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QA Lead - Racing

At NaturalMotion, we make games that wow people. We innovate to create experiences that previously were impossible and that would not exist without us. We take pride in making titles that reach a large audience and in creating communities that last. In 2018, NaturalMotion Studios were named one of the Best Places to Work in the UK games industry by gamesindustry.biz.

As QA Lead - Racing, you’ll already have confidence in your core skills whilst being aware of what you don’t know yet. A strong sense of personal belief is important, supported by work samples, references, and lessons learned on the way.

Job Purpose

You will be responsible for the overall project and day-to-day planning and execution of test strategy across the project working with the QA Manager and Test Leads at other locations to achieve a high quality product, and you will also work with external partners to achieve the highest possible quality standards. You will be deeply integrated with the development team and QA teams on that basis and be a key voice for ensuring the highest quality standards that our players deserve.

Key Roles & Responsibilities:

• Responsible for helping to define and evolve the project test strategy alongside the QA Manager, identifying any related risks where appropriate
• Line management responsibility of multiple QA Engineers working with feature teams at your location; providing support, mentoring and along with QA Manager, suggesting potential growth or learning opportunities to ensure continuous improvement, and championing a collaborative, inclusive team environment
• Resolve performance issues with direct reports where necessary, working with QA Manager if required
• Reporting day-to-day QA project progress to production and QA Manager, informing them of risks.
• Ensure established QA quality practices are adhered to, informing QA Manager of any risks or blocking issues which need to be addressed or mitigated proactively
• Triaging issues as they are found and delegating them to the relevant development team(s)
• Liaising with vendor test leads across the project where required, monitoring progress and resolving issues or queries (where required)
• Responsible for updating and adding to departmental Confluence pages, in order to ensure that the team has easy access to all information required to complete required testing, creating and maintaining project dashboards in order to ensure visibility on test coverage and progress
• Become a subject matter expert of the project(s) over time, understanding the relationship being the client and server elements, along with third party plugins, systems etc, and passing knowledge to the wider QA team, being hands on where necessary
• Identify, implement and enhance test processes overall where required, both within the QA team and the wider development team
• Research and identifying potential opportunities in tools, automation to enhance and improve test process, piloting and championing new tools and techniques where appropriate
• Lead QA retrospectives and knowledge transfer efforts in order to ensure continuous learning and improvement
• Supporting the QA Manager where required due to illness or absence.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree educated with a relevant degree and/or equivalent experience (1-4 years or more) as a Test Lead, QA Lead or QA Manager
• Prior experience of testing on a live service title, on mobile or other platforms (at least 1 project pre and post launch)
• Prior experience as a line manager or supervisor of one or more QA Engineers
• Clear, concise written and verbal communicator both with internal and external staff
• Have a prior background or experience in testing of some or all the following technical areas: game design, art, graphics, data/analytics, performance, networking, security, platform compliance, agile testing
• Has prior experience with non-functional testing (such as performance, scalability, load testing, compatibility etc) in order to enhance functional test coverage
• Strong working knowledge of test tools and reporting, such as JIRA, TestRail, GameBench etc and have an understanding on how to use such tools to ensure comprehensive test coverage
• Extensive experience collaborating with offsite and/or outsource QA teams, ideally at a development studio
• Exposure to industry standard editor tools (such as Unity, Unreal)
• Exposure to source control systems (such as Git, SVN, Perforce)
• Excellent communication skills in both written and spoken English
• Passion for racing, free to play mobile or console games!

What do we offer?

• Competitive salary, discretionary annual bonus scheme and Zynga stock allowance
• Contributory pension scheme
• 25 days holiday, plus public holidays and Christmas shutdown
• Private medical care and healthcare cash plan
• Life insurance and critical illness insurance
• Discounted gym membership and free weekly yoga class
• Flexible working hours
• Free fruit, snacks & soft drinks provided daily, as well as free lunch on Fridays
• Annual season ticket loan and cycle to work scheme
• Summer and Christmas parties and Happy Hour every Friday

NaturalMotion is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, pregnancy, marital status or veteran status.