QA Lead Job at Leeds, England, .GB Full Time NEW

Job title: QA Lead
Type: Full-time, Permanent or Contract
Location: UK or Romania | Flexible remote, hybrid, or office working
Location requirement: Must live within 30 miles of one of our offices or hub locations

Offices: Newcastle, Leeds, Bucharest
Hubs: Edinburgh, Manchester, London

The role

We’re looking for a Senior QA / Quality Engineering Lead to help shape how quality engineering operates inside a senior, AI-assisted engineering environment.

You’ll work alongside a small, highly technical engineering team where AI-assisted development and agentic workflows are already deeply embedded into product development.

This is not a traditional QA role focused purely on scripted testing or ticket execution.

You’ll help:

• Strengthen automation strategy and release confidence

• Embed quality earlier across product and engineering

• Review and evolve existing QA practices and processes

• Validate AI-generated code and tests

• Improve how requirements and acceptance criteria are defined

• Influence how reliable software gets delivered in a modern AI-assisted environment.

You’ll be working in an environment where engineers increasingly guide and review AI-generated output rather than writing every line of code manually. The role needs someone comfortable shaping how quality engineering operates within AI-assisted development.

What you’ll get

This is an opportunity to shape quality engineering inside a modern AI-assisted engineering environment where quality is treated as an engineering and product challenge rather than a final testing phase.

You’ll have direct influence over:

• Testing strategy and automation direction

• Release confidence and quality standards

• How QA integrates into product and engineering processes

• How quality evolves alongside AI-assisted development.

You’ll work closely with highly technical engineers solving complex product and engineering challenges in a fast-moving environment already embracing AI-assisted workflows in production.

The role is best suited to someone who enjoys challenging constructively, improving engineering quality pragmatically, and influencing how modern software development evolves.

What you’ll bring

• Strong senior QA, SDET, or Quality Engineering experience within modern product engineering teams.

• Experience improving QA strategy, automation coverage, and release confidence.

• Strong understanding of automated testing, CI/CD, E2E frameworks, and modern software development.

• Experience with Playwright, Cypress, or similar automation tooling.

• Strong technical judgement around delivery risk, testing strategy, and where automation adds real value.

• Experience embedding QA earlier in the product and development lifecycle.

• Confidence working with highly technical, senior engineering teams.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to influence and challenge constructively

• Experience working with AI-assisted software delivery, agentic engineering workflows, or AI-generated code.

• A balance of technical credibility, strategic thinking, and hands-on execution.

• A pragmatic mindset focused on improving quality without introducing unnecessary process.

About hedgehog lab

We’re a digital product consultancy with 20 years of experience, helping organisations solve complex problems through technology, design, and delivery.

UK Benefits

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays.

• Flexible and hybrid working.

• Annual wellbeing budget.

• Free counselling.

• 3rd Party Health Insurance.

• L&D budget.

• 5 impact days per year.

Ready to apply?

Submit your application below.

Please note: we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role.