Lead QA Engineer

Lead QA Engineer – London / Birmingham, Flexible hybrid working | Full-Time / Permanent

Competitive salary + bonus and excellent benefits including healthcare, wellbeing support, 27 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, life insurance and more.

We're looking for a detail orientated Lead QA Engineer to establish and lead our quality engineering practice across Digital & Technology at Compass Group UK & Ireland - a global leader in food services.

As Lead QA Engineer you'll play an integral role in helping teams release software quickly, safely and with confidence. This is an exciting opportunity to drive automation, shift-left testing, quality standards and engineering excellence while building an in-house capability that supports our AI-first strategy and modern product delivery approach.

If you're passionate about quality engineering, continuous improvement and enabling high-performing teams, we'd love to hear from you.

Compass Digital & Technology is where ideas turn into possibilities.

We’re the technology team behind Compass Group UK&I, part of Compass Group, one of the world’s largest hospitality businesses. We’re shaping the next generation of products, platforms and experiences for Compass Group, harnessing AI to create competitive advantage and accelerate growth.

We create, manage and deploy technology which supports our operators, clients and guests. From enterprise-scale cloud engineering, cybersecurity, mobile ordering and guest-facing experiences to everyday IT support. Our work reaches across our business and all walks of life, from schools to banks and into the daily lives of millions of people.

But D&T is about more than technology. It’s a place to be curious, challenge what’s possible and turn great ideas into real outcomes. A place where talented people collaborate, experiment, learn and make an impact at scale.

We own it from idea to outcome. We challenge what’s possible. And together, we’re creating better solutions, every day.

Lead QA Engineer – The role

• Lead and define the Digital & Technology quality engineering strategy, operating model, standards and automation roadmap.
• Drive test automation frameworks, shift-left testing practices and risk-based quality assurance approaches across product squads.
• Establish quality gates within CI/CD pipelines to ensure robust release assurance and production readiness.
• Coach and develop QA Engineers and delivery teams in automation, exploratory testing, defect prevention and quality best practice.
• Partner with Software Engineering, Platform Engineering and Site Reliability Engineering teams to embed performance, resilience, observability and operability into products.
• Implement AI-assisted testing techniques to improve test coverage, generate test cases and accelerate regression testing.
• Analyse quality trends, defect leakage and release performance to drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Establish testing standards for performance, resilience, security and accessibility assurance where required.
• Collaborate with suppliers and partners to ensure quality standards are met while supporting the transition to an enhanced in-house capability.

What we're looking for

• Experience leading quality engineering within agile, product-led technology environments.
• Strong knowledge of automated testing, test strategy, API testing, test data management and quality engineering best practices.
• Experience implementing CI/CD quality gates, release assurance processes and automation frameworks.
• Ability to drive the transition from manual testing to automated, risk-based and evidence-led quality assurance.
• Strong understanding of non-functional testing including performance, resilience, security and accessibility considerations.
• Excellent stakeholder management and collaboration skills, with experience working across engineering, operations and product teams.
• Data-led approach to quality metrics, defect analysis and continuous improvement.
• Passion for coaching, mentoring and developing engineering capability.

What you'll get in return

• Competitive salary with bonus and full company benefits
• 27 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, your birthday off, and a holiday purchase scheme
• Healthcare & wellbeing: Aviva Digicare, Medicash (dental, optical, therapy treatments)
• Mental health support: 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
• Family benefits: Enhanced maternity, paternity, and adoption leave. 2 days' additional leave after returning from maternity leave, day off for your baby's first birthday, enhanced family leave
• Perks & discounts: Shopping, entertainment, and travel discounts, 20% off Nuffield Health and 10% off PureGym memberships
• Financial wellbeing: Pension scheme, Life Assurance, preferred rates on salary finance products
• Development opportunities: Professional subscriptions, ongoing training and structured career pathways

Compass Group is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive.