Test Manager

Role Summary

We are seeking an experienced Test Manager with strong General Insurance domain expertise and a proven track record of leading large-scale transformation programmesspecifically Duck Creek or Guidewire platform upgrades. The role is responsible for defining and delivering the end-to-end test strategy across multiple streams (functional regression integration UAT and non-functional). The ideal candidate brings a test engineering mindset promotes shift-left practices drives automation adoption (including Playwright) and enhances quality through continuous testing and robust test governance.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the end-to-end test strategy for Duck Creek or Guidewire upgrade programmes aligned with programme timelines release plans and business objectives.
  
• Lead test planning estimation and scheduling across distributed teams and workstreams to ensure timely delivery.
  
• Implement a risk-based testing approach; maintain a dynamic test risk register and ensure timely mitigation.
  
• Design and implement the automation strategy across UI and API layers including frameworks CI/CD integration and reusable assets.
  
• Lead the adoption and implementation of Playwright for modern web UI automation ensuring best practices around reliability parallel execution cross-browser coverage and pipeline integration.
  
• Define non-functional testing (NFT) strategy spanning performance load scalability security and accessibility testing collaborating with platform and infrastructure teams.
  
• Establish a robust Test Data Management (TDM) strategy including data profiling synthetic data creation masking subsetting and environment refresh cycles.
  
• Drive test environment strategy including provisioning configuration management and use of service virtualization or mocks for dependency testing.
  
• Promote a Test Engineering culture through shift-left testing testability by design contract testing and continuous feedback loops.
  
• Manage stakeholders across business functions product ownership architecture infrastructure vendor partners and third-party suppliers.
  
• Coordinate and govern vendor/supplier testing activities validating deliverables such as patches fixes and acceptance testing artifacts.
  
• Oversee the defect management lifecycle ensuring effective triage prioritization and resolution; establish and enforce quality gates.
  
• Provide detailed reporting on quality metrics coverage defects automation ROI risks and readiness to senior stakeholders and governance forums.
  
• Build and mentor high-performing test teams including test leads automation engineers performance specialists and TDM experts.
  
• Lead regression and upgrade-specific testing activities including baseline regression packs compatibility testing data migration validation cutover rehearsals and post-go-live verification.
  

Required Technical & Domain Skills

• Extensive experience in General Insurance testing with functional understanding of policy billing claims rating and endorsement processes.
  
• Demonstrated delivery experience on Duck Creek or Guidewire upgrade programmes (major version upgrades LOB migrations patch upgrades).
  
• Strong hands-on expertise with Playwright for web UI automation: designing scripts debugging parallelization flakiness reduction and CI integration.
  
• Solid grounding in UI and API automation frameworks with experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins Azure DevOps GitHub Actions etc.).
  
• Experience with API testing tools (Postman REST-assured or equivalent) and service virtualization techniques.
  
• Test Data Management experience including masking synthetic data creation subsetting and TDM tooling.
  
• Non-functional testing experience with performance/load testing tools (JMeter LoadRunner etc.) and general security testing awareness.
  
• Familiarity with test management and defect tracking tools (e.g. JIRA) and modern reporting and orchestration tools.
  
• Knowledge of cloud environments containerization and infrastructure-as-code concepts impacting test environments.
  

Leadership & Programme Experience

• Experience leading testing within large-scale transformation programmes involving multi-vendor ecosystems and geographically distributed teams.
  
• Strong stakeholder management with the ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership and steering committees.
  
• Proven capability to scale testing operations implement best practices and transform legacy QA approaches into engineering-led continuous testing models.
  

Desired Certifications & Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science Engineering or equivalent professional experience.
  
• Relevant certifications such as ISTQB Advanced/Expert Agile testing certifications ScrumMaster/Kanban certifications or Duck Creek/Guidewire certifications (if available).
  
• Playwright training or proven experience in implementing Playwright at scale is highly desirable.
  

Success Criteria & KPIs

• Reduced production defects associated with upgraded components and integrations.
  
• Increased automation coverage across critical business and technical flows demonstrating tangible automation ROI.
  
• On-time completion of regression cycles and successful cutover rehearsals with minimal defects or rollbacks.
  
• Effective mitigation of testing risks and timely stakeholder sign-off for releases.
  
• Improved feedback loops through CI-driven continuous validation and quality gates.
  

Typical Deliverables

• Comprehensive test strategy and test plan.
  
• Automation strategy and Playwright framework implementation.
  
• Non-functional testing (NFT) strategy and TDM strategy documentation.
  
• Test schedules estimates resource plans and traceability matrices.
  
• Test cases automated test suites and environment/data preparation scripts.
  
• Regular dashboards and reports on test progress risks defects and quality.
  

Personal Attributes

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with an engineering-first mindset.
  
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate technical risks in business terms.
  
• Collaborative and influential leadership style across cross-functional and vendor teams.
  
• Resilient adaptable and able to thrive in high-pressure transformation environments.