Operations Test & Readiness Lead - 24 month FTC
Indra is one of the leading global technology and consulting companies and the technological partner for core business operations of its customers worldwide. It is a world-leader in providing proprietary solutions in specific segments in Transport and Defence markets, and the leading firm in Digital Transformation Consultancy and Information Technologies in Spain and Latin America through its affiliate Minsait. Its business model is based on a comprehensive range of proprietary products, with a high-value focus and with a high innovation component. In the 2025 financial year, Indra achieved revenue of €5.5 billion, 70,000+ employees, a local presence in 46 countries and business operations in over 140 countries.
As the technological partner for its customers’ key operations, Indra is at the core of their business, and Indra’s four values guide everything we do:
Innovation - Our capacity for innovation, cutting-edge solutions, and specialised team of professionals enables us to drive a safer, more connected future through technology.
Trust - We work with strength, commitment, and reliability, delivering quality solutions to build trust with customers, employees, partners, investors, and society.
Connection - We harness the power of collaboration, connect ideas and solutions, and adapt to our customers’ needs, supporting them on the path to a better future.
Foresight - We anticipate future needs to make the world safer and more connected, transforming our experience and knowledge into solutions for a better tomorrow.
This is a fixed-term role established to provide dedicated test and operational readiness leadership through the programme delivery, transition and early Managed Services lifecycle
We are seeking an experienced Operations Test & Readiness Lead to own and lead operational testing and readiness across the Managed Services lifecycle for a large-scale transport technology and managed services programme.
The role will take end-to-end ownership of Operational Readiness Testing (ORT), including planning, readiness, scheduling, coordination, execution, defect management, evidence and completion.
During project delivery, the role will work alongside the Test Manager and Test Team, ensuring operational testing and readiness requirements are identified, planned and integrated with the wider delivery and testing lifecycle, with clear transition into ORT, Pilot and Production.
Within Managed Services, the role will lead the end-to-end testing and operational readiness lifecycle for new services, products, releases and changes progressing through the path to Production. This will include coordinating the appropriate testing and validation activities, dependencies, environments, resources, documentation, evidence and acceptance requirements through to Pilot and operational validation.
The role will provide Managed Services with clear ownership and control of the operational test and readiness pathway, working across Testing, Change Management, Service Delivery, ICT, technical teams and other stakeholders to ensure changes are appropriately tested, operationally ready and controlled before progressing into live service.
Key Responsibilities
- Own and manage ORT planning and execution end-to-end, from initial planning and readiness through execution, defect management, evidence capture, reporting and completion.
- Develop and maintain the detailed ORT plan, schedule and execution approach in alignment with the overall Master Test Plan and programme milestones.
- Work directly with the client to agree ORT scope, approach, scenarios, schedules, dependencies, entry/exit criteria and execution arrangements.
- Translate the ORT strategy and high-level test scenarios into a coordinated and executable test schedule.
- Coordinate ORT across Operations, Service Delivery, ITSM/ITOM, technical teams, GRC, Security, Performance, Field Operations and other relevant workstreams.
- Identify all resources required to execute ORT and coordinate their availability against the agreed test schedule.
- Manage dependencies on client teams, Transport Operators, third parties, environments, systems, devices, locations, test data and operational resources.
- Coordinate access to operational environments, including depots, stations, vehicles and other locations where required for test execution.
- Ensure test cases are complete, traceable to applicable requirements and aligned with the agreed ORT scope and approach.
- Work with process and service owners to ensure they own and support the development and execution of test scenarios relevant to their areas.
- Coordinate end-to-end scenarios spanning multiple teams, systems and organisations, ensuring participants understand their roles and required timings.
- Manage day-to-day ORT execution, including sequencing, resource coordination, blockers, dependencies and replanning.
- Coordinate test execution with the client and provide clear visibility of progress, risks, issues and upcoming activities.
- Ensure defects, failed tests, blocked tests and exceptions are correctly recorded, triaged, tracked and progressed to resolution or agreed disposition.
- Ensure appropriate test evidence is captured and maintained to demonstrate successful execution and support formal acceptance and sign-off.
- Produce ORT dashboards, execution reports, readiness assessments and management updates.
- Facilitate ORT readiness reviews, planning sessions, daily execution meetings and defect/issue triage meetings as required.
- Manage ORT entry and exit criteria and provide an evidence-based assessment of readiness to commence and complete ORT.
- Support preparation of ORT completion reports, outstanding risk/exception assessments and formal test sign-off.
- Capture lessons learned and ensure improvements are incorporated into subsequent releases and test cycles.
- Work alongside the Test Manager and Test Team during project delivery to ensure operational testing and readiness requirements are identified, planned and integrated with the wider testing lifecycle and path to Production.
- Track new services, products, releases and changes as they progress through the delivery and testing lifecycle, ensuring a structured transition into Operational Readiness, ORT, Production and Pilot.
- Within Managed Services, own and lead the end-to-end test and readiness lifecycle for services, products, releases and changes progressing through the path to Production, ensuring the appropriate testing and assurance activities are identified, planned, coordinated and completed.
- Define the testing and operational readiness requirements applicable to each change, working with the relevant technical and assurance teams to coordinate functional, integration, regression, non-functional, security and operational testing as required.
- Coordinate the operational readiness pathway for changes progressing into Production, ensuring required testing, validation, dependencies, environments, resources, evidence, operational documentation and acceptance activities are identified and completed.
- Manage and coordinate RTPA documentation for changes progressing into Production, working with technical, delivery, testing, Change Management and operational stakeholders to ensure required information, evidence and approvals are complete.
- Maintain operational visibility and alignment of Production and Pre-Production versions, releases and configurations, ensuring the appropriate Pre-Production baseline is available to support testing, validation, regression, defect reproduction and future change activity.
- Work with ICT, Change Management, Service Delivery and relevant technical teams to ensure test, environment and release dependencies are understood and controlled throughout the path to Production.
- Lead and coordinate operational validation following Production deployment, including Pilot and phased implementation/rollout, ensuring the deployed service, product or device is operating as expected in the live operational environment.
- Coordinate the capture, triage, tracking and escalation of issues, defects, field observations and operational lessons identified during Pilot and implementation, ensuring these are progressed through the appropriate resolution path and fed back into subsequent testing and release activity.
- Ensure lessons learned from ORT, Pilot, implementation and Production changes are incorporated into subsequent test cycles and operational readiness activities.
- Maintain an end-to-end view of the Managed Services testing and readiness pipeline, providing the Operations Manager and relevant stakeholders with visibility of upcoming changes, test status, readiness, dependencies, risks and planned Production activity.
Test, Planning and Scheduling
- Build and maintain the detailed ORT execution schedule and, within Managed Services, the forward test and readiness schedule for services, products, releases and changes progressing through the path to Production.
- Map test cases and scenarios against planned dates, environments, builds, locations, dependencies and required resources.
- Identify resource and SME requirements across participating workstreams and coordinate commitments with functional, technical and operational managers.
- Identify and manage sequencing, predecessors and dependencies between test activities and scenarios.
- Coordinate scenarios requiring participation across multiple teams, systems, organisations or third parties.
- Ensure prerequisite environments, builds, test data, devices, access, documentation, operational processes and training are available before execution.
- Maintain a forward-looking view of test and operational readiness, identifying risks, constraints and potential impacts to the schedule early.
- Replan and re-sequence test execution where defects, dependencies, environment constraints, resource availability or operational priorities affect the agreed schedule.
- Maintain an integrated view of testing, operational readiness, change/release milestones, Production deployment and Pilot activities to ensure dependencies and critical path are understood and actively managed.
Client and Stakeholder Management
- Develop and agree ORT plans, schedules, execution arrangements and readiness requirements collaboratively with the client and relevant stakeholders.
- Coordinate client participation in test and readiness activities, ensuring roles, dependencies, prerequisites and execution arrangements are clearly understood and agreed.
- Maintain clear and transparent reporting of test progress, readiness, results, defects, risks, dependencies and upcoming activities.
- Identify and resolve scheduling, resource and stakeholder conflicts that could impact test execution or operational readiness.
- Coordinate evidence review, test acceptance and closure with the relevant client, operational and assurance stakeholders.
- Provide evidence-based readiness assessments to support formal entry, completion, acceptance and progression decisions.
- Work alongside the Test Manager, Change Management, Service Delivery, ICT, Security, technical teams and operational stakeholders to maintain alignment across the testing, readiness and path-to-Production lifecycle.
- Coordinate with Transport Operators, suppliers and third parties where their participation, systems, infrastructure, services or operational environments are required for testing, readiness, Pilot or implementation activities.
- Within Managed Services, act as the central coordination point for operational testing and readiness across services, products, releases and changes progressing towards Production and Pilot.
Requirements
Experience and Skills
- Strong experience in Test Lead, Test Management, Test Coordination or Test & Readiness roles within complex technology, operational or managed services environments.
- Demonstrable experience leading and managing testing end-to-end, including strategy, planning, scheduling, resourcing, execution, defect management, evidence, reporting and closure.
- Experience developing and managing integrated test schedules involving multiple teams, systems, environments, dependencies and stakeholders.
- Strong understanding of the end-to-end testing lifecycle, including SIT, UAT, integration, regression, ORT, non-functional testing and Production/service transition.
- Experience coordinating complex end-to-end test and operational scenarios across integrated systems, services and operational processes.
- Experience managing testing and readiness for changes, releases, services or products progressing through the path to Production.
- Experience working across project delivery and Managed Services environments, with an understanding of the transition from delivery testing into operational readiness, Production and Pilot.
- Experience working directly with clients and senior stakeholders to agree test plans, schedules, dependencies, readiness requirements and execution approaches.
- Strong understanding of ITIL/service management environments, including Incident, Problem, Change, Service Request, Asset and Configuration Management.
- Experience working with Change Management, release/deployment processes and Production readiness or acceptance controls.
- Experience with ITSM/ITOM platforms such as ServiceNow and/or Maximo would be advantageous.
- Experience in transport, payments, ticketing, infrastructure, managed services or another complex operational environment would be highly advantageous.
- Strong planning, organisation, dependency management, analytical, decision-making and problem-solving skills.
- Strong stakeholder management and leadership skills, with the ability to coordinate and influence teams where resources do not necessarily report directly to the role.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to provide clear readiness assessments, test reporting and recommendations to senior stakeholders.
- Ability to work independently and take ownership while operating effectively across Testing, Operations, Change Management, Service Delivery, ICT, technical teams, suppliers and client organisations.
Benefits
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Holidays: 24 days per annum + Irish bank holidays (options to buy/sell days)
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Pension – 7% employee and 7% employer
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Private medical insurance (including dental & optical)
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Flexible/hybrid working options
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Charitable initiatives
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Learning and development programs
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Travel & expense allowances
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Innovative & collaborative work environment
Indra is an equal employment opportunity employer. Applicants are considered without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or other characteristics protected by law.
