Practice Lead Automation

About the role - Full-time, Permanent

As our Practice Lead - Test Automation, you will play a pivotal role in defining and leading the enterprise-wide automation strategy, influencing how quality is embedded across every stage of the software delivery lifecycle. You will have the autonomy to establish enterprise automation frameworks, engineering standards and governance, while championing modern testing practices including shift-left, DevSecOps, CI/CD and AI-driven test automation

Key responsibilities include:

• Lead the enterprise-wide Test Automation strategy, shaping the future of quality engineering across the bank by embedding automation into every stage of the software delivery lifecycle and driving a true shift-left testing culture.
• Build and scale modern automation capabilities by designing enterprise automation frameworks, establishing engineering standards, and enabling high-quality, faster and more reliable releases across web, mobile, API and back-end platforms.
• Create and grow an Automation Centre of Excellence, coaching and mentoring teams, uplifting capability across the organisation, and fostering a high-performance community of automation practitioners.
• Drive innovation in Quality Engineering, championing modern practices including CI/CD, DevSecOps, service virtualization, AI-driven test generation, and cloud-native automation to continuously improve delivery outcomes.
• Influence enterprise technology decisions by partnering with Engineering, DevOps, Release Management and senior stakeholders to embed automation as a strategic capability and trusted quality assurance function.
• Own automation governance and continuous improvement, establishing best-practice frameworks, tooling, metrics and standards that reduce delivery risk, increase automation coverage, and provide confidence in every release.

About you

This position works closely with Engineering, DevOps, Architecture and Delivery leaders, and you will influence technology decisions that improve speed, quality and customer outcomes across our digital ecosystem. The successful candidate will demonstrate the following:

• Extensive experience in software testing and quality assurance (12+ years), including leading end-to-end testing for large-scale enterprise system implementations and managing complex testing programs.
• Proven leadership and people management experience, with the ability to lead, coach, and develop high-performing testing teams while driving a strong quality culture and automation capability.
• Deep expertise in test automation, including designing and implementing automation frameworks (e.g. BDD, TDD, hybrid, data-driven) using industry-standard tools such as Tosca, Postman, Cucumber, TestNG, JUnit, Rest Assured, or similar.
• Strong knowledge of modern DevOps and CI/CD practices, including Git, Jenkins (or equivalent), SonarQube, JIRA/Azure DevOps, and experience embedding quality within DevSecOps and shift-left delivery models.
• Experience establishing and leading Test Automation Centres of Excellence (CoE), including defining automation strategy, governance, frameworks, tooling, and capability uplift across an organisation.
• Strong understanding of enterprise technology landscapes, including cloud platforms (AWS, Azure or GCP), containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), integration architectures, and testing within complex, regulated environments.
• Excellent analytical, stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to interpret quality metrics, influence senior stakeholders, solve complex delivery challenges, and present clear recommendations.
• Relevant tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline. Experience in banking or financial services, digital transformation, Agile delivery (Scrum/Kanban), and non-functional testing (performance, security or accessibility) will be highly regarded.

Location

Whilst our primary office locations are in Adelaide and Brisbane, we are pleased to be able to consider applications from employees within Australia for this role. We also encourage you to put thought into how the work may be undertaken given your location and what support you may require.

Why you'll love working with us:

People First Bank - our new brand - says exactly what we're all about: people. We're committed to supporting and growing our team and creating an outstanding work environment.

You'll have access to financial and lifestyle benefits to support your success and individuality:

• Flexibility and hybrid working arrangements.
• Enhance your salary with discounts on banking, health insurance, and shopping across Australia.
• Advance your career with training, study support, and project opportunities.
• Competitive leave benefits that empower employees to take time for themselves and loved ones.
• Wellbeing support with our Employee Assistance Program, wellbeing leave, mental health app, and mental health ambassadors' program.
• Make a difference with paid volunteering, Workplace Giving, and diverse community initiatives.
• Be recognised for your contributions through our peer-driven recognition program.

A bit about People First Bank:

In March 2023, People's Choice and Heritage Bank merged to form Heritage and People's Choice Limited - Australia's leading mutual bank. We are now on an exciting journey to bring together our products, services, and technology under a single brand - People First Bank.

We have over 700,000 members and 1,900 employees, with dual head offices in Adelaide and Toowoomba, an Australian-based contract centre and branches across five states.

With a vision 'To deliver positive change through banking', People First Bank serves members and contributes to the community, while offering an inclusive, flexible work environment. We're big enough to make an impact; but agile enough to influence and do interesting work.

We are committed to diversity and inclusion and support candidate requests for adjustments to enable everyone to equitably participate in our selection process.