QA Lead

At Umain, we help world leading brands and ambitious disruptors shape, ship and scale digital products and experiences.

As part of Eidra, a collective of leading agencies at the forefront of strategy, design, and technology, we extend that vision even further. Together, we collaborate with global brands, Scandinavian heroes, and ambitious startups to create market-defining products and experiences for the world's boldest companies.

Role Overview

We're looking for a QA Lead to take ownership of quality on our UK client engagements. You'll lead testing on real projects from day one: shaping the quality approach for the work in front of you, staying hands-on in the detail, and helping the teams you work with ship with confidence.

You see testing as far more than checking features. You understand that the purpose of quality work is to make risks visible and reduce uncertainty, and you care as much about improving how teams build quality in as you do about finding defects. You're equally comfortable agreeing a test approach with a client stakeholder and pairing with a developer to integrate automated checks into a pipeline.

You're also fluent in how AI is reshaping quality engineering. You actively follow the field, you've put modern AI-assisted tooling to work in real testing contexts, and you can help developers and QA engineers adopt these approaches responsibly and effectively.

As one of our early quality hires in the UK, you'll work alongside our Tech Director and a growing multidisciplinary team in London, and connect with experienced QA and engineering colleagues across the Nordics and the US. You'll help shape how we work as the team grows, but your focus is leading quality on client projects and lifting the teams you work with. The role rewards someone who can self-organise and generate momentum.

This role is based in our London office near London Bridge. As part of our expanding presence in the UK, you'll contribute to growing Eidra's footprint in the UK market, helping to establish our reputation for excellence.

What You'll Do

Lead quality on your engagements

• Shape the quality approach: Define the test approach for the client engagements you work on: risk-based testing, quality gates, and what "good" looks like at each stage of delivery

• Advise on release readiness: Help clients and project stakeholders understand quality risk, release readiness, and the trade-offs behind go/no-go decisions

• Support scoping: Contribute to scoping and estimation for the quality work on new and existing engagements

• Improve how we work: Share what works back into the team, and help shape testing practices and tooling as the UK team grows

Lead delivery hands-on

• Test where it counts: Analyse user stories and requirements to identify risks and define test cases; design, execute, and maintain functional, regression, and exploratory tests

• Automate pragmatically: Build and extend automated tests for UI, API, and backend, and collaborate with developers to integrate them into CI/CD pipelines

• Make quality visible: Report and communicate quality insights clearly, focusing on what the results mean and the decisions they should inform

Coach, train, and raise the bar

• Develop the team: Coach the developers and QA engineers you work with on testing best practice, from test design and automation to building quality in earlier in the delivery flow

• Spread the craft: Run training, pairing, and knowledge-sharing sessions that lift the whole team's capability rather than concentrating quality knowledge in one person

• Shift quality left: Champion quality as a shared team responsibility, helping teams own it themselves instead of treating QA as a final gate

Lead on AI for quality

• Adopt AI deliberately: Evaluate, pilot, and apply AI-assisted testing tools (AI test generation, self-healing automation, and LLM-based exploratory approaches) where they add real value to the work

• Build AI literacy: Coach the teams you work with on using AI tooling effectively and responsibly, including its limits, and contribute to Umain's point of view on AI in quality engineering

What We're Looking For

Quality ownership

• Solid experience in QA or test engineering, including leading quality on digital product projects

• Comfortable operating at both the test-approach and hands-on levels, shaping the approach for an engagement and doing the testing yourself

• Confident advising project and client stakeholders on quality risk and release decisions, putting risk into business context

Structured, risk-based testing

• Strong command of structured and risk-based test design, drawing on principles from frameworks such as ISTQB or TMAP

• Experience across test levels including component, integration, system, and UAT, and the judgement to prioritise based on business impact and risk

Automation and technical depth

• Hands-on experience with modern automation tools such as Cypress, Playwright, Appium, or Postman, treating automation as part of the product codebase: versioned, reviewed, and maintained

• Comfortable scripting in JavaScript, TypeScript, or Python, with a solid understanding of APIs, JSON, and CI/CD pipelines such as GitLab, Azure DevOps, or Jenkins

AI literacy in quality engineering

• Practical, current experience using AI to work smarter, from AI-assisted test generation and self-healing automation to LLM-based exploration and coding assistants such as GitHub Copilot

• Actively follows how AI is changing testing, with a clear-eyed view of where it helps, where it doesn't, and how to adopt it responsibly

Coaching and communication

• A natural coach and trainer who can lift the capability of developers and QA engineers, and communicate findings clearly and constructively

• Works closely with developers, designers, and product owners to clarify and test assumptions early

Experience we'd love to see

• Experience in agile, iterative delivery environments such as Scrum or Kanban

• Exposure to end-to-end digital product development across web, mobile, or backend systems

• Experience from consultancy or multi-client projects is a strong plus

• Fluent in English; other languages are an advantage

What We Value

• A consulting mindset: hypothesis-driven, structured, and client-centric

• Happiest when working together with technology and design

• The ability to operate at both strategic and tactical levels

• Comfort working in dynamic, ambiguous environments

Why Join Us

• 30 days paid holiday

• Regular international travel, with opportunities to work and connect in Sweden, the Netherlands, and the US

• Play a central role in scaling a fast-growing business

• Latest Apple kit (MacBook + iPhone) to do your best work

• Twice-yearly company conferences in standout European locations to connect, learn, and celebrate

Background Check

Umain conducts a background check for final candidates in accordance with our internal policies. The check is carried out only with your consent and is ordered by our CISO through our approved screening partner. The scope of the check depends on the role level. This step is performed late in the recruitment process and is used solely to support a secure and fact-based hiring decision.