This job might no longer be available.

QA Manager

Sumo Nottingham develops characterful, accessible and innovative action/adventure and racing games for console and PC. We are part of Sumo Digital Ltd., an independent UK developer working with some of the world’s biggest publishers including Microsoft, Sony and Sega.

It’s an exciting time to be part of Sumo, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio and GI Biz 2020 Best Places to Work; big things are on the horizon and we want you to be part of our continued journey. Join us!

Sumo Nottingham is made up of a diverse mix of fantastic people, although sometimes, some groups are still under-represented. We are working to remove obstacles that can make it difficult for those groups to progress their careers in the games industry. We welcome applications from under-represented people in the gaming industry, including, but not limited to BAME, LGBQT+, women, people with physical disabilities, neurodiversity or mental health issues, and parents or carers.

To be successful you will have:

• 10+ years’ experience in QA role with at least three of those being in a QA Manager position.
• Experience in shipping 3+ games on consoles, at least two of which has been in a lead or senior capacity.
• Have a broad knowledge and experience in multiple areas of games production.
• Excellent leadership and management skills.
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal.
• A very high degree of flexibility and first-rate organisational skills.
• Experience of console testing including solid understanding of submission process including TRC, TCR and Lot checks.
• Be able to write full test plans and enable and help your team to follow and adapt those plans during development.
• Most of all, a passion for games and their development!

In your new role you will:

• Plan QA deliverables with your team and ensure coverage for all testing requests from all areas of development.
• Define and adapt the testing processes to ensure fast and accurate qualitative and functional testing.
• Keep abreast of new industry testing trends, workflows and technology. Propose and integrate these where appropriate.
• Liaise and work alongside internal development teams and Publisher QA as necessary.
• Able to balance competing project QA priorities across multiple projects.
• Mentor and train the QA team to increase their professional skill sets and aid their career development.
• Be the main studio point of contact for all QA-related communication and forging excellent relationships with all disciplines.
• Take part in project leadership meetings and chair daily QA Scrums.
• Be an advocate of QA throughout the organisation.
• Conduct monthly 1:2:1’s with each of member your team along with twice yearly appraisals.
• Assist the recruitment team to recruit additional QA testers as needed.

It would be an advantage if you have:

• An understanding of MS Team Foundation Server (TFS) and/or Jira.
• Current knowledge of platform specific certification requirements.
• Experience using Perforce VCS.
• Good working knowledge of the MS office suite including Excel, Word, PowerPoint etc.
• Experience of Agile development, including running Scrum’s.
• Had exposure to bug triage process.
• Been involved with some level of compatibility testing.
• Experience of multiplayer net testing and ‘games as a service’ desirable.

Sumo Digital’s Nottingham studio work on an exciting variety of action and driving games and are looking to recruit an experienced QA Lead Tester working in a dev/embedded capacity to lead the existing QA testing team on this and future titles.

You will be working in the heart of the development environment and the successful candidate will play a key part in the development process by defining testing processes, supporting and mentoring the experienced team of testers and helping the overall team achieve their target quality in design and implementation. You’ll also be responsible for developing and nurturing relationships between the different disciplines you, and your team, work within the studio.

QA are genuinely embedded in our development teams and are key to achieving excellent results, therefore we consider this a crucial role for the Nottingham studio. Could you be the person we’re looking for?

What we offer at our Nottingham studio:

Annual Bonus

Share Incentive Plan

Competitive Pension

Flexible Working

27 Days Holiday, including your birthday, duvet days and Christmas holiday shut down

Employee Referral Bonus

Competitive Mat/Pat & Adoption

Comprehensive Benefits package including a dental option

Free gym membership to PureGym

Relocation Support to the UK

Visa Sponsorship

Life Drawing

Yoga Classes

Career Development and pathway

5 yearly Learning and Development Days

Take part in regular Game Jams and Creative Jams

Access to a wealth of training materials from leading content providers such as Udemy, Epic, Gnomon Workshop and GDC Vault

Take advantage of a big selection of titles within our Game & Book Libraries

Wrap Parties and wrap gifts

Long service and game completion awards

Studio tuck shop

Free fruit and drinks

Cake and savoury buffets on Friday mornings

Last Friday of the month drinks and games

Awesome Christmas party

Summer Family Big Day Out

Where do we stand on diversity?

At Sumo Digital, we know that diversity and inclusivity will make our teams (and the amazing work that they do) better! We encourage and welcome ALL applications.

Our studio is in Nottingham’s Castle Marina, near Nottingham’s picturesque canal route and just fifteen minutes’ walk from the City Centre. The studio is served by excellent bus, tram and cycle links and the railway station is a ten-minute walk away.

We offer a super benefits package including generous holidays, flexitime and excellent employee benefits. We support your personal development through access to training resources and time to work on them. Further perks include our legendary annual Sumo Big Day Out, plus epic Christmas parties, vouchers on your birthday and free fruit for everyone! Our new, regular studio Game Jams are a highlight - staff spend a full day developing and pitching their own game ideas for possible development by Sumo.

We are committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can be themselves, and offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, with emphasis on well being and work/life balance.

Sumo Digital, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio and 2019 TIGA Award for Best Independent Studio, continues to be one of the UK's most prolific game developers, enjoying year on year stability and growth since its founding in 2003. We have UK studios in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, Warrington, The Chinese Room in Brighton and Red Kite Games in Leeds, along with Sumo Video Games in Pune, India.