The Testing & Readiness Lead ensures solutions are fully tested, operationally ready, and prepared for deployment and handover. This role oversees end-to-end testing coordination, environment readiness, release preparation, and go-live activities, ensuring all technical, operational, and business readiness requirements are completed before production deployment.
Key Responsibilities
Testing Strategy & Planning
- Define and maintain the testing and readiness framework.
- Develop test strategies, plans, and schedules across projects.
- Ensure alignment between requirements, test coverage, and environments.
Test Coordination & Execution
- Coordinate System Integration Testing (SIT), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), regression, and performance testing.
- Ensure test environments, data, and tools are available and ready.
- Track testing progress, coverage, and defect resolution.
Release & Operational Readiness
- Define and manage go-live readiness criteria and checklists.
- Coordinate release readiness reviews and deployment planning.
- Ensure operational handover to support and operations teams.
- Validate training, documentation, and support readiness.
Risk & Issue Management
- Identify readiness risks and testing gaps.
- Manage defects, issues, and dependencies across teams.
- Ensure corrective actions are implemented before release.
Reporting & Continuous Improvement
- Track and report testing and readiness KPIs.
- Conduct post-release reviews and lessons learned.
- Improve testing and release processes and tools.
Skills & Abilities
Core Competencies
- Test planning, coordination, and release readiness
- Environment and test data management
- Risk and defect management
- Cross-team coordination and governance
Leadership & Behavioral Skills
- Strong organizational and coordination capabilities
- High attention to detail and quality mindset
- Problem-solving and decision-making skills
- Effective communication and facilitation
- Ability to manage pressure and meet tight timelines
Education & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
- 812+ years in testing, release, or delivery roles.
- Experience coordinating large-scale testing and go-live activities.
Preferred Certifications
- ISTQB (advantage)
- Agile/Scrum (advantage)
- PMP or PRINCE2 (nice to have)
Typical Previous Roles
- Test Manager, Release Manager, QA Lead, Delivery Manager
Preferred Tools & Soft Skills
Tools
- Test & Defect Management: TestRail, Zephyr, Xray
- Collaboration & Tracking: Jira, Confluence, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams
- Automation & APIs: Selenium, Cypress, Postman
- Reporting: Power BI, Advanced Excel
Soft Skills
- Strong coordination and planning
- Excellent stakeholder communication and alignment
- High attention to detail and quality focus
- Ability to manage risks, deadlines, and complex releases
- Continuous improvement mindset
