Head of Quality Engineering

We are – the Rank Group.

From the fun of Mecca Bingo to the experience of Grosvenor Casinos, from in-person to online, from local to global, players love the experiences our famous brands deliver.

We employ almost 8,000 people across our brands, in roles ranging from Casino Croupiers, Poker Dealers, Chefs and Bingo Club Callers, through to specialists in Marketing, Property, Finance, Law and Human Resources and many more.

This is such an exciting sector to be part of, bringing entertainment to millions in a culture of opportunity and growth.

Look at our careers site to find out more: https://careers.rank.com/

Job Purpose:

The Head of Quality Engineering owns the technical quality engineering capability across Shift Tech's engineering organisation: test automation frameworks, performance and non-functional testing, and the quality standards that every squad builds to. This is a hands-on technical leadership role, not a management-only role. The person in it writes and reviews automation and performance code, designs frameworks, and sets the technical direction for quality across the Java, .NET, React and Flutter stacks.

Quality at Shift Tech is moving from a separate QA function to a capability owned by each engineering squad, where engineers write and maintain automated tests as part of delivery. That model only works if someone sets the technical bar, builds the shared frameworks and tooling, and holds squads to it. This role is that person.

The role therefore leads quality through engineering rather than through a test team. Its authority comes from technical credibility: the frameworks it builds, the performance problems it finds and fixes, and the standards it can defend in a code review. Released defects are the main way engineering affects platform stability, and reducing them at source is the role's central purpose.

Key responsibilities

Roughly 60% of the role is hands-on technical work (framework code, performance engineering, reviews, pairing) and 40% is leadership (standards, coaching, planning, reporting).

Test automation leadership

• Own the test automation strategy and the automation pyramid across the Java, .NET, React and Flutter stacks: unit, contract, API, integration, UI and mobile.
• Design, build and maintain the shared automation frameworks, libraries and test data tooling that squads consume; write production-quality code in these frameworks yourself.
• Define what "done" means for automated coverage on a change and enforce it through pull request review and CI quality gates.
• Drive flaky-test elimination, test execution time and pipeline reliability as engineering problems with measurable targets.

Performance and non-functional testing

• Own performance, load, stress, soak and resilience testing across player-facing services and apps; design the test models, scripts and environments and run the tests.
• Establish performance baselines and SLOs per service, embed performance checks in CI, and diagnose bottlenecks with engineers down to code, query and infrastructure level.
• Cover security testing (SAST/DAST integration, dependency scanning) and accessibility testing at the pipeline level in partnership with Security and UX.

Quality standards and engineering practice

• Set and publish the Quality Engineering standards: test strategy per squad, coverage expectations, environment and test data management, defect classification and exit criteria.
• Run quality reviews of squad delivery and hold Engineering Managers and Principal Engineers to the standards.
• Own quality metrics and reporting: escaped defects, change failure rate, test coverage, MTTR contribution, automation health; present them to engineering leadership monthly.
• Lead root-cause analysis of released defects and production incidents attributable to engineering, and turn findings into framework, pipeline or standards changes.

Coaching and capability

• Upskill engineers in test design, automation and performance engineering through pairing, code review, guilds and structured training.
• Provide functional leadership and technical direction to quality engineers embedded in squads; contribute to their performance reviews and development plans.
• Act as the senior technical escalation point for quality risk on releases and give a clear go/no-go recommendation.

Tooling and AI augmentation

• Own the quality tooling estate (test frameworks, performance tools, test management, observability integration) and its licence cost.
• Evaluate and adopt AI-assisted test generation, test maintenance and defect analysis tooling, and set the guardrails for its use.

Qualifications and experience

A formal technical qualification and a demonstrable software engineering background are minimum requirements for this role, not preferences. Candidates from a manual testing or test management background without hands-on automation and performance engineering experience will not be considered.

Minimum qualifications

• Bachelor's degree (NQF 7 or higher) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Electrical/Electronic Engineering or a closely related discipline. An honours or master's degree is an advantage.
• At least one recognised professional certification in test or performance engineering, for example ISTQB Advanced Level (Test Automation Engineer or Technical Test Analyst) or an equivalent vendor certification in a performance tool.

Preferred qualifications

• A cloud certification at associate level or above (AWS Certified Developer, Solutions Architect or DevOps Engineer preferred; Azure equivalents accepted).
• Certification in a CI/CD, container or infrastructure platform (Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, Terraform).

Experience

• 10+ years in software engineering or quality engineering, of which at least 5 years hands-on building test automation frameworks and at least 3 years leading performance and load testing on production-scale systems.
• At least 3 years leading quality engineering technically across multiple teams (head of, lead, principal or equivalent), including setting standards adopted by engineers who did not report to you.
• Professional software development experience in at least one of Java, C#/.NET or TypeScript, with code that ran in production. Candidates will be asked to show and discuss their own code.
• Experience embedding quality into a continuous delivery pipeline: quality gates, test parallelisation, environment provisioning and test data management.
• Experience with mobile test automation (Flutter, native iOS/Android or React Native) is strongly preferred given the mobile product estate.
• Experience in a regulated, high-availability consumer environment (online gaming, fintech, e-commerce, telecoms) is an advantage.

Leadership competencies

The role leads without a large reporting line, so influence, clarity and technical credibility matter more than positional authority.

• Leads through the work. Earns the trust of senior engineers by shipping frameworks, fixing hard problems and giving precise code review, not by issuing policy.
• Sets a bar and holds it. States the quality standard plainly, applies it consistently across squads, and escalates when it is not met, including to Engineering Managers and Product.
• Coaches rather than does it all. Builds capability in engineers so that automation and performance testing scale beyond one person; measures success by what squads can do without the role.
• Evidence over opinion. Uses defect, pipeline and production data to make the case for change and reports honestly when quality is slipping.
• Pragmatic about risk. Distinguishes release-blocking risk from noise and gives clear, timely go/no-go recommendations under delivery pressure.
• Works across boundaries. Partners with Architecture, Platform/DevOps, Security, Product and the operations function outside engineering on shared quality outcomes.
• Communicates to every level. Explains a performance bottleneck to an engineer and a quality trend to the CIO with equal clarity, in writing and in person.

Join us to unlock benefits and opportunities that will boost your career journey in a vibrant, inclusive and fulfilling work environment – so you can #BeYourself

Wellbeing@Rank is important... From hybrid working and colleague support networks to menopause support and weekly PepTalks, we’re here for you.

We’ll also invest in your growth by providing development opportunities, leadership training and cutting-edge industry certifications so you have the tools and resources to help you work, win and grow with us.

Immerse yourself in new cultures and gain international exposure through our global business. Collaborate with colleagues from around the globe. 

From pensions to bonus schemes, and private medical insurance to life insurance – we've got you covered.

*Our benefits vary by brand and/or location. Please have a chat with your local Talent Acquisition specialist to find out what’s in place in your location.  

The Rank Group are committed to being an inclusive employer, ensuring that we better understand and meet the needs and requirements of our candidates and customers.

We aim to do this by facilitating fair and equal access to our services. If you require a reasonable adjustment to be made, please reach out to let us know ahead of your interview.

#RankGroup