QA Lead / Test SME (Salesforce & Test Transformation)

ace has partnered with a leading UK wealth manager, serving affluent and high-net-worth clients, to appoint an experienced QA Lead / Test SME. You will establish an independent, risk-based test capability as the firm moves its CRM from a legacy platform onto Salesforce, and modernises how it delivers change across its client portal, mobile apps and internal platforms.

This is a hands-on change leadership role, with an early start ahead of the Salesforce build. You will baseline the current state, design and embed the QA operating model, and lead testing of the Salesforce programme independently of the implementation partner, while getting a growing pipeline of releases moving safely and predictably to clients. Our client needs a pragmatic operator who can turn a clear vision into an executable plan.

Responsibilities

• Baseline the current QA position: release backlog, regression coverage, test environments and defect data. Establish the first core metrics, including defect leakage, test turnaround and release readiness.
• Define and embed the QA operating model and test strategy: roles, quality gates across the SDLC, SLAs, release triage, and a risk-based approach prioritised around critical client journeys.
• Own the Salesforce test strategy across SIT, UAT, data migration, non-functional and regression testing, providing independent assurance of the implementation partner's delivery.
• Provide an independent, cost-justified recommendation on Salesforce test tooling (e.g. Copado, Provar, Tricentis), and on how it integrates with the existing stack.
• Establish the test environment and test data strategy, including Salesforce sandbox management.
• Modernise regression automation (BDD, cloud execution, CI integration) to cut regression cycles from days to hours.
• Manage quality through Salesforce's release cycle: the three platform releases a year, and regression across customisations.
• Lead QA day to day across squads, coordinating UAT with product managers and managing defects through to resolution.
• Build the business case and ROI for the target test operating model, and present options and trade-offs clearly to the CTO and senior finance stakeholders.
• Build the test team's capability in risk-based and automated testing, and embed quality in Agile delivery (three amigos, shift-left testing).
• Evaluate AI-assisted test generation where it tangibly improves speed and coverage.

• Demonstrable experience leading testing across at least two full-lifecycle Salesforce implementations in wealth management or another regulated financial-services environment.
• Proven ownership of SIT, UAT and data migration testing alongside a systems integrator, including migration from a legacy CRM.
• Track record of building or resetting a QA function: test strategy, operating model, quality gates, metrics, environments and release process.
• Hands-on with Salesforce test automation (Copado, Provar, Tricentis or similar), plus web, API and mobile automation (Cucumber/BDD, cloud device grids, Jira/Xray, CI pipelines).
• Strong grasp of risk-based testing, balancing delivery speed, client experience and risk.
• Good understanding of operational risk, information security and data protection in a regulated environment.
• Confident communicating technical issues and business cases to C-level stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Salesforce Financial Services Cloud experience.
• Experience testing client portals and native iOS/Android apps.
• Exposure to AI-assisted testing tools or enterprise AI, such as Microsoft Copilot.
• Experience building an in-house test centre of excellence, or moving from an interim role into a permanent leadership role.
• Experience coaching manual testers into automation roles.

• Initial 6-month contract, with likelihood to extend
• Future opportunity to move into a permanent role.
• Hybrid working: 3 days per week in the client's London office.
• Salary: up to £110k