Test Manager

Job Summary

Total experience

15+ years in banking QA / test management, 8+ years leading end-to-end testing of core banking and payments implementations

Domain

Payments (SEPA, instant, cards, SWIFT), core banking, digital onboarding

Greenfield

At least one bank launch tested from zero: no legacy baseline, external certification calendars, cut-over into live schemes

Scope

Test strategy and plan, SIT, data testing, end-to-end interface testing, performance/resilience, UAT, certification support, cut-over and hypercare

Seniority

Manager of a 10-25 person test team incl. vendors and offshore

Greenfield digital bank being licensed in Spain (ECB / Banco de España) with a payments-first proposition: instant account opening, SEPA SCT / SCT Inst, Bizum, tokenised cards, cross-border via correspondents. Year 1 launches on sponsor-bank and processor rails; Years 2-3 bring SWIFT, credit, and direct participation in Iberpay / T2 / TIPS.

Location: Madrid (hybrid); travel to Spanish and EU sites as required. Working languages: Spanish (professional) and English (professional). Contract: full-time, 24-36 month programme with permanent conversion possible.

Role summary

Own quality across the whole programme: from the Master Test Strategy through SIT, data and interface testing, scheme and processor certification cycles, UAT with the business, to the cut-over rehearsals and hypercare for a payments-first digital bank in Spain. You know that in payments the calendar is owned by the schemes and the sponsor, that instant payments and card authorisations are 24/7, and that a reconciliation difference is a defect.

Key Responsibilities

Key responsibilities

• Write and own the Master Test Strategy and Plan: scope by domain (platform, core, payments, cards, onboarding, security, performance, observability, interfaces, recovery), entry/exit criteria per cycle, environments, data, tooling, defect severity model and governance.
• Plan and run System Integration Testing across core banking, payment hub, sponsor bank, card processor, VoP/RVM, sanctions and fraud engines, video-ID vendor, PSD2 APIs; build or procure simulators for external parties so SIT is not hostage to other people's calendars.
• Lead end-to-end interface testing: ISO 20022 message packs (pain/pacs/camt), R-transactions, SCT Inst 10-second end-to-end, card authorisation/hold API, settlement files, statements, regulatory reporting extracts.
• Lead data testing: migration/initial-load reconciliation where applicable, reference-data validation (IBAN, BIC, SNCE tables), GL and sub-ledger reconciliation, data quality rules, month-end simulations.
• Coordinate certification cycles with external parties: sponsor-bank onboarding tests, Iberpay/Eurosystem tests as applicable, Visa/Mastercard and STMP/Redsys certification via the processor, wallet certifications, VoP conformance, PCI DSS evidence, penetration tests; own the evidence packs.
• Plan and run UAT with business owners and validators: scenario design, traceability to requirements, defect triage, sign-off; manage the acceptance evidence for regulators.
• Design and run performance and resilience testing: peak instant/card loads, AZ loss, sponsor and processor failover, backup/restore, IaC rebuild - aligned with DORA and Banco de España expectations.
• Own cut-over and hypercare testing: cut-over rehearsals, go/no-go evidence, rollback tests, day-1 to day-30 daily reconciliation and defect management.
• Run test tooling and automation (test management, API automation, regression suites, data generation) and the defect process; report quality metrics to the Programme Director and steering committee.

Skill Requirements

Must-have experience

• 8+ years leading testing for core banking and payments implementations at banks, including at least one greenfield or full-replacement programme through go-live.
• Proven ownership of Master Test Strategy/Plan, SIT, UAT and cut-over for payments: SEPA SCT/SCT Inst/SDD, cards (authorisation, clearing, settlement, 3DS, tokens), ideally SWIFT.
• Hands-on with ISO 20022 message testing and R-transaction scenarios; ability to read EPC implementation guidelines and scheme test packs.
• Data testing leadership: reconciliation-based testing, migration/initial load, GL/sub-ledger, data quality rules.
• Experience running external certification cycles with schemes, CSMs, sponsors or processors on fixed calendars, including evidence management.
• Performance and resilience testing of 24/7 systems; familiarity with DORA-style resilience evidence.
• Test tooling and automation (e.g., Jira/Xray or ALM, Postman/ReadyAPI, Selenium/Playwright, JMeter/k6, data generators); vendor and offshore team management.
• Fluent Spanish - UAT is run with Spanish business users and regulators.

• Must-have experience

  • 8+ years leading testing for core banking and payments implementations at banks, including at least one greenfield or full-replacement programme through go-live.
  • Proven ownership of Master Test Strategy/Plan, SIT, UAT and cut-over for payments: SEPA SCT/SCT Inst/SDD, cards (authorisation, clearing, settlement, 3DS, tokens), ideally SWIFT.
  • Hands-on with ISO 20022 message testing and R-transaction scenarios; ability to read EPC implementation guidelines and scheme test packs.
  • Data testing leadership: reconciliation-based testing, migration/initial load, GL/sub-ledger, data quality rules.
  • Experience running external certification cycles with schemes, CSMs, sponsors or processors on fixed calendars, including evidence management.
  • Performance and resilience testing of 24/7 systems; familiarity with DORA-style resilience evidence.
  • Test tooling and automation (e.g., Jira/Xray or ALM, Postman/ReadyAPI, Selenium/Playwright, JMeter/k6, data generators); vendor and offshore team management.
  • Fluent Spanish - UAT is run with Spanish business users and regulators.

Other Requirements

Certifications

• ISTQB Advanced Level Test Manager (or equivalent) strongly preferred; PMP/PRINCE2 or SAFe valued; ISO 20022/SWIFT training certificates valued.

Languages

• Spanish: native or C1 - mandatory.
• English: fluent (vendors, schemes, documentation).

What success looks like in the first 12 months

• Master Test Strategy approved by programme and regulators' liaison; simulators for sponsor, processor and VoP in place by month 4.
• SIT and UAT completed with zero Severity-1 and controlled Severity-2 at go-live; all certification cycles passed on first or second attempt.
• Cut-over rehearsed twice, rollback tested, launch executed with reconciliation clean through the first month-end.
• Automated regression suite covering the payments critical path for the first November scheme release.