and put in place. These are not limited to improvements in QA Engineering but will span the entire software delivery lifecycle. Working with multiple delivery tribes and teams across the organisation, being an advocate for quality improvement and quality assurance best practices. Key responsibilities Identify Quality improvement areas within allocated workstreams, focussing on bringing in left thinking quality initiatives. Working with development engineers, technical QA Engineers, Architecture, Systems and Business Analysts to ensure collaborative solutions to quality issues are agreed and implemented. Work with Project Managers and Agile Delivery Managers to understand upcoming demand and impact on our customers. Identify skills and knowledge gaps in testing capabilities and create achievable improvement plans across all disciplines. Work with our customers to understand areas of quality concerns and, alongside other QA team members, put a customer action plan in place with agreed milestones. Escalate any blockers to quality improvement at the earliest opportunity. Ensure all relevant information is shared and understood across QA Team members. Understand the Support process and work directly with Support teams and Delivery teams to help minimise issue/bug rework and ensure issue goes to the correct location. Identify delivery risks and ensure QA activity is understood and scheduled at the earliest point. Directly analyse defect and change failure information, enrich the process to enable greater understanding of how to prevent future issues from occurring. Highlight impact of change to systems to stakeholders. Highlight risk of change at a customer level with open communication forums. Adopt consistent processes across OGI, feeding into QA Marketplace to allow best practices to be utilised across multiple teams. Upskill QA Engineers in product understanding, QI initiatives and ways of working. Create consistent and dynamic reporting deliveries and publish to interested stakeholders and customers. Proxy for QA Engineers as appropriate, testing and attending delivery meetings and agile ceremonies as needed. Work directly with Infrastructure and delivery teams to ensure environments enable consistent and appropriate testing and meet the needs of existing deliveries and regression suites. Update the QA Chapter documentation with latest discoveries and learnings. Working with other departments to influence quality improvements across the business. Mentor other team members in QA best practices and OGI processes Qualifications Formal qualifications such as a relevant degree of ISTQB Foundation certification (advantageous). Agile qualifications (advantageous) Microsoft Azure accreditation (advantageous) Experience 5 years+ of experience in a senior QA Management role Strong test automation application experience Excellent experience in Non-functional testing techniques Demonstrable experience of working directly with development teams Experience of working in Financial and insurance industries Experience of working with and managing dedicated offshore teams Experience in writing test harnesses to facilitate manual testing. Commercial experience in a software testing environment. Broad understanding of QA tools and industry best practices Skills and Aptitudes Willingness to use and improve the use of software tools which automate or assist any part of the testing process, execution of tests and test reporting functions. String leaning toward collaboration and ability to delegate Ability to represent the company in a positive and professional manner when interfacing with customers. Excellent telephone manner is required. A commitment to quality and a thorough approach and strong attention to detail. Calm and level-headed, works well under pressure. MS Office Suite proficiency required. Consistent information gathering and documenting. Tenacity – able to keep on digging. Intuition, initiative, drive, and a strong desire to succeed. Ability to work as part of a team as well as independently. Strives to continuously develop and improve own skills and knowledge. Willingness to take on new tasks / duties to achieve Job Summary objectives. Strong test planning skills. The ability to consistently deliver to tight deadlines. Mission and Values Our mission is to be both the Technology Partner and Employer of choice for the UK General Insurance Market. Our values are central to this vision, as they represent how we collaborate to continually deliver for our customers: Accountability: We own our actions and shape our success on the results we deliver Innovation: We tackle challenges with fresh thinking and bold ideas Teamwork: We work together, recognising we can’t do this without each other Trust: We build trust on integrity, transparency and respect We are looking for an individual who embraces our values in their actions, decisions, communications and processes to inspire positivity and, ultimately, exceptional performance. Benefits package Competitive salary depending on skills and experience Company pension Bonus opportunity Life assurance and critical illness cover Cycle to work scheme Perkbox – an exclusive platform offering a wide range of discounts and benefits Holiday entitlement of 25 days per annum pro-rata, increasing to 26 days per annum after three years of service & a holiday purchase scheme A hybrid approach to work, with office attendance typically required twice per month. Opportunity for a more flexible approach to start, finish, and lunchtimes to allow you to better manage events outside of work Social clubs - whether you’re into your cycling, crafts, or other hobbies, we have a number of groups at Open GI where individuals who enjoy the same pursuits can get together Wellbeing – wills at work scheme, employee assistance programme and mental health first aiders Please note that this role can be based in either our Worcester, Winchester or Milton Keynes locations, and we are looking for candidates who are currently based within a 50-mile radius of our offices. To apply for this role please fill out the application form and send us your CV.