Head of Quality Engineering CoE (Hybrid; m/f/x/d)

Location: Madrid, M, ES

As Head of Quality Engineering CoE, you will define and lead the enterprise-wide vision for software quality. Reporting to the Head of Engineering CoE, you will act as the strategic authority on quality, shaping how quality is engineered into products, platforms, and services from design through production. 

This role goes beyond traditional QA. You will establish quality as a first-class engineering discipline, enabling teams to deliver at speed while reducing operational risk, improving reliability, and ensuring long-term correctness across cloud, data, and digital platforms. 

You will serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, driving measurable improvements in quality maturity while fostering innovation in automation, observability, and AI-assisted quality engineering. 

About the Role 

As our Head of Quality Engineering CoE, you'll report directly to the Head of Engineering CoE and be the driving force behind our quality transformation journey. You'll elevate QA practices across all product teams and architect the vision of how quality supports our cloud, data, and digital platforms, enabling our teams to innovate with speed and resilience. 

Key Responsibilities 

Quality Engineering Strategy & Thought Leadership 

• Define and own the enterprise Quality Engineering strategy, aligned with business risk, platform architecture, and delivery models 

• Act as a neutral, trusted thought partner to senior technology and business leadership, providing insights on quality maturity, risk trends, and improvement priorities 

• Establish Quality Engineering as a core enabler of resilience, scalability, and speed, not a control function 

• Shape the long-term roadmap for quality capabilities across development, release, and production 

Quality Engineering Practices & Standards 

• Define and operationalize group-wide Quality Engineering standards, principles, and maturity models 

• Ensure consistent traceability from requirements to test coverage, focused on critical business processes 

• Embed risk-based testing, quality gates, and non-functional requirements into delivery pipelines 

• Drive alignment across product, platform, and domain teams while allowing proportional flexibility 

Automation, Tooling & Innovation 

• Lead the transformation toward API-first, workflow-level, and scalable test automation 

• Increase automation coverage, test data richness, and scenario diversity where business impact is highest 

• Champion AI-assisted and generative AI approaches to improve test creation, maintenance, and analysis 

• Evaluate and standardize tooling to support quality engineering efficiency and insight 

Metrics, Transparency & Continuous Improvement 

• Define and own quality metrics and KPIs spanning development, release, and production 

• Use incident, defect, and recovery data to measure real quality outcomes, not just process compliance 

• Drive continuous improvement through evidence-based insights and learning loops 

Production Quality & Learning 

• Ensure quality accountability extends into production through monitoring, observability, and RCA-driven learning 

• Partner with engineering and operations teams to reduce repeat incidents and systemic failure patterns 

• Promote a culture where incidents are used to strengthen design, testing, and requirements 

Strategic Leadership & People Development 

• Build and lead a high-performing Quality Engineering CoE 

• Define career paths, skill frameworks, and development programs for quality engineers 

• Influence and coach engineering leaders to embed quality ownership within teams 

• Foster a strong quality culture grounded in engineering excellence and accountability 

About the Team 

At our company, our engineering teams are at the heart of our digital transformation. We build innovative solutions that help make the world more resilient through cutting-edge technology. Our collaborative environment encourages creative problem-solving and continuous learning, where every team member's contribution is valued and recognized. The Quality Engineering Center of Excellence serves as a catalyst for quality transformation across the organization, setting standards and providing expertise that enables our product teams to deliver exceptional solutions. 

About You 

You're an inspiring leader who combines deep technical expertise with a strategic vision for continuous improvement. You naturally champion best practices and ensure that quality assurance processes are robust, measurable, and aligned with key business objectives. As a practitioner at heart, you can dive into technical details while also communicating clearly to leadership about issues and solutions. Your empathetic approach and persuasive abilities help you bring people together to create meaningful change. 

We are looking for candidates who meet these requirements: 

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, quality engineering, or platform engineering in large-scale environments 

• Proven track record defining and implementing enterprise Quality Engineering frameworks 

• Strong hands-on knowledge of testing strategies, automation frameworks, CI/CD quality gates, and metrics 

•  Demonstrated ability to lead transformation, influence senior stakeholders, and scale practices across teams 

• Excellent communication skills in English 

These are additional nice to haves: 

• Experience with cloud-native, distributed, and data-intensive systems 

• Background in financial services, insurance, or other regulated industries 

• Expertise in non-functional testing (performance, resilience, security) 

• Experience applying AI or ML to testing and quality analysis 

• Strong understanding of Agile, DevOps, and modern product operating models 

For Spain, the base salary range for this position is between EUR 98,000 and EUR 163,000 (for a full-time role). The specific salary offered considers: ​

• the requirements, scope, complexity and responsibilities of the role,​
• the applicant's own profile including education/qualifications, expertise, specialisation, skills and experience.​

In addition to your base salary, Swiss Re offers an attractive performance-based variable compensation component, designed to recognise your achievements. Further you will enjoy a variety of global and location specific benefits.​

Eligibility may vary depending on the terms of Swiss Re policies and your employment contract.​