Testing Lead

The role

To set expectations clearly: this is client work, not an internal role. You'll lead testing across a large multi release transformation programme — a substantial existing estate and the integrations connecting it to a new core platform, spanning order management, warehouse management, point of sale, customer platforms and digital commerce. Delivery runs with a global integrator and specialist testing partners, so the seat carries genuine authority: you hold those partners to the quality of their work and to the dates they committed to.

What you'll own

• The test strategy and plan for the estate and its integrations — scope, coverage and approach for each phase, SIT and UAT included
• Quality control over partner deliverables — reviewing the scenarios your partners produce, and sending back anything not grounded in real business process
• Phase readiness — environments, test data and prerequisites genuinely in place before a phase opens, with an owner named for every gap
• Daily execution — progress against plan, blockers surfaced early, and honest re-planning when execution slips
• Defect governance from first triage to final closure — severity and priority calls, routing to whoever owns the fix, and chasing it home
• Partner accountability — holding the integrator and its testing vendors to the resolution times they signed up to, and escalating with evidence when those slip
• Reporting governance can act on — daily and weekly, with delay attributed accurately to its real cause
• Entry and exit criteria for each phase, and a written, evidence-backed recommendation at each gate — residual risk stated plainly
• User acceptance testing — onboarding, scheduling and supporting business testers, tracked to completion
• The quality voice in go/no-go — what testing found, what passed, what is still open, feeding cutover and release decisions
• The test management tooling (currently QTest) — structure, configuration and reporting people can trust

What you bring

• 8+ years in software testing, including at least 4 years leading test on large, multi-system programmes
• You have owned SIT and UAT end to end on landscapes where the systems talk to each other — single application testing is not what this is
• Integration testing is home ground — message flows, middleware, APIs, and a transaction followed from one end of the estate to the other
• Retail or consumer technology experience — order management, warehouse management, point of sale, e commerce or customer platforms
• You have been accountable for test work executed by an integrator or an offshore partner — and have sent it back when it wasn't good enough
• Day-to-day ownership of a test management platform — we use QTest; comparable tools count
• You have written the exit criteria for a phase, defended them, and put your name to a recommendation at the gate
• The spine to hold a quality line with partners — professionally, and always with evidence
• Clear, factual reporting in fluent English, including when the message isn't the one people want

Nice to have

• Programmes where SAP and a non-SAP estate had to be integrated — and tested — together
• An automation strategy, even on a programme where execution stayed mostly manual
• ISTQB or a comparable testing qualification
• Previous work in the region

What we offer

• Competitive salary — benchmarked to what this experience actually commands
• A 12-month contract — with a clear path to extension or a long-term contract based on performance
• Real authority from day one — you set the quality bar and defend it, including with partners far larger than you
• Enterprise-scale work from a Dubai-headquartered studio, delivered on-site with the programme teams
• Direct access to leadership — small-company speed, enterprise-grade standard

How to apply

Email your CV to hello@dreamcastinteractive.com with the subject "Testing Lead – Your Name". Skip the cover letter — tell us in a short note about the largest integrated landscape you've owned testing for, and one time you refused to sign off. Note: this role is on-site in Dubai, so you'll need to be UAE-based and able to work on-site from day one