Counterparty Credit Risk QA Manager – VP

Location: London

Contract: 6 Months (Initially)

Day rate: £700 - £800pd

A Global Investment Bank is seeking an experienced QA Manager to lead testing across a Counterparty Credit Risk transformation programme.

Sitting within Technology, this role combines ownership of the overall test strategy with responsibility for building QA capability and ensuring the quality of complex CCR systems, data and exposure calculations. You will work closely with technology, risk and business stakeholders across London and the US.

Key responsibilities

• Define and implement the overall CCR test strategy, aligning delivery with enterprise QA standards, technology controls and programme objectives.
• Review existing testing practices, identify gaps and establish improvements to processes, frameworks and governance.
• Build and scale the QA function, including resource planning, hiring, mentoring, coaching and capability development.
• Lead test planning, execution and reporting across SIT, UAT, regression and end-to-end testing, coordinating dependencies across upstream and downstream systems.
• Ensure test coverage addresses CCR exposure calculations, netting, collateral and margining workflows, trade lifecycle events and relevant SA-CCR/IMM requirements.
• Oversee data validation and reconciliation testing across source feeds, risk engines and downstream outputs, investigating discrepancies with developers, business analysts and risk specialists.
• Maintain clear traceability between business and regulatory requirements, test scenarios, test cases, execution evidence and defects.
• Establish test entry and exit criteria, quality gates and evidence requirements to support controlled progression through testing phases.
• Lead defect triage forums, ensuring issues are appropriately classified, prioritised, assigned and resolved according to their business and risk impact.
• Develop quality dashboards and KPIs covering test coverage, execution progress, defect leakage, release quality and delivery performance.
• Act as the primary QA contact for the CCR workstream, providing clear reporting on progress, dependencies, risks and outstanding quality concerns.
• Support release planning and lead quality reviews and go/no-go assessments, presenting evidence-based recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Challenge delivery timelines, requirements and proposed solutions where quality, testability or control standards may be compromised.
• Maintain testing documentation and evidence for internal audit, regulatory reviews, model validation teams and senior risk committees.
• Work with project managers, vendors, risk owners and technology leadership to resolve delivery issues and maintain consistent testing standards across teams.

Required experience

• 8–12+ years’ experience in banking technology testing, including substantial responsibility as a Test Manager or QA Manager.
• Corporate or investment banking experience, with direct ownership of testing within Counterparty Credit Risk.
• Strong understanding of PFE, EAD, netting, collateral, margining and derivatives trade lifecycles.
• Experience testing systems or calculations involving SA-CCR and/or IMM methodologies.
• Proven experience building QA teams, defining test strategies and improving testing frameworks.
• Experience managing SIT, UAT, regression and end-to-end testing across complex, data-intensive systems.
• Strong knowledge of data validation, reconciliation testing and systems with significant computational dependencies.
• Understanding of banking SDLC/STLC governance, audit requirements and technology risk controls.
• Hands-on familiarity with JIRA, Xray, ALM, Azure DevOps or equivalent test and defect management tools.
• Experience delivering within Agile, hybrid or regulatory programme environments.
• Strong analytical, communication and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively.

Desirable experience

• Familiarity with Murex, Calypso, proprietary CCR engines or risk aggregation platforms.
• Understanding of market data, sensitivities and pricing models supporting CCR calculations.
• Exposure to test automation, scripting or testing approaches for analytics-intensive environments.
• Knowledge of stress testing and backtesting within CCR.
• ISTQB Foundation/Advanced Test Manager, FRM or equivalent relevant qualifications.