Test Manager (Banking - Vienna)

Your Tasks

Are you a senior QA leader ready to shape the future of European banking? 

We are seeking an experienced, senior, and hands-on Group Test Manager to lead the integrated testing workstream for a landmark Digital Euro Pilot! 

The central challenge of this role is orchestrating a complex, multi-layered stakeholder landscape. You will be the bridge connecting multiple international banking entities, our selected solution vendor, Group-level functions, and local delivery/test teams—all while navigating the wider ECB / NCB / DESP ecosystem.

The Group Test Manager will provide the central coordination point for all testing-related dependencies, commitments and readiness information. The role will align stakeholders with different responsibilities, delivery plans, systems and decision rights into one auditable, executable and evidence-based Group test approach. This includes obtaining timely commitments, resolving conflicting priorities, maintaining transparency across organisational boundaries and escalating issues where alignment cannot be achieved.
The Group Test Manager will own the Group Test Concept, integrated test plan, common standards, cross-entity coordination, consolidated reporting and readiness assessment. Local Project Managers and local test leads remain accountable for local preparation, environments, resources and execution.

Key Responsibilities
Group Test Strategy & Governance
• Define and maintain the Group Test Strategy and Test Concept for the Digital Euro Pilot.
• Establish the test scope, test phases, test levels, common standards, quality gates and entry/exit criteria.
• Create an integrated test plan and calendar aligned with the programme plan, entity delivery plans, supplier releases and ECB/DESP testing windows.
• Define the governance model, responsibilities and interfaces between Group testing, local Project Managers, local test leads, the solution vendor, RPC, the Group Security Manager and ECB/NCB counterparts.
• Provide documented entry/exit and readiness recommendations; formal decisions remain with the Programme Board or Steering Committee.

Stakeholder Orchestration & Alignment
• Act as the central coordination point connecting multiple international banking entities, our selected solution vendor, Group-level functions, and local delivery/test teams—all while navigating the wider ECB/ NCB/DESP ecosystem
• Establish effective working relationships and communication channels across business, architecture, security, operations, infrastructure, delivery and testing stakeholders.
• Translate the separate plans, constraints and responsibilities of all participating parties into one integrated and executable test approach.
• Obtain and track stakeholder commitments for test resources, environments, test data, interfaces, evidence, defect resolution and decision dates.
• Facilitate alignment where stakeholders have conflicting priorities, timelines, quality expectations or interpretations of responsibilities.
• Ensure that dependencies, decisions, unresolved gaps and readiness implications are understood consistently across organizational and contractual boundaries.
• Drive issues to resolution through facilitation, negotiation and constructive challenge; escalate promptly where alignment cannot be achieved within the agreed mandate.
• Prepare the relevant stakeholders for test-readiness, phase-exit and go-live decisions, ensuring that recommendations reflect a consolidated Group-wide position.

Test Design, Coverage & Traceability
• Establish common test-design principles and a consistent coverage model across Group components, local systems, RPC components and ECB/DESP interfaces.
• Ensure end-to-end traceability from business, functional, technical, security and operational requirements to test conditions, test cases, execution evidence, defects and acceptance decisions.
• Coordinate the creation and reuse of common test scenarios while ensuring that entity-specific requirements and local regulatory needs are covered.
• Ensure coverage of positive, negative, exception, timeout, recovery and regression scenarios across the relevant Digital Euro use cases.
• Challenge test gaps, unclear acceptance criteria, untestable requirements and inconsistent evidence across participating parties.

Integrated & Cross-Entity Test Coordination
• Coordinate system integration testing, cross-entity testing and end-to-end testing across multiple international banking entities, our selected solution vendor, Group-level functions, and local delivery/test teams—all while navigating the wider ECB/ NCB/DESP ecosystem
• Align local test plans, dependencies, test windows, environments, test data and resource commitments into one executable Group plan.
• Coordinate interface and contract testing across APIs, events, files and technical connectivity between central, local, vendor and ECB components.
• Monitor local test preparation and execution without taking over the accountability of local Project Managers and local test leads.
• Identify cross-entity bottlenecks and escalate test dependencies that threaten programme milestones.

ECB/DESP User Testing & Technical Validation
• Translate ECB/DESP user-testing requirements, documentation, calendars and mandatory validation activities into the integrated Group test plan.
• Coordinate onboarding and connectivity testing, functional-enabler and use-case testing, mandatory technical validation and end-to-end testing with ECB/DESP components.
• Coordinate evidence preparation, test protocols, progress reporting and responses required for ECB/NCB testing activities.
• Ensure that test readiness, environment access, interface availability and participating-party responsibilities are transparent and actively managed.
• Maintain alignment with changing ECB specifications, release sequences and test instructions throughout the pilot development phase.

Functional, Non-Functional & Operational Readiness Testing
• Integrate product/component testing oversight, interface testing, system integration testing, business user acceptance testing, regression testing and end-to-end testing into the overall approach.
• Coordinate non-functional testing across performance, availability, resilience, recovery, scalability, monitoring and operational traceability.
• Integrate security testing into the overall test plan; the Group Security Manager remains accountable for security requirements, specialist test design and security sign-off.
• Coordinate operational-readiness testing, runbook validation, dress rehearsals, contingency scenarios, go-live verification and hypercare testing.
• Provide lighter coordination of regression and ECB-requested tests during hypercare and the initial pilot operating period.

Defect Management & Quality Control
• Define the common defect-management process, severity and priority rules, ageing thresholds, escalation paths and closure criteria.
• Chair cross-entity defect triage and challenge inconsistent classification, ownership, target resolution dates and acceptance proposals.
• Ensure that defects are traceable to requirements, test evidence, responsible teams and affected programme milestones.
• Monitor critical and ageing defects and escalate milestone-threatening issues to the Programme Board and, where required, the Steering Committee.
• Recommend pausing a test phase, blocking build promotion or withholding readiness where agreed quality thresholds are not met; execution and remediation commitments remain with the accountable vendor or local delivery owner.

Test Tooling, Reporting & Decision Support
• Establish and maintain the central test repository, requirements-to-test traceability, execution status and defect reporting using the programme-agreed tooling.
• Define and maintain consolidated test dashboards covering scope, preparation, execution, pass rates, defects, ageing, risks, dependencies and readiness.
• Prepare management-ready test status, quality assessments, phase-exit reports and consolidated readiness recommendations.
• Present test risks, evidence, open gaps and recommendations in Programme Board and Steering Committee meetings.
• Maintain an auditable test-evidence baseline supporting internal governance, ECB/DESP validation and future assurance needs.

Deliverables (Expected Output)
• Group Test Strategy and Test Concept
• Integrated Test Master Plan and test calendar
• Test scope, phases, test levels and entry/exit criteria
• Group test governance, RACI and local test-lead coordination model
• Requirements-to-test traceability model and coverage reporting
• Common test-scenario and test-case catalogue
• Test environment, connectivity and test-data readiness plan
• ECB/DESP user-testing and technical-validation plan
• Cross-entity and end-to-end test plan
• Non-functional, security-coordination and operational-readiness test plan
• Defect-management, triage and escalation process
• Consolidated test dashboard and quality reporting
• Phase-exit assessments, pilot go-live readiness recommendation and hypercare test plan
• Final testing report, evidence baseline and lessons learned

What you bring to the table
• Extensive experience as a Test Manager, Test Lead or Quality Assurance Lead in large, complex banking or payment programmes.
• Proven experience establishing enterprise-level test strategies and coordinating integrated testing across multiple legal entities, delivery teams and suppliers.
• Strong hands-on experience with system integration testing, end-to-end testing, user acceptance testing, regression testing and operational-readiness testing.
• Experience managing testing across APIs, event-driven integrations, payment platforms, core banking systems, customer channels and external infrastructures.
• Proven ability to build requirements-to-test traceability, define evidence standards and produce audit-ready test documentation.
• Strong defect-management experience, including triage, severity models, root-cause coordination, ageing management and executive escalation.
• Experience working with vendors and challenging delivery quality, readiness claims, test evidence and remediation plans constructively.
• Experience working in international and multi-entity organisations with distributed teams and shared/local accountabilities.
• Experience with regulated environments, formal quality gates, assurance expectations and management-level go/no-go preparation.
• Hands-on experience with established test-management and defect-management tools; the programme-specific toolset will be agreed during mobilisation.

Domain Expertise
• Strong understanding of banking and payment-processing value chains, including customer onboarding, transaction processing, liquidity, settlement, reconciliation and operational support.
• Good understanding of payment integration patterns, REST/OpenAPI interfaces, messaging, events, file-based integration and end-to-end transaction traceability.
• Experience testing real-time, high-availability and high-volume transaction-processing environments.
• Knowledge of non-functional testing in regulated payment environments, including performance, resilience, recovery, monitoring and operational controls.
• Experience with ECB, central-bank, scheme-certification or comparable external validation processes is a strong advantage.
• Previous experience with CBDC initiatives, Digital Euro programmes, digital wallets or multi-party payment ecosystems is highly preferred.
• Understanding of the relationship between local bank systems, shared Group services, technical service providers and external scheme/platform components is considered a strong advantage.

Soft skills
• Strong analytical, risk-based and problem-solving mindset.
• Proactive, structured and delivery-oriented working approach.
• Strong stakeholder-management and relationship-building skills across organisational, cultural and contractual boundaries.
• Ability to create clarity across complex dependencies and distributed accountabilities.
• Ability to challenge vendors, technical teams and stakeholders constructively and evidence-based.
• Excellent communication, workshop facilitation, negotiation and conflict-resolution skills.
• Confidence presenting quality risks and readiness recommendations to senior management and governance bodies.
• Self-driven and comfortable working independently while coordinating a virtual test organisation.
• Fluent English is required; German is not required.