6 days - 3 hours
Regression time reduced through automation and orchestration
Software Quality Engineering Leadership
Barry Carbis
Quality Engineering Leader focused on building modern quality organisations, accelerating delivery confidence, and embedding engineering-led testing at scale.
I help organisations move beyond traditional QA by combining strategy, leadership, automation, observability, and delivery enablement to improve software quality without slowing teams down.
Positioning
Leader in Software Quality Engineering
Proven in building teams, defining operating models, scaling automation, and turning quality into a measurable delivery capability.
- Strategic quality leadership
- Hands-on technical credibility
- Executive-ready communication
24 hours - 2 hours
Regression acceleration while increasing coverage and quality
15+ years
Leadership, strategy, delivery and hands-on quality engineering
Multi-sector
Financial services, SaaS, mobile, pharma and enterprise platforms
Leadership Profile
What Barry brings to quality-focused organisations
A blend of strategic leadership and delivery-level execution, shaped by years of improving quality across regulated and high-change environments.
Barry's profile is built around a clear value proposition: create quality engineering functions that are visible, scalable, and tightly connected to business outcomes. Rather than treating testing as a final-stage gate, he positions quality as an engineering discipline that improves release confidence, shortens feedback loops, and strengthens delivery decision-making.
- Quality engineering strategy and operating models
- Automation leadership with Playwright, TypeScript, Selenium and CI/CD
- Shift-left quality practices and engineering enablement
- Executive reporting, KPI design and stakeholder communication
- Cross-squad governance, delivery risk management and release confidence
- Team building, coaching and capability uplift across permanent and contract teams
Executive Summary
A leader who modernises quality, not just testing
Experienced across financial services, enterprise platforms, SaaS and mobile environments, with a consistent record of making quality faster, clearer and more valuable to stakeholders.
Strategic impact
Defines pragmatic quality strategies that align with product delivery, engineering maturity, governance expectations, and release risk.
Technical credibility
Strong hands-on background in automation frameworks, CI/CD integration, reporting, test tooling and scalable quality practices.
People leadership
Builds and leads high-performing teams, balancing coaching, standards, prioritisation and practical delivery support.
Transformation mindset
Known for driving shift-left thinking, creating measurable improvements, and helping organisations move from reactive QA to quality engineering.
Career Experience
Recent leadership journey
Selected roles that best reflect senior leadership, technical depth and domain credibility in software quality engineering.
2025 - Present
Lead Test Manager @ Evelyn Partners
Leading quality engineering strategy across multiple applications within financial services, combining technical modernisation with organisation-wide quality leadership.
- Built a scalable Playwright + TypeScript framework for UI and API testing.
- Co-ordinating on-shore and offshore teams to deliver automation, reporting and process improvements.
- Led the migration of manual tests to automated workflows.
- Created a QA Portal to run automation, monitor execution and expose quality metrics.
- Integrated smoke and regression testing into GitHub Actions delivery pipelines.
- Introduced performance testing and accessibility aligned to WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Embedded cross-squad shift-left practices and improved early defect detection.
- Reorganised Zephyr for stronger traceability across requirements, manual tests and automation.
2023 - 2025
Test Manager & Acting Agile Coach @ Opus2
Owned quality strategy and built one of the organisation's strongest QA departments. Acted as Scrum Master and Agile coach, driving department-wide adoption of modern Agile practices.
- Built and coached a specialist test team, improving automation capability and delivery confidence across product streams.
- Designed and launched an Automation Academy to give manual testers a structured path into automation and increase team capability.
- Introduced modern testing practices, CI/CD integration, and exploratory testing approaches.
- Defined KPIs for quality metrics and achieved 24-hour to 2-hour regression reduction while increasing coverage.
2021 - 2023
Senior Test Analyst (Contract) @ ACCA
Provided delivery leadership, workload management and defect lifecycle improvements while supporting automation and Agile maturity.
- Managed day-to-day delivery across the testing team.
- Introduced retrospectives and planning improvements to raise team effectiveness.
- Oversaw reusable automated testing initiatives to improve coverage and efficiency.
2018 - 2021
Test Lead / Scrum Master @ City FM
Led cross-functional testing and Scrum delivery, combining team leadership with automation, tooling and process change.
- Directed automation using Java, Selenium and Jenkins.
- Built and led mixed-discipline test teams across manual, automation and non-functional work.
- Drove shift-left quality adoption during the organisation's Agile transformation.
Core Capabilities
Leadership and technical strengths
Quality engineering leadershipTest strategy and governanceAutomation architecturePlaywright / TypeScriptSelenium / JavaGitHub Actions / CI/CDShift-left testingRelease risk managementAccessibility and performance testingAgile coaching and delivery collaborationKPI dashboards and reportingSQL and data validation
Earlier Career
Foundation roles
A broad base across banking, financial services, pharma, mobile, SaaS and enterprise delivery environments.
- Lead Test Analyst - Castlight Financial
- QA Analyst - Kelvin Connect
- Senior Tester - Genpact
- Technical Business Consultant - Santander
- Test Analyst - Formedix
- Test Analyst - Sopra
- User Acceptance Tester - Sky
Leadership Philosophy
How Barry approaches quality engineering
The strongest quality functions are built when engineering, testing, delivery, and business stakeholders share visibility of risk and quality outcomes. Barry's approach centres on making quality measurable, embedding it earlier in the lifecycle, and equipping teams with the automation, reporting, and decision support they need to move quickly with confidence.
"Quality should not be a bottleneck or a checkbox. It should be an engineering capability that improves confidence, speed, and product trust."
Contact
Open to senior leadership opportunities in software quality engineering
Available for conversations around Head of QA, Quality Engineering leadership, test transformation, and strategic quality roles.
Download
Download the CV
Save a professionally formatted PDF or Word version of this CV for recruiters and agencies.
BARRY CARBIS
Lead Test Manager | Quality Engineering Leader
Quality Strategy • Automation Transformation • Playwright • CI/CD • Release Confidence
barry.carbis@sky.com · 07701 078087 · East Ayrshire, United Kingdom
Personal Profile
Accomplished Quality Engineering Leader with 15+ years' experience across financial services, SaaS, mobile, pharma and enterprise platforms. Strong record of modernising QA functions, building scalable automation, improving release confidence and translating quality into measurable business outcomes.
Career Achievements
6 days - 3 hours
Regression time reduced through automation and orchestration
24 hours - 2 hours
Regression acceleration while increasing coverage and quality
15+ years
Leadership, strategy, delivery and hands-on quality engineering
Multi-sector
Financial services, SaaS, mobile, pharma and enterprise platforms
Key Skills
Quality engineering leadership
Test strategy and governance
Automation architecture
Playwright / TypeScript
Selenium / Java
GitHub Actions / CI/CD
Shift-left testing
Release risk management
Accessibility and performance testing
Agile coaching and delivery collaboration
KPI dashboards and reporting
SQL and data validation
Professional Experience
EVELYN PARTNERS
2025 - Present
Lead Test Manager
Leading quality engineering strategy across multiple applications within financial services, combining technical modernisation with organisation-wide quality leadership.
- Built a scalable Playwright + TypeScript framework for UI and API testing.
- Co-ordinating on-shore and offshore teams to deliver automation, reporting and process improvements.
- Led the migration of manual tests to automated workflows.
- Created a QA Portal to run automation, monitor execution and expose quality metrics.
- Integrated smoke and regression testing into GitHub Actions delivery pipelines.
- Introduced performance testing and accessibility aligned to WCAG 2.1 AA.
- Embedded cross-squad shift-left practices and improved early defect detection.
- Reorganised Zephyr for stronger traceability across requirements, manual tests and automation.
OPUS2
2023 - 2025
Test Manager & Acting Agile Coach
Owned quality strategy and built one of the organisation's strongest QA departments. Acted as Scrum Master and Agile coach, driving department-wide adoption of modern Agile practices.
- Built and coached a specialist test team, improving automation capability and delivery confidence across product streams.
- Designed and launched an Automation Academy to give manual testers a structured path into automation and increase team capability.
- Introduced modern testing practices, CI/CD integration, and exploratory testing approaches.
- Defined KPIs for quality metrics and achieved 24-hour to 2-hour regression reduction while increasing coverage.
ACCA
2021 - 2023
Senior Test Analyst (Contract)
Provided delivery leadership, workload management and defect lifecycle improvements while supporting automation and Agile maturity.
- Managed day-to-day delivery across the testing team.
- Introduced retrospectives and planning improvements to raise team effectiveness.
- Oversaw reusable automated testing initiatives to improve coverage and efficiency.
CITY FM
2018 - 2021
Test Lead / Scrum Master
Led cross-functional testing and Scrum delivery, combining team leadership with automation, tooling and process change.
- Directed automation using Java, Selenium and Jenkins.
- Built and led mixed-discipline test teams across manual, automation and non-functional work.
- Drove shift-left quality adoption during the organisation's Agile transformation.
Earlier Career
- Lead Test Analyst - Castlight Financial
- QA Analyst - Kelvin Connect
- Senior Tester - Genpact
- Technical Business Consultant - Santander
- Test Analyst - Formedix
- Test Analyst - Sopra
- User Acceptance Tester - Sky