Head of Quality Assurance

About This Role

Job Purpose:

The Head of QA is RAKBANK's enterprise quality authority — a strategic leadership role accountable for transforming the bank's approach to software quality from a phase-end testing gate into a continuous, embedded quality engineering discipline woven into every stage of the SDLC. RAKBANK's current testing landscape is predominantly manual, with limited automation coverage and a reactive quality culture. This role is explicitly mandated to change that reality: to build a world-class QA practice characterised by automation-first delivery, AI-driven testing, shift-left quality principles, intelligent test data management, and quality gates embedded within CI/CD pipelines. The Head of QA owns the entire quality engineering strategy, toolchain, governance, and team — partnering with DevEx, Platform Engineering, and delivery squads to ensure every software release meets the quality bar required by a CBUAE-regulated bank serving retail, SME, and wholesale customers.

What You Will Do:

• Define and own the enterprise quality engineering strategy , roadmap, KPIs, and automation coverage targets.
• Establish and lead a Quality Engineering Centre of Excellence , publishing standards, golden paths, and tooling guidelines.
• Govern quality gates across the full SDLC , enforcing entry and exit criteria across all testing stages.
• Drive shift‑left quality adoption , embedding QA into squads and promoting BDD/TDD and shared accountability.
• Own the test automation programme , including framework governance and automation ROI tracking.
• Lead adoption of AI‑assisted testing , including LLM‑based test generation, self‑healing automation, and intelligent prioritisation.
• Establish intelligent test data management , including synthetic data, masking, and self‑service provisioning.
• Own non‑functional quality engineering , covering performance, resilience, chaos engineering, and API contract testing.
• Define and govern test environment strategy , enabling automated and on‑demand environment provisioning.
• Represent quality at programme and release governance forums , owning UAT coordination, go/no‑go decisions, and executive quality reporting.

What you will bring:

• 12+ years in software quality engineering, including senior QA leadership experience in a bank or regulated financial institution.
• Proven leadership of a manual‑to‑automation, shift‑left QA transformation integrated into CI/CD pipelines.
• Deep expertise in test automation frameworks and test management platforms.
• Strong hands‑on experience with performance and resilience testing for critical financial systems.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating and governing AI‑assisted testing tools.
• Expert knowledge of test data governance, including synthetic data and PII masking.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field; ISTQB Advanced Test Manager required.

What We Are Not Looking For:

❌ A traditional, phase‑end testing manager who treats QA as a final gate rather than an embedded engineering discipline across the SDLC.

❌ A leader comfortable with manual‑heavy testing models , without a strong track record of driving automation‑first, CI/CD‑integrated quality transformations.

❌ A candidate without appetite or credibility in AI‑assisted testing , self‑healing automation, or intelligent test prioritisation as part of modern QA practice.

❌ A purely operational QA head who executes tests but does not define strategy , influence engineering culture, or establish enterprise quality standards.

❌ A profile unfamiliar with regulated banking environments , unable to balance delivery speed with CBUAE‑grade quality, resiliency, and governance expectations.