Why Airbox? You're more likely to love your work when that work has a purpose, when it's meaningful and when it's protecting lives. And, at Airbox Systems, it will. Here's why.

We are driven by passion and great people who share our enthusiasm for trying to make the world a better place, our friendly team includes individuals with backgrounds in military, aviation, and law enforcement. Our experience brings first-hand insight into frontline operations in the air and on the ground to enable cutting-edge concepts for improving the service that we deliver.

At Airbox, our values can be described as behavioral guidance. They are the principles and beliefs that provide a cohesive vision and define who we are as a business. In doing so, they define our organisation internally, and externally with our stakeholders and customers. In essence, they are our “true north” that help us to navigate our organisation through prosperous times as well as uncertain periods. Our company beliefs and values are embodied in our culture. Whilst we celebrate the diversity of the people we work with, there are certain values and attributes all of us share – whatever your background, these are the qualities we are looking for in the people we hire: Commitment, Positive Realism, Ethics, Accountability, Humanity, Quality, and Delight.

What this role is about:

We're at a key moment where we have the chance to completely rethink how we handle software quality to meet the highest standards across mobile (Android and iOS), Web Apps, and Web APIs. Right now, all of our testing is done manually, and we’re looking for an experienced, hands-on Lead Software QA to help us change that by building our automation strategy from the ground up.

You will be the key driver of our transition and your success will be measured by our ability to eliminate as much manual testing as possible.

You'll also play a big role in helping our current team grow, mentoring them and teaching them how to work with automated testing. Just as importantly, you’ll help create a culture where developers take shared responsibility for quality and testing.

If you're passionate about automation, enjoy building things from scratch, and want to lead and mentor others while staying hands-on, this could be the perfect opportunity for you.

What you’ll be doing:

Strategic Leadership & Process Ownership:

• Develop, implement, and maintain the overall test strategy and plan for complex, multi-platform projects, ensuring alignment with product requirements and business objectives.
• Define, monitor, and report on key quality metrics, test progress, and product quality.
• Lead the identification and mitigation of project risks from a quality assurance perspective, developing and implementing strategies to ensure timely and high-quality deliverables.
• Drive the continuous improvement of QA processes and methodologies, evaluating and recommending new tools, technologies, and best practices to enhance team efficiency and effectiveness.
• Establish and enforce quality gates, agree upon acceptance criteria with project managers and development leads, and manage the acceptance of software from internal and external teams.

Team Mentorship & Management:

• Lead, mentor, and manage a team of software testers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture focused on quality excellence.
• Manage the day-to-day activities of the QA team, including task allocation, progress monitoring, and providing technical guidance and support.
• Review test plans, test cases, automation scripts, and defect reports generated by the team to ensure they are comprehensive, clear, and adhere to established standards.
• Act as the primary point of contact for all testing matters within projects and serve as an escalation point for critical bugs and environmental issues.
• Identify team training needs and support the career development of individual testers through coaching and performance feedback.

Hands-On Technical Contribution:

• Actively participate in the design, development, and maintenance of robust, scalable, and reusable test automation frameworks for mobile (iOS & Android), web, and API platforms.

• Write, review, and execute complex automated and manual test cases, including functional, integration, regression, and end-to-end tests.

• Collaborate closely with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders throughout the software development lifecycle to ensure quality is built into the product from the start.

• Troubleshoot, debug, and analyse complex technical issues, working with development teams to ensure timely resolution of defects.

• Lead the setup and maintenance of test environments and test data to ensure reliable and representative testing conditions

About You:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in software quality assurance, with at least 2 years in a lead or senior role involving team mentorship and project leadership.

• Demonstrable, hands-on experience designing and implementing test automation frameworks from the ground up.

• Proven expertise in mobile test automation for both Android and iOS using modern cross-platform frameworks such as Appium.

• Strong, current proficiency in web application and backend API test automation using modern frameworks (e.g., Playwright, Cypress, Selenium) and tools (e.g., Postman).

• Deep understanding of the SDLC, Agile/Scrum methodologies, and modern QA principles and processes.

• Experience with version control systems (e.g., Git) and bug tracking tools (e.g., JIRA).

• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with development teams, providing clear and constructive feedback on defects and quality issues.

Preferred Skills & Qualifications:

• Experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines using tools like Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Azure DevOps.

• Knowledge of performance and load testing methodologies and tools (e.g., JMeter).

• Familiarity with containerization technologies such as Docker for test environment management.

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science.

• Professional certifications such as ISTQB Advanced Level.

What we offer: We’re always looking for new ways to celebrate our people. You’ll be no different.

• The chance to work with a passionate team that’s working together everyday towards our shared big ambitious goal
• A dynamic, flexible and fun scale-up work environment with a highly talented team
• 26 days holiday per year, plus public holidays
• Private medical cover with Bupa for all our colleagues, as well as a Wellbeing Allowance each year
• Pension scheme, offering up to 6% matching contribution
• Up to 20 Nomad Working Days per annum
• Personal Development budget
• Electric Car Scheme

Flexible & Hybrid Working: We said you'll get freedom to work in a way that is best for you, and that extends to being in the office – or not.

Work better from home? No worries. Prefer the office? Come on down. We have 2 mandatory Townhall days; Spring and Autumn, where the whole business gets together. When you visit the office you won’t just find rows and rows of desks. No, you’ll find our colleagues meeting on the walking pads, having planning sessions over a game of tennis table or grabbing a bean bag in our ‘Quality’ collaborative space - that’s right we live our values so much, we named our meeting spaces after them.

You can also shape work around your life at Airbox Systems; most colleagues work our core hours of 9am-5pm with others flexibly between 7am-7pm. Whether you're fitting in a spin class or the school run, you'll have the flexibility for whatever matters most. All we ask in return is that you produce great work, but when you’re working with passionate people, that part comes naturally.

Connect with us: Interested in the role, or Airbox in general, but you don’t meet 100% of the requirements? We’d love to hear from you! We encourage you to connect with us here; we’d be excited to see if your unique skill set and experience could be a match for future roles.

A note for Recruitment Agencies:

Agencies, we appreciate you… but unsolicited CV’s will not be reviewed. We will only accept CV submissions for roles briefed to you by us. Please don’t keep pulling the attention of our Support team from our customers.

If you would be interested in working with us – please send a message to hr@airboxsystems.com, should we have anything we need additional support on we will reach out to you.