Test Lead

£40,000 - £50,000 per annum

Leek, St Edward Street

Hybrid/Flexible Working | Minimum 2 Days per Week in the Office

Full Time | 35 Hours per Week | Permanent

The Organisation

At Leek Building Society, we pride ourselves on being a force for good. We exist to help our communities grow, so they can do great things today and even better things tomorrow.

Our colleagues are one of the communities we support. That's why we've created an inclusive, engaging workplace where people have the freedom to be themselves, develop their skills and build rewarding careers.

We're proud to be recognised as a Great Place to Work, based on feedback from our colleagues, and equally proud to have been recognised externally, winning Best Building Society and Best Specialist Mortgage Provider at the 2026 British Bank Awards.

As a mutual organisation, our members are at the heart of everything we do, and every colleague plays an important role in helping us deliver outstanding service to our customers and communities.

Why Join Us?

We believe great people deserve great benefits. That's why we offer:

• 35-hour working week
• 7.5% employer pension contribution
• Minimum 26 days' holiday plus bank holidays
• Holiday purchase and sale scheme
• Free health screening
• 24/7 GP access for you and your close family
• Comprehensive mental health support, including counselling and Mental Health First Aiders
• Enhanced sick pay and family leave from day one
• Up to 6 months' guaranteed sick pay for major illnesses
• Life assurance worth four times your annual salary
• Workplace savings account with a £100 bonus for regular savers
• Continuous learning and development opportunities
• Retail discounts and salary sacrifice schemes
• Onsite gym at our Head Office
• Flexible and hybrid working opportunities

The Opportunity

We're looking for an organised and delivery-focused Test Lead to coordinate and support testing across our projects and change initiatives.

This is a varied role combining test leadership and governance with practical test analysis and execution. You'll plan and coordinate testing activity, help create and execute test scripts, oversee defect management and maintain clear traceability between requirements, test cases, defects and outcomes.

Working with project teams and business colleagues, you'll ensure testing is structured, proportionate and appropriately evidenced. You'll also provide clear reporting on progress, coverage, quality, risks and implementation readiness.

This is a hands-on opportunity. You'll contribute directly to testing where needed, including preparing test data, writing scripts, executing tests, reviewing evidence and helping teams demonstrate that requirements have been appropriately tested before implementation.

We welcome applications from people who can demonstrate relevant testing experience or transferable capability gained across different projects, organisations or career paths.

What You'll Be Doing

• Developing test strategies, plans and approaches that reflect the risk, scope and complexity of each project
• Creating, reviewing and executing functional, integration, system, regression and user acceptance test scripts
• Supporting business teams to define test scenarios, expected outcomes and acceptance criteria
• Maintaining clear traceability between requirements, test cases, scripts, defects and outcomes
• Coordinating testing resources, schedules, environments and test data
• Managing defects from identification through to resolution, retesting and closure
• Facilitating defect triage sessions and ensuring issues are prioritised, assigned and escalated appropriately
• Agreeing and evidencing testing entry and exit criteria with project teams
• Providing clear reports on testing progress, coverage, quality, risks, issues and readiness
• Identifying gaps in test coverage and working with project teams to address them before implementation
• Supporting business colleagues with test preparation and execution where guidance or additional capacity is needed
• Ensuring testing evidence is maintained appropriately to support governance, audit and implementation decisions
• Working collaboratively with Project Managers, Business Analysts, business stakeholders, Application Support, developers and third-party suppliers
• Developing reusable testing templates, standards, processes and reporting approaches
• Contributing to lessons learned and continuous improvement of the Society's testing approach
• Supporting service handover and early-life support by ensuring known issues, defects and testing outcomes are clearly understood where appropriate

What We're Looking For

Essential

• Practical experience of planning or coordinating testing across projects or change initiatives
• Experience writing, reviewing and executing test scripts and test cases
• Working knowledge of test planning, design, execution, defect management and reporting
• Experience supporting user acceptance testing with business stakeholders or subject-matter experts
• An understanding of requirements traceability and how test coverage can be evidenced
• Experience recording test outcomes, evidence and defects clearly
• Knowledge of waterfall, agile or hybrid project-delivery approaches
• Strong planning, analytical and organisational skills, with excellent attention to detail
• Clear communication skills and the ability to explain testing requirements to technical and non-technical colleagues
• Confidence raising concerns and providing constructive challenge where testing is incomplete or insufficiently evidenced
• Ability to prioritise testing activity across multiple pieces of work
• A collaborative, practical and improvement-focused approach

Desirable

• ISTQB Foundation Certificate, an equivalent testing qualification or comparable practical experience
• Experience creating test plans, reports and traceability documentation
• Experience facilitating defect triage and supporting defects through retesting and closure
• Experience working with external technology providers or third-party suppliers
• Testing experience within financial services, building societies or another regulated environment
• Knowledge of mortgages, savings, operational resilience, customer outcomes or regulated change
• Familiarity with test-management, defect-tracking or requirements-management tools
• Experience improving testing processes, templates or standards

Inclusion

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels respected, valued and able to succeed. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, experiences and communities and will provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process where required.

Pre-Employment Checks

As a regulated financial services organisation, all offers of employment are subject to satisfactory pre-employment screening.

Depending on the role, this may include:

• References
• Right to work verification
• Basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check
• Adverse credit check
• Financial sanctions screening
• Verification of qualifications and professional memberships, where applicable

Any offer of employment will be conditional upon the successful completion of the relevant checks.

Application Guidance

As a regulated financial services organisation, honesty and integrity are important to us. We recognise that candidates may use technology, including AI tools, to support the preparation of their application. However, all information submitted must be accurate and genuinely reflect your own skills, knowledge and experience. We may explore application content further during the recruitment process to verify and better understand the examples provided.

Interested in Finding Out More?

A full Job Description and Person Specification are available on our careers website. We encourage applicants to review these documents before applying. If you require any reasonable adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please let us know and we'll be happy to discuss how we can support you.

Join an award-winning building society where people matter, communities matter, and your career can thrive.

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