Testing Capability Manager - Americas

When you join Kainos, you get to think beyond limitations to make an immediate and positive impact – like transforming digital services for millions of citizens or helping Fortune 500 companies get live and thrive on Workday.You’ll be part of a people-first culture that is growing around the world. We’re a creative, committed, and diverse group of individuals who succeed as a team.At Kainos your ideas are heard and valued and you’ll leave a legacy that you can feel proud of. Join us and discover how our people write our story.

Kainos is a trusted Workday implementation and certified solution partner, providing management, integration, support, testing services, and test automation for Kainos clients. We are Workday’s largest QA testing partner and have a team of consultants, which provide services to customers around the world. Kainos has developed a range of unique tools within the Smart product set to expedite Workday delivery, including testing, data masking and auditing of Workday.

Main purpose of the role & responsibilities in the business:

As the Testing Capability Manager – Americas at Kainos, you’ll be fully accountable for the quality of Kainos testing services commitments to clients. You will ensure they are delivered to agreed timelines, and within margin in your region. You’ll use your Workday expertise to engage directly on high profile projects, to handle any significant functional challenges, and will be an important senior liaison and escalation point for our clients. You will work at Executive level with client stakeholders in setting strategy and direction in testing. You’ll take part in business development activities, working with the sales team on opportunities within your area and will be accountable for providing commercially competitive estimates and content to support the sales process. You’ll be key to developing the capability in your region, in attracting, recruiting, developing, and mentoring senior talent, as well as ensuring your team remains utilized to agreed target levels. As an expert in testing, you’ll share knowledge and direct thought leadership both internally and externally and will partner with other capability leads to embed testing within Kainos services. You will make a significant contribution to the practice direction and commercial success of the function. With exceptional technical acumen and a positive, business facing attitude – the successful candidate will be a key part of a developing business set for significant growth over the coming years.

Minimum (essential) requirements:

• Extensive commercial experience within a software testing environment, preferably with a client facing role in a Senior Test Management, or Test Leadership position.
• Test strategy development and execution at a senior level with significant product deployments.
• Management of a test team or Professional Services team within the ERP space
• Developed knowledge of the trends in information technology, especially ‘Cloud’ computing and SaaS concepts and Workday.
• Experience in the implementation of on-premise or cloud-based business applications such as CRM, ERP, BI or HCM.
• Excellent working knowledge of HCM, Financials and Payroll applications
• A computer science or related degree.
• A developed understanding of quality assurance / automated testing.
• Exceptional understanding of and experience in delivery methodologies and models specifically designed for software as a service.
• Significant experience working in multiple ERP, Corporate Services and/or Workday capabilities.
• Broad business and technology experience and a good awareness of industry trends.
• Excellent leadership skills, including ability to delegate, motivate, lead, attract and develop staff.
• Excellent customer management experience, working with senior executives in customer organizations with the ability to formally present to senior client and conference audiences.
• Excellent skills in managing conflicting demands and performing effectively in complex and difficult situations, including negotiation, conflict resolution and relationship management.
• Sound commercial understanding of margins, utilization and effective rates within a services organization and the importance of these targets.
• Able, if required, to travel to customer sites in the same region (minimal out of region travel may also be required)
• Ability to work with different functional & technical consultants to understand cross functional dimensions of Workday configuration.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Extensive experience in creating bespoke solution proposals for clients and working with internal sales teams to present and influence.

Desirable:

• Experience with Workday Extend, Adaptive Planning, Strategic Sourcing modules.
• Workday certified

People Management:

Your role will involve managing people. Your responsibilities will include:

• Agreeing, setting, and reviewing your and your team’s goals aligned to Kainos, Workday BU and your Capability.
• Providing support so that your and your team’s goals can be achieved.
• Reviewing and refining goals for relevance and to keep performance on track.
• Reviewing performance against goals and provide feedback.
• Conducting 1:1 bi-weekly and/or project completion feedback meetings.
• Requesting and providing regular feedback in Workday.
• Completing End of Year reviews and agreeing the outcomes for the year.
• Identifying training to support your and your team’s development.
• Pursuing and supporting you and your team members’ career paths and progression.
• Reviewing weekly workload forecasting (staff allocations and timesheet checks) and utilization.
• Actively being involved in recruitment/interviews.
• Reviewing attrition and retention metrics.