Test Architect Director - BPL

Provide strategic and execution oversight for the test strategies across payments shifting from a more traditional QA more to a quality assist model (QA+). In doing so, we establish automated controls and governance as part of delivery, developer-owned quality, AI-driven capabilities to remove the test burden on teams, and self-healing.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the end-to-end test strategy across merchant onboarding, payments processing, settlement, and reporting
• Architect scalable, quality assist approach to testing where all controls are automated as part of CI/CD pipelines
• Embed quality engineering practices into product teams (shift-left, shift-right, continuous testing)
• Ensure regulatory and scheme compliance validation (e.g., PCI DSS, PSD2, card scheme rules)
• Lead non-functional testing strategy (performance, resilience, security, failover, high-volume transaction handling)
• Drive test data management and synthetic data strategies for sensitive financial data
• Determine and oversee AI-assisted testing and verification (e.g., requirements validation, test generation, fault classification etc.)
• Drive and oversee testability requirements across internal and 3rd party vendor, such as test environments and SLAs etc.
• Provide governance, metrics, and reporting on quality risk, coverage, and release readiness

Essential Skills

• Deep experience in payments architecture (authorization, clearing, settlement, chargebacks, fraud flows)
• Strong expertise in API and event-driven testing (REST, webhooks, Kafka/message queues)
• Proven track record in test automation architecture (e.g., Selenium, Playwright, REST Assured, Cypress)
• Experience with cloud-native platforms (AWS/Azure), microservices, and containerized environments
• Solid understanding of CI/CD and DevOps tooling (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, pipelines as code)
• Knowledge of performance testing at scale (e.g., JMeter, Gatling) for high TPS payment systems
• Strong data validation and reconciliation testing across financial ledgers
• Ability to define and track quality metrics, SLOs, and risk-based testing strategies
• Leadership skills to influence engineering, product, and risk stakeholders
• Exposure to AI/ML in quality engineering (test generation, anomaly detection, LLM-based validation)

Desirable Skills

• Experience in merchant acquiring platforms (POS, e-commerce gateways, omnichannel payments)
• Knowledge of open banking / APIs and real-time payments (e.g., Faster Payments, SEPA Instant)
• Familiarity with contract testing and service virtualization (e.g., Pact, WireMock)
• Understanding of fraud detection systems and risk scoring models
• Exposure to data platforms and analytics (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery) for quality insights
• Prior experience in regulated financial environments with audit and compliance requirements
• Contributions to test standards, frameworks, or thought leadership

Risk and Control:

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

About BPL

Barclays’ payments acceptance business provides critical infrastructure to the UK economy, processing billions of pounds of payments annually for both small businesses and domestic and international corporate clients.

In April 2025, we announced a long-term partnership with Brookfield Asset Management to grow and transform the payments acceptance business by broadening the range of services offered, enhancing the experience for both existing and prospective clients. Leveraging extensive client relationships and deep experience of UK payments, we will create an environment of continuous innovation - activated by Brookfield’s global private equity expertise in payments, technology, operational transformation and corporate carve-outs - to ensure the business is strategically positioned for long-term growth.

Barclays will invest approximately £400m in the new business, the majority of which will be incurred during the first three years. Performance-linked incentives will drive greater alignment between the partners, underpinning the long-term commitment to the transformation. Barclays and Brookfield will work to create a standalone entity over time, continuing to use the Barclaycard Payments (BPL) brand and acting as the sole payments acceptance services provider to Barclays’ clients for a minimum of ten years. 

For more information on our partnership with Brookfield, please visit Barclays.com.

Purpose of the role

To  lead and manage engineering teams, providing technical guidance, mentorship, and support to ensure the delivery of high-quality software solutions, driving technical excellence, fostering a culture of innovation, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to align technical decisions with business objectives. 

Accountabilities

• Lead engineering teams effectively, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture to achieve project goals and meet organizational objectives.
• Oversee timelines, team allocation, risk management and task prioritization to ensure the successful delivery of solutions within scope, time, and budget.
• Mentor and support team members' professional growth, conduct performance reviews, provide actionable feedback, and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Evaluation and enhancement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies to increase efficiency, streamline workflows, and optimize team productivity.
• Collaboration with business partners, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions and ensure a cohesive approach to product development.
• Enforcement of technology standards, facilitate peer reviews, and implement robust testing practices to ensure the delivery of high-quality solutions.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.