Senior Solutions Consultant - #2165662

Role Type: Permanent

Working Model: Work from home (commute to the office in Leeds twice a month)

Role Purpose

A Senior Solutions Consultant builds on the Programme Test Manager role, extending strategic test leadership, quality governance and programme assurance across multiple portfolios within a client organisation and, where assigned, across multiple clients. The role owns the consolidated test delivery and assurance position, anticipating systemic risks and protecting delivery outcomes, stakeholder confidence and commercial commitments.

The role acts as the senior test delivery representative and escalation point for all testing activities within the assigned remit. It combines consultancy with portfolio oversight, quality reviews, resource planning and formal line and performance management.

The role reports to the Head of Quality Delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Own portfolio or client test strategy, quality standards, quality gates and minimum evidence expectations. Govern their application across programmes, projects and suppliers, with proportionate control of exceptions.
• Act as the senior test delivery representative with stakeholders. Lead client and supplier quality discussions, resolve competing priorities and present consolidated readiness assessments and required decisions.
• Own all test delivery escalations within the assigned remit, including systemic risks and cross-programme dependencies. Agree recovery actions and accountable owners, track resolution and escalate matters beyond delegated authority.
• Provide consultancy through discovery, quality assessments and stakeholder workshops. Translate findings into practical strategies and prioritised improvement plans with defined costs, benefits, ownership and success measures.
• Quality-check team and supplier strategies, plans, test designs, technical outputs, evidence and reports. Challenge inconsistent standards and unsupported conclusions, commission specialist reviews and verify corrective actions.
• Direct end-to-end and integration assurance across programmes, systems and suppliers. Coordinate Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Engineering (QE), Non-Functional Testing (NFT) and Test Infrastructure leaders, ensuring clear technical accountability and evidenced readiness of shared environments and test data.
• Own demand and capacity planning across portfolios or clients. Forecast skills and leadership requirements, agree resource allocations and coordinate recruitment, onboarding, redeployment and succession planning.
• Line-manage assigned senior leaders and staff through objectives, one-to-ones, performance reviews and development plans. Coach decision-making and people management, address underperformance and assess how effectively leaders develop their teams.
• Agree delivery and quality KPIs, including baselines, targets, calculation methods, data sources, owners and review frequency. Validate data, investigate trends and track corrective actions against agreed outcomes.
• Report to client stakeholders and internal leadership on assurance, delivery risks, resources, people, commercial implications and required decisions. Clearly communicate evidence gaps and residual risks.
• Maintain contractual scope, assurance obligations and client standards. Monitor delivery effort and costs against agreed budgets, identify unplanned work and assess margin implications. Agree scope changes and commercial commitments through authorised account and delivery leadership.
• Escalate unresolved risks and recommendations to designated governance or release authorities for explicit decisions. Apply lessons learned across programmes and portfolios to improve standards, processes and organisational capability.

Key Role Outcomes

1. Coherent Strategy and Assurance

• Programmes and portfolios follow aligned quality standards and evidence expectations, with exceptions, dependencies and systemic risks clearly identified and managed.

2. Trusted Senior Delivery Leadership

• Stakeholders receive reviewed, evidence-based readiness advice and have a clear escalation route with accountable corrective actions.

3. Strong Leadership and Delivery Capacity

• Senior test leaders develop their teams, manage performance fairly and maintain the skills, resources and succession cover required for successful delivery.

4. Measurable Client Improvement

• Consultancy and KPI reviews lead to accountable actions and demonstrable improvements in quality, delivery performance or cost efficiency.

Core Competencies

1. Strategic Programme and Portfolio Leadership

Builds on programme-level strategy and governance to direct assurance across portfolios or clients. Anticipates systemic risks and integrates supplier, system and delivery dependencies.

2. Consultancy and Solution Design

Diagnoses delivery challenges through evidence and stakeholder engagement. Develops proportionate options, explains trade-offs and translates recommendations into achievable delivery plans.

3. Quality Governance and Technical Assurance

Defines quality gates and minimum evidence standards. Reviews test outputs and end-to-end readiness across programmes, using knowledge of architecture, automation, non-functional testing, environments and test data to challenge findings and direct specialist assurance.

4. Commercial Awareness and Resource Management

Understands how pricing, delivery models, utilisation and resource mix affect costs and profitability. Balances client value, quality and commercial performance; identifies scope creep, quantifies delivery trade-offs and develops credible improvement proposals within delegated authority.

5. Leadership of Senior People Leaders

Develops Programme Test Managers, Test Managers and other assigned leaders. Sets expectations for delivery and leadership practices, manages performance and reviews team capability, workload and succession cover.

6. Measurement and Reporting

Defines meaningful KPIs, validates data and explains trends in context. Uses measures such as risk coverage, escaped-defect impact, readiness, delivery predictability and capacity against demand, with targets agreed for each engagement.

7. Senior Stakeholder Influence

Builds trust through candid, evidence-based advice, resolves competing priorities and communicates technical and commercial implications in terms stakeholders can act on.

Behavioural Expectations

Accountable

Owns the consolidated delivery position and follows escalations and corrective actions through to resolution.

Candid and Evidence-Led

Constructively challenges weak work and overly optimistic reporting. Makes uncertainty, constraints and risks visible at an early stage.

Calm and Decisive

Maintains perspective under pressure, acts within delegated authority and secures timely decisions from others.

Collaborative

Builds alignment across client, supplier and internal delivery teams while maintaining clear responsibilities and accountability.

Fair and Developmental

Sets demanding but achievable expectations, recognises contributions and develops the judgement and capabilities of others.

Commercially Aware

Protects client value and the organisation's commercial position. Raises unfunded work and cost pressures early, avoids unsupported commitments and evaluates whether proposed solutions justify their costs.

Role Positioning and Reporting Structure

• Reports to the Head of Quality Delivery and acts as the senior test delivery representative and escalation point across assigned client portfolios or a multi-client remit.
• Extends the Programme Test Manager's strategy, assurance governance and leadership responsibilities across multiple portfolios or clients. Leads through assigned Programme Test Managers, Test Managers and specialist leads, with formal line management responsibility for assigned direct reports and a span of control determined by the role's remit.
• Works with account management, delivery leadership and technical specialists on client commitments, resource planning, consultancy and continuous improvement. Portfolio oversight does not remove accountability from individual delivery owners or technical leads.
• Owns the consolidated assurance recommendation. Final release approval and acceptance of residual business risk remain the responsibility of the designated client or delivery authority