About this role
<h1><span style="font-size:16.0px"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Who are we?</strong></span></span></h1> <p style="text-align:justify;margin:0.0cm"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Sanlam Life and Savings (SLS) is focused on serving our retail and corporate clients in South Africa and further developing our strategic advantages in the South African market. Sanlam Life and Savings consists of the following business units Retail Mass, Corporate, Risk and Savings, Glacier and various business enabling functions. The Sanlam Life and Savings Office provides strategic direction, coordination and support to the four clusters, as well as performing governance oversight that includes assurance provided by second line of defense functions in SLS, to enable us to meet our business objectives.</span></p> <p style="text-align:justify;margin:0.0cm"> </p><div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>What will you do?</b></H2> </div><div><p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Job Purpose:</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">To transform software quality at Sanlam by building a modern, enterprise‑wide Quality Engineering capability that replaces manual testing with automation‑first, continuous quality practices. The role establishes a cluster‑wide Testing Guild, and applies cloud‑native, data‑ and AI‑assisted quality insights to accelerate delivery, improve platform resilience, and strengthen regulatory assurance - starting with Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM).</span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Role Requirements:</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Output/Core Tasks:</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Quality Engineering Strategy & Governance</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Define and lead Sanlam’s enterprise Quality Engineering (QE) strategy, setting standards, patterns and quality gates across the software delivery lifecycle</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Establish a cluster‑wide QE Guild to drive consistency, reuse, and skills uplift across CIO portfolios and product teams.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Embed risk‑based quality governance, ensuring testing depth and evidence are proportionate to business, regulatory, and operational risk.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Partner with Architecture, Security, Risk, and Compliance to ensure quality practices support regulatory assurance and audit readiness.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><strong>Automation‑First & Continuous Testing</strong></span></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Drive the shift from manual testing to automation‑first, continuous quality practices embedded in CI/CD pipelines.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Define and standardise test automation approaches across API, UI, integration, performance, security, and regression testing.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Ensure testing is self‑service and developer‑enabled, with clear quality gates aligned to release and go/no‑go decisions.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Improve key flow and reliability outcomes (e.g. defect escape, change failure rate, lead time for change).</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Institutionalize <strong>continuous testing</strong> practices (quality gates, dashboards, evidence, and test data strategies) to reduce time-to-market and incident risk.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><strong>Platform & Cloud‑Native Quality (Dynamics 365 Focus)</strong></span></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Establish testing blueprints and standards for Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM), including: <br>o Customisations and configurations<br>o Integration and API testing<br>o Security, role‑based access, and data integrity<br>o Regression and release validation</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Define environment and test‑data strategies to support cloud‑native and integration‑heavy architectures, including service virtualisation where required.</span></li> <li><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Provide hands‑on quality leadership for priority CRM releases and programmes.</span></li> </ul></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"></H2> </div><div><p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Data‑ and AI‑Assisted Quality Insights</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Introduce data‑driven <strong>quality analytics</strong> to provide visibility into release readiness, risk, and quality trends.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Apply AI‑assisted testing techniques (e.g. customizations, integrations, security/roles, data quality, regression packs) with clear guardrails, change control, and auditability; start with lowrisk domains and scale as maturity grows. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Stand up quality analytics (flow metrics, defect economics, predictive risk signals) to inform release decisions and leadership reporting. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Translate quality signals into actionable insights for engineering leaders and CIO forums.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Capability Build & Operating Model</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Build and mature a QE Guild, including service offerings, standards, enablement, and communities of practice.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Reduce reliance on external contractors by uplifting internal QE capability across squads and platforms.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Define role profiles, learning paths, and career progression for QE, Software Development Engineer in Test, and automation engineers.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Coach and influence engineering teams to treat quality as a shared responsibility, not a downstream activity.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Delivery Oversight & Risk Management</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Provide <strong>program level QA leadership</strong> for priority releases (esp. Dynamics CRM), ensuring coverage across functional, integration, performance, and security, with <strong>go/nogo </strong>criteria and quality signoffs. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Champion <strong>continuous improvement</strong> via postrelease analytics, production incident linkage, and defectescape/rootcause programs.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Provide <strong>program level QA leadership</strong> for priority releases (esp. Dynamics CRM), ensuring coverage across functional, integration, performance, and security, with <strong>go/nogo</strong> criteria and quality signoffs. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Champion <strong>continuous improvement </strong>via post release analytics, production incident linkage, and defect escape/root cause programs.</span></li> </ul></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>What will make you successful in this role?</b></H2> </div><div><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Experience</strong></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Essential:</strong></span></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">8–12 years in QA/QE or software testing, with<strong> 3–5 years leading</strong> enterprise QA/QE or CoE functions. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Demonstrated success implementing <strong>automation first</strong>, <strong>continuous testing</strong> integrated with CI/CD (Azure DevOps or equivalent), including <strong>API/UI/contract/performance/security</strong> test stacks. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Strong background in <strong>cloud native</strong> testing (microservices, event driven, integration) and <strong>environment strategy</strong> (test data, virtualization, ephemeral envs). </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Track record using <strong>quality analytics</strong> (DORA metrics, risk based prioritization, release readiness dashboards). </span></span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Proven experience implementing automation‑first testing using modern toolchains such as GitHub/GitHub Actions and/or Azure DevOps, and automation frameworks such as Playwright and/or Selenium with strong API testing capability (e.g., Postman or equivalent).</span></span></li> </ul> <p style="font-size:10.0pt"> </p> <p style="font-size:10.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Advantageous</strong></span></p> <p style="font-size:10.0pt"> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Hands on experience with <strong>Microsoft Dynamics 365</strong> (CRM) or similar enterprise CRM platforms (Salesforce), including customization/integration test strategies and UAT orchestration in Azure DevOps. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Familiarity with <strong>AI assisted testing</strong> and responsible AI guardrails in engineering workflows. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Exposure to reliability/operations practices (e.g., <strong>SRE </strong>concepts, quality gates, progressive delivery), aligning quality signals to release decisions.</span></li> </ul></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"></H2> </div><div><p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Qualifications:</span></strong></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Relevant certifications (preferred): </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>ISTQB </strong>Advanced/Test Manager or equivalent QE certification.</span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Microsoft</strong>: Azure (e.g., AZ 400 DevOps Engineer, Azure Fundamentals/Administrator) to support Azure DevOps and cloud testing adoption. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">AWS: Foundational/Associate/Professional or <strong>DevOps Engineering</strong> on AWS for cloud native test practices; AWS training on <strong>advanced testing in CI/CD</strong>. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Agile/SAFe or equivalent delivery credentials.</span></li> </ul></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"></H2> </div><div><p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Competencies</span></strong></p> <p><br><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Technical:</strong></span></p> <p> </p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Automation Engineering</strong>: Designs robust, scalable frameworks (API/UI/contract/perf/sec) with <strong>pipeline integration</strong> and t<strong>est data strategies</strong>. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Continuous Testing & DevOps</strong>: Builds <strong>quality gates</strong> and traceability using Azure DevOps (Boards ↔ Repos ↔ Pipelines ↔ Test Plans). </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Cloud Native Quality</strong>: Proficient in testing microservices, event streams, and integrations; leverages <strong>ephemeral environments </strong>and service virtualization. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>AI Assisted QE & Analytics</strong>: Applies AI for test design/prioritization and maintenance with controls, audit trails, and value tracking; operationalizes quality metrics to inform release decisions. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Dynamics 365 Testing</strong>: Defines CRM specific test strategies (security/roles, data model, integration flows) with <strong>end to end traceability</strong> for audits and UAT. </span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Leadership:</strong></span><br><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"> </span></p> <ul> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Strategic QE Transformation</strong>: Builds a TCoE and <strong>reduces contractor dependency</strong> through standards, enablement, and clear service catalogs. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Change Leadership & Influence</strong>: Shifts culture toward <strong>quality as a shared responsibility</strong>, partnering with CIOs, Product, Engineering, Architecture, and Security. </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Talent Development</strong>: Grows internal SDET/QE capability; sets <strong>learning pathways</strong> (Azure DevOps, Dynamics, AI assisted testing, performance/security testing). </span></li> <li style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><strong>Outcome Focus</strong>: Uses objective quality signals to drive <strong>go/no go</strong> and reduce defect escape, change failure rate, and MTTR; ties quality to business outcomes.</span></li> </ul></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>Personal Attributes</b></H2> </div><div><div>Interpersonal savvy - Contributing through others</div><div>Decision quality - Contributing through others</div><div>Plans and aligns - Contributing through others</div><div>Optimises work processes - Contributing through others</div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>Build a successful career with us</b></H2> </div><div><p>We’re all about building strong, lasting relationships with our employees. We know that you have hopes for your future – your career, your personal development and of achieving great things. We pride ourselves in helping our employees to realise their worth. Through its five business clusters – Sanlam Fintech, Sanlam Life and Savings, Sanlam Investment Group, Sanlam Allianz, Santam, as well as MiWay and the Group Office – the group provides many opportunities for growth and development.</p></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>Core Competencies</b></H2> </div><div><div>Cultivates innovation - Contributing through others</div><div>Customer focus - Contributing through others</div><div>Drives results - Contributing through others</div><div>Collaborates - Contributing through others</div><div>Being resilient - Contributing through others</div></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>Turnaround time</b></H2> </div><div><p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">The shortlisting process will only start once the application due date has been reached. The time taken to complete this process will depend on how far you progress and the availability of managers. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Closing Date: 2 July 2026</span></strong></p></div></div><div style="padding:10.0px 0.0px;border:1.0px solid transparent"><div style="font-size:16.0px;word-wrap:break-word"><H2 style="font-size:1.0em;margin:0.0px"><b>Our commitment to transformation</b></H2> </div><div></div></div></div><p><span style="font-size:10.0pt">The Sanlam Group is committed to achieving transformation and embraces diversity. This commitment is what drives us to achieve a diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace as we believe that these are key components to ensuring a thriving and sustainable business in South Africa. The Group's Employment Equity plan and targets will be considered as part of the selection process.</span></p>