Contract - Test Manager

At Honda we embrace inclusion in our various policies, so whilst our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 35 hours per week, we offer flexibility for when you work. The regular office hours are 08:00 – 16:00 Monday to Thursday with a half hour lunch break & 08:00 – 13:00 on a Friday. However, we offer flexibility of when you work with our daily flex-time start of between 07:00 and 11:00 providing that there is no business requirement.

Whilst there is no contractual right to work from home, the flexibility we offer is that you can request to work from home 2 days per week, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

Role:

The Contract Test Manager is responsible for defining and leading the test strategy for SAP solutions and their integration with third-party platforms. The role provides oversight across system integration testing (SIT), user acceptance testing (UAT) and regression testing, helping to ensure that solutions are robust, reliable and fit for purpose before release.

The role combines hands-on test management with governance, risk management and stakeholder coordination. It works closely with delivery vendors, development teams, architects, business analysts, product owners, release managers and business test users to embed quality throughout the delivery lifecycle.

The role acts as the central point of accountability for test delivery across relevant projects and releases. It provides clear recommendations on release readiness, identifies risks in requirements and solution design, and promotes continuous improvement in testing practices, tools, automation and reporting.

This role is offered on a contract basis for a duration of 6 months.

Main Responsibilities:

• Manage UAT and Regression testing across multiple domains.
• Validate SIT deliverables from delivery vendors
• Define, document, and own the project test plans, approach, and governance framework across projects and releases,
• Develop and maintain detailed test plans, schedules, and resourcing models, ensuring alignment with overall delivery and release objectives.
• Establish and enforce testing standards, frameworks, methodologies, and tools, including test automation where appropriate.
• Ensure clear entry/exit criteria are agreed and adhered to for all test phases; provide go/no-go recommendations based on results and risk.
• Lead risk-based testing, identifying, managing, and mitigating quality risks throughout the lifecycle.
• Collaborate closely with development teams, architects, business analysts, product owners, release managers, and other stakeholders to ensure testing is integrated into the delivery pipeline.
• Validate integration architecture mainly between SAP and third-party platforms, ensuring testability is built into system design
• Assess and challenge architectural decisions that may compromise system stability, resilience, or long-term maintainability, acting as a technical authority who can push back on poor design choices.
• Design and execute resilience testing to ensure primary systems maintain functionality when ancillary systems fail or experience degradation, including verification of failover mechanisms, circuit breakers, and graceful degradation patterns
• Analyse functional and non-functional requirements for completeness, testability, and alignment with system goals, identifying and articulating gaps in requirements including performance, scalability, reliability, and usability considerations
• Challenge ambiguous or incomplete specifications before development begins and ensure traceability between requirements, test cases, and defects.
• Provide high-quality test documentation, including strategies, plans, test cases, results, and closure reports, tailored for both technical and senior business audiences.
• Manage defect lifecycle, prioritization, and resolution, ensuring issues are tracked and closed effectively.
• Oversee test environment requirements, readiness, and availability, coordinating with infrastructure and operations teams.
• Drive continuous improvement in testing practices, tools, automation coverage, and reporting.
• Act as a single point of accountability for test delivery within the programme, ensuring alignment to release and business outcomes.
• Serve as the guardian of system stability, ensuring software systems and integrations are production-ready before hardware and vehicle-level testing begins
• Guide business test users and promote a culture of quality across the programme.

Qualifications, skills and experience:
Required

• ISTQB or ISEB Foundation Level certification, or an equivalent recognised software testing qualification.
• Demonstrable SAP test management experience, including ownership of SIT, UAT and regression testing.
• Proven experience of leading testing within a complex software development and systems integration environment.
• Demonstrable experience of defining and implementing test strategies, plans, governance frameworks and quality standards.
• Strong knowledge of software development lifecycles, including Agile and Waterfall delivery, and how testing is integrated within them.
• Experience of assessing functional and non-functional requirements for completeness, testability and traceability.
• Knowledge of resilience principles and experience of designing or overseeing resilience testing scenarios.
• Experience of managing defects, test environments, quality risks and release-readiness reporting.
• Experience of test automation tools, frameworks and practices, with the ability to identify proportionate opportunities for automation.
• Ability to produce clear, concise test documentation and communicate complex technical risks to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to lead and coordinate internal teams, suppliers and stakeholders within a matrix environment, using sound judgement and constructive challenge.
• Strong understanding of IT infrastructure, application development and systems integration.

Desirable

• Experience of testing connected car services or other software used within an automotive environment.
• Knowledge of security, performance and compliance testing.
• Experience of working within a European or international business environment involving multiple suppliers.
• Proficiency in modern test management, automation and reporting tools.
• Experience of working in a customer-facing or business-partnering role.

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also encourages respect for the individual differences and talents of others while making full use of one's own abilities, based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual.

At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non-discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognise that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities - regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers.

This commitment flows directly from the Honda philosophy and the belief that we are all working towards a common goal. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes the most qualified/experienced individuals at all levels without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.