Testing and Data Quality Lead

Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom

Testing and Data Quality Lead

We are searching for an experienced Testing and Data Quality Lead

Purpose

We're looking for an Enterprise Applications Testing & Data Quality Lead to oversee the quality, reliability and trustworthiness of core business applications and data - including the safe rollout of new applications, enhancements and agentic AI capabilities - to enable the business to scale and innovate without compromising compliance, stakeholder satisfaction or change delivery timelines.

This role owns the end to end quality, testing and assurance framework covering RSMs internal core business applications and incorporating the integration of data and embedded AI / agentic functionality. The role enables innovation and automation at pace while protecting the organisation from data quality, system failure and AI related risks.

Accelerating speed-to-value while embedding best practices, governance, and reusable assets.

You will lead an integrated quality approach for enterprise data.

• Define and co-ordinate a multi-domain plan to achieve quality standards referencing variations between functional areas and core business applications.
• Establish and maintain data quality rules, metrics and thresholds aligned to critical business processes and decision making.
• Ensure effective governance of master and reference data across core business applications.
• Improve critical data domains' completeness, accuracy and timeliness to agreed thresholds incorporating automated monitoring and issue triage.
• Reintroduce the Data Steward network with clear RACI for critical domains.
• Ensure effective governance of master and reference data across core business applications.
• Reduce reliance on manual data cleansing by driving quality improvements upstream.
• Implement and evidence system and data audits with predefined criteria based on known or potential risks.

Data Quality

Define, own and drive the core business application testing and quality strategy covering.

• Data flows between core business applications and downstream systems and reporting
• Core business and bespoke applications
• Automation & Orchestration performance and testing

Raise test coverage and defect rate performance for core business applications (core and AI enabled), aligned to risk based testing and leverage existing RSM technology frameworks as a minimum standard.

Establish testing standards, policies, frameworks and best practices, aligned to enterprise architecture and delivery methods.

Govern Quality to ensure a consistent standard.

Testing & assurance

• Data integrity, accuracy, lineage and reconciliation
• Coordinate the satisfactory completion of technology-based testing via the Offshore team
• Set our testing play books for BAU and project teams to set best practice
• Embed controls to protect the integrity of Operational reporting, Analytics and dashboards

Work closely with compliance and governance teams to align testing with controls.

Ensure robust testing across:

• Functional, regression, integration and End to End scenarios
• APIs, orchestrations and other scheduled or event driven architectures
• SaaS and legacy platforms

Working with our transformation and technology teams you will support platform owners with the introduction of agentic AI features and ensure that relevant internal governance processes are adhered to.

• Coordinate the adoption of policies, evaluation routines and test scenarios
• Automate system and functional testing where practical and possible
• Accurately model and measure business value
• Define risk based test strategies and adopt shift left automation

M&A data integration

Work with platform owners to deliver a repeatable data integration & cleansing playbook (mapping, data lineage, quality rules, reconciliations), consolidate operating procedures for all platforms within a single tool that adopt consistent standards.

Qualifications

Must-Have

• Demonstrable leadership of enterprise data quality/governance and application QA across multi team environments.
• Hands on experience rolling out AI/ML or agentic AI features with safety/guardrail frameworks.
• Strong stakeholder management and business value framing of quality.