Principal Test Manager (P-580)

Principal Test Manager £95000 per annum Bedford Permanent Hybrid Working Join us at the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) as a Principal Test Manager. The Principal Test Manager provides strategic leadership for Quality Engineering across the organisation. This role is accountable for defining, implementing, and continuously improving testing and quality practices, frameworks, and standards that ensure high-quality software delivery across all portfolios and programmes. They embed a culture of excellence, collaboration, and engineering discipline throughout. The Principal Test Manager ensures that all testing activity, whether functional, non-functional, automated, or exploratory, is aligned to business outcomes and delivery models. You'll be part of a dynamic team dedicated to helping people across the UK improve their financial wellbeing., In this role you will be responsible for the following; Strategic Leadership

• Maintain and mature quality standards and frameworks to drive consistency, reuse, and innovation across delivery portfolios. Own the Quality Engineering roadmap, covering test automation, tooling, environments, data, performance testing, accessibility, and observability. Produce quality KPIs and metrics that demonstrate value and enable data-driven decision making (e.g. defect leakage, automation coverage, cycle time). Drive adoption of shift-left and shift-right testing, embedding testing early in CI/CD pipelines and using production insights to improve quality feedback loops. Governance & Assurance Provide independent test assurance for high-risk / regulated programmes. Chair or contribute to Quality Gates and release readiness reviews. Establish and manage vendor QA governance, ensuring external partners meet agreed SLAs, KPIs, and quality standards. People & Organisation Own and
run the Quality Engineering Community of Practice encompassing 3rd party and in-house colleagues
• Build and lead a multi-skilled test community Mentor QAs, QA Leads, Programme Test Leads, ensuring they operate to consistent standards and behaviours. Promote a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and collaboration between QA, Software Engineering, and Operational teams. Innovation & Tooling Own and evolve the test tooling landscape Evaluate and adopt emerging tools and practices (AI-assisted testing, contract testing, etc.). Collaborate with engineering/DevOps to ensure environments, data, and test automation pipelines are reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient., Skills and Experience Required Essential: You will need to demonstrate the following skills and experience; 4 years+ experience leading Quality Assurance or Quality Engineering teams People leadership and line management experience.. Able to manage a diverse group of internal and external stakeholders. Stay current with industry trends, landscape changes and new technologies to identify new opportunities. Strong team leadership and experience with working cross functional teams, including collaborating with peers and other community of practice leads to plan and manage delivery.
  
  About Us The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is based in Bedford, in a recently renovated modern office. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to become an integral part of a dynamic organisation, working to help people across the UK. At the heart of the Money and Pensions Service are our values - caring, connecting, and transforming, which are the foundation of our success. They permeate every area of our work and define all our business relationships and the way we work with each other. We're not only looking for the best people to come and work for us, but we need people who align themselves with our values: Caring We care about our colleagues and the people whose lives we are here to transform. Connecting We will transform lives through our ability to make positive connections. Transforming We are committed to transforming lives and making a positive societal impact. Our Inclusive Working Environment By fostering our values, we are
immensely proud of the inclusive working environment that we have created. The diversity of our people is a strength that we embrace and wish to build upon, so we are committed to attracting people of all backgrounds. We work hard to ensure that we have a progressive approach to inclusion, equity, and belonging. We really do want our colleagues to "bring their whole selves to work." Our colleague and ally networks encompass LGBTQ+, neurodiversity, women's health, men's health, ethnicity, and diversity. What We Offer
• Generous Annual Leave - 30 days plus Bank Holidays Pension scheme - contributions matched 2 to 1 (up to 10% of your salary) Interest-free loan for season tickets for buses and trains Cycle to work Scheme Subsidised eye tests & flu jabs Life assurance scheme Give as you earn scheme Employee assistance programme (EAP) PAM Assist and PAM Life scheme (Wellbeing) Enhanced family and sick pay Paid