The Testing & Readiness Lead is responsible for ensuring solutions are fully tested, operationally ready, and prepared for deployment and handover.

The role oversees end-to-end testing coordination, environment readiness, release preparation, and go-live readiness across projects and products.

This role ensures that all technical, operational, and business readiness activities are completed before production deployment.

Duties & 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 and coordination
• Release and deployment readiness
• Environment and test data management
• Risk and defect management
• Cross-team coordination and governance

Leadership & Behavioral Skills

• Strong organizational and coordination skills
• High attention to detail and quality mindset
• Problem-solving and decision-making ability
• Strong communication and facilitation skills
• Ability to work under pressure and manage timelines

Education & Background

• Bachelor’s in IT, Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 8–12+ 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

Preferred Tools

• Test & Defect Management: TestRail, Zephyr, Xray
• Tracking & Collaboration: Jira, Confluence, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams
• Automation & APIs: Selenium, Cypress, Postman
• Reporting: Power BI, Advanced Excel

Soft Skills

• Strong coordination and planning skills
• Excellent communication and stakeholder alignment
• High attention to detail and quality focus
• Ability to manage risks, deadlines, and complex releases
• Continuous improvement mindset