Director, Quality & Release Engineering

Location: London, UK (hybrid, three days a week in the office)Level: DirectorTeam: Quality & ReleaseSalary: 150,000 – 180,000 + discretionary bonusContract: PermanentReporting To: VP EngineeringPlease note: This role requires an existing right to work inthe UK.

In order to make an application, simply read through the following job description and make sure to attach relevant documents.

We can’t offer visa sponsorship, but we review sponsorship role by role, so keep an eye on our careers site for future opportunities.About KaluzaKaluza is the Energy Intelligence Platform, turning energy complexity into seamless coordination.

We help energy companies overcome today’s challenges while accelerating the shift to a clean, electrified future.Our platform orchestrates millions of real-time decisions across homes, devices, markets and grids.

By combining predictive algorithms with human-centred design, Kaluza makes clean energy dependable, affordable and adaptive to everyday life.With teams across Europe, Asia and Australia, and a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation in Japan, we power leading companies including OVO, AGL and ENGIE, as well as innovators like Volvo and Volkswagen.What you’ll doThe quality engineering function is shifting  from manual oversight and process governance toward an AI-assisted product development lifecycle where QA leads its own domain test strategy and bespoke tooling drives automation maturity.  This role will drive this shift in our organization and ways of working. You will own quality and release governance at programme level, directly manage an engineering team building AI-assisted automation and test data capability, and set the standard that QA leads across delivery streams work to.

You will be as comfortable driving change as you are accountable for outcomes.

Responsibilities will include:Strategic Quality LeadershipOwn and evolve the quality strategy across delivery streams, aligned to programme objectives and client SLAsDefine and maintain release governance frameworks — release readiness criteria, risk acceptance, and sign-off authoritiesSet quality standards and coverage expectations; ensure QA leads translate these into domain-level test strategiesDrive defect governance at programme level — internal and client-facing SLA complianceRepresent quality and risk in senior leadership, architecture, and product forumsAI-Driven Tooling & AutomationDirectly manage a team of engineers building and maintaining bespoke automation tooling, leveraging AI and LLM capabilitiesOwn the test data management strategy — including AI-assisted synthetic data generation and environment data integrityEvaluate and select off-the-shelf AI testing tools; define governance frameworks for their use and validationEnsure governance gates are maintained as AI participation in the PDLC grows — accountable humans must remain in the loop for risk acceptance and production judgementEstablish tooling standards that QA leads can adopt across domains without creating dependency on a central bottleneckQA Function Leadership & Operating ModelLead, develop, and performance-manage QA leads embedded across domains; define the operating model and career framework for the functionOwn the accountability split clearly: QA leads own test strategy and tooling choices for their domain; this role owns the standard they work toDrive consistency across streams without becoming a handoff point — enable QA leads to move fast within well-defined guardrailsBuild a quality engineering culture — not a bug-finding oneChange Management & AdoptionLead the transformation of QA practice from script maintenance to intelligent, risk-based, AI-assisted quality engineeringDrive upskilling across the function — building capability in AI tooling, context engineering, and agent-assisted workflowsManage resistance and build confidence in new ways of working; bring the team through change without losing themCommunicate quality outcomes in business terms to senior stakeholders — escaped defect rates, release stability, risk postureRelease ManagementOwn the release quality process end-to-end: environment strategy, regression coverage, go/no-go decisions, and post-release monitoringEmbed shift-left practices — quality gates early in the PDLC, not just at releaseManage the tension between delivery velocity and release stability, particularly as AI-generated code volumes increaseWhat you’ll bringIdeally, you’ll have:Proven track record leading a QA or quality engineering function of significant scale — including embedded domain leads and direct management of practitionersHas directly managed engineers building tooling or automation infrastructure — not just managed QA practitioners executing test plansHas delivered a meaningful QA transformation: AI adoption, automation maturity uplift, defect governance overhaul, or similarHas worked in a multi-client or multi-product platform environment, managing quality outcomes across concurrent delivery streamsHas owned release governance in a complex, multi-stream delivery context — including go/no-go accountabilityExposure to energy, utilities, billing, or similarly regulated complex domains is a plus — not essentialStrong grounding in test strategy, automation frameworks, and CI/CD integration — sufficient to credibly lead engineers building these thingsWorking knowledge of LLMs and AI tooling in a QA context: test generation, defect triage, coverage analysis, synthetic test dataUnderstands test data management principles and the challenges of environment data integrity at scaleAble to evaluate build vs.

buy for tooling; assess AI testing platforms with appropriate scepticismComfortable setting strategy and being accountable for outcomes — not just owning processAble to operate at programme level with senior engineering and product stakeholdersExperienced in leading distributed, multi-timezone quality functionsStrong communicator — translates quality metrics into business outcomes; can make the case for investment in tooling and governanceDemonstrated experience leading practice transformation in an engineering contextAble to bring people with them through transitions that challenge established ways of workingComfortable with ambiguity; can hold direction steady while the detail is still being worked outFamiliar with observability, production monitoring, and shift-right quality practicesOur ValuesFive values guide how we work at Kaluza:Play to win: Collective pride in decarbonising energy at scale.Solve the real problem: Cutting through complexity to focus on real-world outcomes.Build trust every day: Consistency, transparency and doing what we say.Own the outcome: Full accountability, wins and setbacks, without ego.Go further together: Collaboration, respect and different perspectives.Our PerksTime off and family: 26 days’ holiday, plus 26 weeks’ full pay for new parents with no qualifying service periodHealth and security: Private medical insurance with virtual GP, life assurance, pension scheme, free mortgage advice and eye testsPay and flexibility: Discretionary bonus, a Flex Fund of 5% [of salary] to spend on the benefits you want most, retail discounts through Perks at WorkGrowth and setup: Personal learning budget, home office budgetClimate: Furthr, our climate action appCome as you areWe want to meet people from all walks of life.

The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be, and we recognise talent on merit and potential.

If you’re excited about the role but don’t tick every box, we’d still love to hear from you.Find out more on our careers page and LinkedIn. xwzovoh

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