Test Manager

The opportunity:

The role combines leading 3rd Party Test vendors both onshore and offshore testers with hands-on delivery oversight. It also involves long-term planning including building a Test Centre of Excellence (TCoE). The position requires full adoption of test automation aligned with modern engineering practices.

The Test Manager will be responsible for testing across projects and programmes providing leadership governance critical issue management and assurance to key partners

What youll be doing:

• Test Leadership and Governance:
  • Own and define the end-to-end test strategy aligned to business objectives regulatory requirements and delivery methodologies.
  • Act as the central test expert and escalation point for all project and programme testing activities.
  • Establish and implement test standards policies methodologies and quality gates appropriate for a regulated London Market insurance environment.
  • Provide test status reporting risk assessment and quality assurance to senior stakeholders and programme boards.
  • Ensure testing provides sufficient assurance for regulatory audit and compliance expectations.
• Test Centre of Excellence (TCoE):
  • Design implement and mature a TCoE to standardise testing practices across Markel International.
  • Define reusable assets templates metrics and tooling to improve efficiency and consistency.
• Test Automation:
  • Define and be responsible for the test automation strategy roadmap and adoption plan across systems and platforms.
  • Drive the shift from manual-heavy testing to a scalable maintainable automated testing model.
• Vendor and Resource Management:
  • Lead 3rd party testing partner providing onshore and offshore testing services.
  • Hold 3rd party testing partner accountable for quality delivery and continuous improvement.
• Delivery Support and Quality Assurance:
  • Partner with 3rd party testing partner lead project managers product owners delivery leads and business collaborators to ensure testing is fully embedded in delivery plans.
  • Ensure appropriate test approaches are applied across functional system integration UAT regression performance and non-functional testing.
  • Lead testing across commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) SaaS pro-code and low-code solutions.

Our must-haves:

The successful candidate:

• has strong leadership presence with the ability to inspire change and adoption
• is commercially aware and comfortable leading supplier relationships
• is an experienced Test Manager or Senior Test Lead preferably within financial services ideally London Market or specialty insurance.
• has strong understanding of insurance systems underwriting claims policy administration or delegated authority
• has demonstrable experience handling 3rd party testing vendors including offshore teams
• has solid understanding of ITIL Service Management practices particularly Change and Release management.
• is experienced at establishing or operating a Test Centre of Excellence
• has solid understanding of test automation frameworks tools and CI/CD integration
• has experience across both Agile and traditional delivery models
• has exposure to low-code platforms and SaaS solutions (desirable)
• has professional testing qualifications (e.g. ISTQB Advances Test Manager or equivalent) (desirable)
• has experience supporting large London Market insurance transformation or core system replacement programmes (desirable)

Who we are:

Markel Group (NYSE MKL) a Fortune 500 company with over 60 offices in 20 countries is a holding company for insurance reinsurance specialist advisory and investment operations around the world.

Were all about people We win together We strive for better We enjoy the everyday We think further

Whats in it for you

• A great starting salary plus annual bonus & strong benefits package
• 25 days paid holiday plus Bank Holidays with the opportunity to buy/sell extra leave
• Fantastic company pension scheme private medical and dental cover life assurance travel insurance cover income protection season ticket loan as well as other great benefits on offer
• There are countless opportunities to learn new skills and develop in your career and we can provide the support needed to do just that!

Are you ready to play your part

Choose Apply Now to fill out our short application so that we can find out more about you.

Markel celebrates the value of a diverse workforce that brings experience and expertise from a wide variety of backgrounds and life circumstances. Whatever your background if you feel you meet the requirements of this role then we want to hear from you. We are also happy to consider candidates who are looking for flexible working patterns.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race religion colour national origin sex gender gender expression sexual orientation age marital status veteran status or disability status.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided with all reasonable accommodations to be able to participate in the job application or interview process and to perform essential job functions if successful. Please contact us via email at or call us at 0 to request any accommodations that may be needed. This includes any alternative formats of any documents or information on how to apply offline.

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