Purpose of Position
To build a high-leverage, scalable quality system that enables our 7 engineering teams (50+ engineers) to ship high-quality software with speed and confidence. Your mission is to make quality the path of least resistance. You will architect and build the "paved road" for quality, aiming to reduce technical debt on our quality systems and embed quality in our platform. You will build the tools, pipelines, frameworks, and feedback loops that empower engineers to own the quality of their code.
The Role: A Builder, Not a Bureaucrat
This is a senior, hands-on, cross-functional leadership role with no direct people management responsibilities.
You are the primary quality expert in this domain, acting as a "force multiplier." Your 'customer' is the engineer, and your 'product' is the quality framework they use every day. You are a systems thinker with a holistic understanding of our platform who will diagnose our current state and then, with gazelle intensity, execute a plan to build our foundation. You will report directly to the Head of Engineering and be their key partner in embedding a sustainable, highvelocity quality culture.
Key Tasks
1. Systems & Architecture
Be the architect of our quality foundation. You are not just testing; you are building the core, compounding assets that will make quality scalable across 50+ engineers. This is about designing the "paved road"—the one right way—that makes it easier for engineers to ship highquality code than to take shortcuts.
- Design, build, and own the domain's "paved road" for quality, including standardized CI/CD quality gates, testing frameworks (e.g., for end-to-end, contract, integration and performance testing), and static analysis tools.
- Act as the lead architect for our test automation strategy. You will write the core framework code and libraries that make it simple for engineers to add robust, fast, and reliable tests.
- Instrument the system by defining, implementing, and owning the core quality metrics (e.g., Defect Escape Rate, Change Fail Percentage, CI Pass Rate).
- Build the dashboards that make these quality metrics visible to everyone.
- Ensure quality is built-in, not bolted-on, by applying SOLID/DDD principles to all architectural and design reviews.
- Create reusable templates and training materials.
2. Strategy & Execution
As the primary quality expert for 50+ engineers, you are a force multiplier, not a bottleneck. Your success will be measured by your ruthless prioritization and execution. You cannot be everywhere at once. Your job is to find the highest-leverage win, build the solution, codify it into a playbook, and then scale it. You must balance effort vs. outcome to find pragmatic solutions.
- Triage the domain's quality risks and focus your efforts on the highest-leverage initiatives.
- Prioritise the next wins, embed with teams and build/prove new solutions, processes and tools.
- Ensure compounding interests by building playbooks and best practices, and advocating together with engineering managers on them.
- Ensure managers and teams are supported and empowered to run the quality practices introduced. Watch over any knowledge degradation.
- Drive the "buy vs. build" decisions for quality tooling by leading the technical evaluation, integration, and standardization.
- Partner with teams to evolve testing strategies and pipelines, not only build for them.
- Facilitate quality guilds, retrospectives, and post-mortems for shared learning.
3. Leadership & Advocacy
This is a leadership role that relies 100% on remote influence, not authority. Your success depends on your ability to be an autonomous, high-agency partner. Your job is to communicate a clear vision that engineers and managers want to follow. This must be achieved through both synchronous embedding as well as asynchronous communication, using data and empathy to build alignment.
- Act autonomously to drive change, using data to influence and align engineers.
- Translate complex quality concepts into simple, actionable playbooks, workshops, and documentation.
- Coach engineers on effective testing strategies and the "Why" behind them. Coach them to own the execution.
- Foster a "shift-left" culture by creating rapid feedback loops for all developers.
- Lead blameless post-mortems on quality failures to identify and fix the systemic root cause.
- Celebrate quality wins to build momentum and advocate for best practices.
Skills & Expertise
- Proven experience building scalable, multi-team quality frameworks from scratch (e.g., as a QA Architect, Principal SDET, or Staff Engineer).
- Hands-on-keyboard expertise in modern CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins).
- Expertise in building modern test automation frameworks (e.g., Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, JUnit).
- Expert-level knowledge of software architecture, (e.g. hybrid cloud and on-premise systems, multi cloud setups, etc.)
- Deep understanding of SOLID, TDD, DDD, and other patterns, and how they directly impact testability.
- A data-driven mindset, with proven experience using metrics to drive quality strategy (comfortable with SQL, dashboards, etc.).
- Proactive synchronous and asynchronous communication skills, both verbal and written.
- A proven track record of influencing senior engineers and managers remotely and without direct authority.
- Bonus: Experience managing or directing third-party QA vendors
Our Offer
- Flexi-Week and Work-Life Balance: We prioritise your mental health and wellbeing, offering you a flexible four-day Flexi-Week at full pay and with no reduction to your annual holiday allowance. We also offer a variety of different paid special leaves.
- Remote Working Allowance: You will receive a monthly allowance to cover part of your running costs. In addition, we will support you in setting up your remote workspace appropriately.
- Flexi-Office: We offer an international culture and flexibility through our Flexi-Office and hybrid/remote work possibilities to work across Awin regions
- Meal Vouchers: You will be supported with a certain net sum to spend it on a variety of lunches.
- Health & Wellbeing: The insurance covers several types of health, vision and / or dental treatments for you and for up to one additional family member.
- Remote Working Furniture Package: After 3 months of employment, you will be eligible for a furniture package, which should enable you to set up a proper workplace at your remote working location
- Appreciation: Thank and reward colleagues by sending them a voucher through our peer-to-peer program.
Established in 2000, Awin is proud of our dynamic, social and inclusive culture.
Like all businesses, we’ve had to adapt and nurture our culture in a virtual environment. Our virtual ‘Life @ Awin’ hub brings our colleagues from across the globe together for various social activities.
Diversity & Inclusion are paramount to us, and we proudly pursue and hire diverse team members. We champion uniqueness and authenticity; this is who we are at our core. Our network of affiliate partnerships are diverse and transparent, as are the employees powering our vision to build the world’s leading open partner ecosystem. We welcome all backgrounds, identities, and experiences. If you need support at any point in the application or interview process, please let us know.
Apply now to begin the next stage of your career at a progressive company that supports both your professional and personal development.
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