Manager, Testing
Waltham, MA

Job Description

Job ID 5877 Location Waltham, Massachusetts Organization Business Change and Project Management Department IT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT B

About us

Every day we deliver safe and secure energy to homes, communities, and businesses. We are there when people need us the most. We connect people to the energy they need for the lives they live. The pace of change in society and our industry is accelerating and our expertise and track record puts us in an unparalleled position to shape the sustainable future of our industry.

To be successful we must anticipate the needs of our customers, reducing the cost of energy delivery today and pioneering the flexible energy systems of tomorrow. This requires us to deliver on our promises and always look for new opportunities to grow, both ourselves and our business.

Job Purpose

The ISD Test & Quality team sits within the global Infrastructure Solution Delivery (ISD) portfolio of National Grid's IT Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) organization. The team consists of 13 Test Managers and Analysts working in the UK and US.

This role will report to the US Portfolio Test Lead as well as the Global Head of Test & Quality and Head of Network Infrastructure Services and sits within the ISD Test & Quality team but will operate primarily on introducing, embedding and managing test processes into the Infrastructure & Operation's Business as Usual (BAU) team, initially working on Network Infrastructure Services, but potentially extending to End User and Collaboration and Cloud & Hosting BAU teams.

Key responsibilities for this position include planning, validating and executing all test requirements to support infrastructure BAU changes. BAU changes typically impact the production environment so after-hours availability (weekday evenings and weekends) is required. Flexibility is also necessary as change requests often occur with short-notice.

In addition, the candidate should have extensive knowledge of infrastructure technologies with an emphasis on successful implementation of testing methodologies to support network changes. Excellent soft skills are required for collaborating with project team members, suppliers and supporting users with testing.

This is a full-time position, on-site and based out of Waltham, MA. Although the position is US based, responsibilities extend to the UK as well since production infrastructure impacts both regions. Light travel may be required as needed.

Key Accountabilities

* Establish the capability framework and skills matrix for the key testing roles, to underpin skill matching, recruitment and development.
* Lead the rebalancing resource mix of the testing capability through recruitment.
* Champion the improvement of testing related processes.
* coordinate the development, training, and communities of practice to facilitate career growth through promotion, retention and succession planning of skilled individuals.
* Develop the testing performance feedback processes to ensure sufficient data and judgement is exercised in calibration, development planning and talent management processes.
* Own the National Grid framework for testing, ensuring it is updated with evolving best practice and lessons learned from within National Grid. Perform audits to ensure compliance by the team.
* Challenge resourcing frameworks to obtain excellent service, flexible resources and competitive rates, enabling portfolios to ramp up and down to meet demand which exceeds the expected core.

Qualifications

* At least 5 years Test Management in multiple roles within an outsourced supplier environment, including functional and non-functional testing in an Agile environment.
* Experience setting up automated testing and script development
* Intimate knowledge of infrastructure and networks specifically for storage, servers, routers and applications.
* Experience with automation tools appropriate to network automation and application smoke/ integrity testing. PowerShell is currently utilized but the we need the Test Manager to help move onto a more comprehensive automation toolset.
* Experience in large corporate international environments
* Experience in managing business users, and\or suppliers in multiple locations and time zones.
* Experience in mentoring junior team members.

More Information

This position has a career path which provides for advancement opportunities within and across bands as you develop and evolve in the position; gaining experience, expertise and acquiring and applying technical skills. Internal candidates will be assessed and provided offers against the minimum qualifications of this role and their individual experience.

National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise. We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve. National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.

National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise. We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve. National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.