Software Test Team Leader

We are seeking a hands-on Software Test Team Leader to guide and grow our testing capability while remaining close to the detail of manual and automated testing across our full product suite. You will lead an existing team of testers working across web applications, APIs, and data-heavy systems, ensuring quality is embedded early in the development lifecycle. Working closely with developers, you will help shape test strategy, direct our automation journey, and raise quality standards across the team.

In this role, you will balance leadership and delivery. You'll be mentoring testers, setting clear expectations, and driving consistency in testing practices, while also contributing directly to testing activities where needed. You will work with tools and technologies including API testing frameworks, test automation, and modern web platforms, helping the team build confidence in the systems we deliver. Your focus will be on ensuring quality is not just validated at the end, but built in from the start, enabling fast, safe, and reliable delivery across all products., * Mentor and develop testers through regular appraisal meetings, coaching, and clear development plans, building a skilled and confident test team.

• Drive accountability, ownership, and strong engineering practices across the team, fostering a culture where quality is embedded from the outset of development.
• Act as the key escalation point for testing and delivery risks, proactively removing blockers and ensuring issues are resolved in a timely and structured way.
• Take ownership of overall product quality, ensuring testing approaches are aligned to delivering reliable, scalable, and high-performing applications.
• Work closely with developers, product and project management teams to ensure testing is integrated early in the lifecycle, improving speed, reliability, and confidence in releases.

Test Strategy & Quality Assurance

• Define and evolve the overall test strategy across manual and automated testing
• Ensure consistent quality standards across all products and teams, including features that incorporate AI-driven functionality.
• Apply risk-based testing approaches to balance quality assurance with delivery speed.
• Evolve the test strategy based on delivery insights, feedback, and defect trends.

Technical Delivery & Test Automation

• Champion the effective use of automation within the team, supporting and encouraging its adoption where it adds value.
• Work with developers and testers to develop and maintain automation frameworks and API testing approaches across C# and web applications.
• Help improve test coverage across web applications, APIs, and data-driven systems through a balanced mix of manual and automated testing.
• Support integration of automated tests into CI/CD pipelines, working closely with engineering teams.
• Remain hands-on where required, particularly in exploratory testing, complex scenarios, and technical
• investigations.
• Identify recurring defects and trends, collaborating with developers to address root causes and improve overall product quality

Agile Delivery & Collaboration

• Collaborate closely with developers, product owners, and delivery teams
• Ensure testing is planned, estimated, and delivered effectively within sprint cycles
• Contribute to sprint planning
• Provide clear visibility of quality status, risks, and release readiness to stakeholders.
• Identify and communicate testability challenges, risk, and complexity early in the life cycle to help the team make informed delivery decisions
• Align testing activities with release timelines, supporting production deployments and performing post-release validation to ensure systems are operating as expected

Continuous Improvement

• Drive continuous improvement in testing processes, tools, and automation.
• Champion the use of AI and modern tooling to improve testing efficiency, coverage, and engineering processes.
• Explore and adopt AI-assisted approaches to enhance test design, defect analysis, and overall quality engineering practices.
• Promote shared ownership of quality across the delivery teams, strengthening collaboration between development and testing.
• Continuously develop the team's technical and testing capability, particularly in automation, API testing, and modern QA practices.

• Proven ability to lead, mentor, or support other testers or junior team members
• 5+ years' experience in software testing within a web-based application environment
• Strong understanding of QA principles across manual and automated testing approaches
• Experience working in an Agile development team
• Strong hands-on experience in manual and exploratory testing
• Experience testing APIs and/or backend services
• Experience using Jira for defect tracking and Xray (or similar tools such as TestRail) for test management and execution.
• Ability to work closely with developers and product teams throughout the software life cycle
• Strong communication skills with the ability to report risks, issues, and quality status clearly
• Comfortable being hands-on in a fast-paced delivery environment, * Experience with test automation frameworks (ideally C# or similar backend tools)
• Exposure to CI/CD pipelines and automated test integration
• Experience working with large datasets
• Experience in performance or load testing concepts
• Knowledge of API testing tools (e.g. Postman or similar)

• Hybrid Working: We offer a blend of remote and office-based working based on the needs of the individual and the business.
• Your Birthday Off: In addition to Annual Leave allowance
• Regular Finish Early Fridays: as a reward for all your hard work
• Innovation Days: Time to get away from "normal" and work differently
• Ongoing Training & Qualifications: Learning is at the core of who we are
• Creative Office Space: We have a ball pool, swings, popcorn machine, a gypsy caravan...
• Surprise Treat-Days: Park fun days, meals out, workshops… who knows what's next?
• Parental Leave: Maternity, paternity and adoption leave from day one
• Dependants Leave Allowance: Time off if your child / family member is poorly
• Private Medical Insurance: Because we want to know you're looked after
• Christmas Shutdown: In addition to annual leave allowance. We love Christmas and it's a great time to rest and recharge those batteries!
• Earn More Every Month: After probation, all employees automatically receive an incremental monthly salary increase, amounting to £500 every year.

Angel Solutions creates pioneering web-based software that serves the education industry (teachers, leaders, school improvement officers, education data analysts and more). Most of our products are designed to save people time and deliver powerful data analysis, but that's not all we're about! We also strive to be creative and innovative in everything we do, and want to remain a friendly, close-knit team even as the company continues to grow. The role of Angel's Testing team is to find bugs quickly, to push our products to breaking point and smooth out any potential usability problems that may have crept in over time.