Sr Lead, SDLC Testing Governance

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust a Fortune 500 company is a globally recognized award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the worlds most successful individuals families and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service expertise and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22000 partners we serve the worlds most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Job Description AND Principal Responsibilities

The Sr Lead SDLC Testing Governance is a senior individual contributor and thought leader responsible for establishing governing and continuously improving testing governance across the SDLC. Operating in a regulated financial services environment this role ensures testing practices and evidencing are robust auditable and aligned to industry specific and Northern Trust internal standard with a strong partnership across 1LOD/2LOD and Enterprise Change Management (ECM).

The successful candidate will work horizontally across product engineering QE architecture release/change risk and audit partners to drive uplift reduce risk and enable highquality releases with complete traceable test evidence.

Principal Responsibilities

SDLC Testing Governance & Control Adherence

• Own and enforce SDAM testing controls across programs/releases covering test requirements analysis strategy/plan approvals productionseparate and productionequivalent environments application security testing and data protection in nonprod.
• Define and operate practical stage gates and tollgates for testing artifacts (Test Strategy Test Plan Traceability Execution Results Defect reports Test Summary PostImplementation Validation) with clear acceptance criteria and approvals.

Compliance Risk & Audit Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for QE/testing compliance matters; conduct selfassessments and targeted audits; manage exceptions with documented mitigations; partner with 1LOD/2LOD to meet ECM and enterprise risk expectations.
• Support remediation of supervisory observations (e.g. MRIA/MRA) by tightening test oversight documentation completeness and release governance for Tier1 programs.

Uplift & Implementation

• Lead the uplift of testing governance processes playbooks and templates; standardize how teams plan execute and evidence testing in ADO / ServiceNow Test Management Module (TMM); drive adoption through pilots and iterative rollout.
• Facilitate governance forums CAB support and decisionmaking meetings; curate artifact checklists and ensure readiness against ECM expectations and required templates (e.g. Impact Analysis Risk Registry Test Strategy/Plan).

Training & Enablement

• Develop and deliver training clinics and office hours for engineering product and program teams on SDLC testing governance evidencing and SDAM alignment.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build trusted relationships with product owners architects development QE change/release and risk/audit partners; act as a liaison across IT compliance audit and business to ensure cohesive execution and a culture of accountability.

Metrics & Reporting

• Define and track KPIs/OKRs for testing governance (e.g. artifact completeness traceability coverage defect leakage automation coverage environment parity audit issue closure); publish dashboards and executiveready reporting.

Continuous Improvement

• Perform gap assessments and retrospectives across audits and major releases; integrate lessons learned to mature controls tooling and workflows (including riskbased testing and exception paths).

Experience and MustHave Skills

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Information Systems Engineering or related field.
• 8 years in software testing/QE test governance or QA leadership in regulated financial services or technology environments.
• Handson governance of enterprise/release Test Strategy & Test Plans traceability defect management and test summarization for complex multisystem programs.
• Strong tool proficiency: Azure DevOps (ADO) ServiceNow TMM CI/CD pipelines and test data/environment management; fluency in riskbased testing practices.
• Deep understanding of SDLC Agile/DevOps change/release governance and software risk management.
• Excellent communication documentation and executivefacing reporting skills; ability to influence without authority in a matrixed environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree or relevant certifications (e.g. ISTQB Advanced Test Manager CISA/CRISC SAFe DevOps).
• Demonstrated leadership in enterprise change programs including artifact readiness for CAB/SteerCo and regulator/auditor walkthroughs.
• Experience maturing test governance assets and QE procedures (gating evidencing automation policy) across a broad portfolio.

Salary Range:

Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension) health and welfare benefits (medical dental vision spending accounts and disability) paid time off parental and caregiver leave life & accident insurance and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.

Working with Us:

As a Northern Trust partner greater achievements await. You will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture in an organization where financial strength and stability is an asset that emboldens us to explore new ideas.

Movement within the organization is encouraged senior leaders are accessible and you can take pride in working for a company committed to assisting the communities we serve!Join a workplace with a greater purpose.

Wed love to learn more about how your interests and experience could be a fit with one of the worlds most admired and sustainable companies! Build your career with us andapply today.#MadeForGreater

Reasonable accommodation

Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process please email our HR Service Center at .

We hope youre excited about the role and the opportunity to work with us. We value an inclusive workplace and understand flexibility means different things to different people.

Apply today and talk to us about your flexible working requirements and together we can achieve greater.