Quality, Test & Release Manager H/F

Our team members are at the heart of everything we do. At Cencora, we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures, and every person here is essential to us being able to deliver on that purpose. If you want to make a difference at the center of health, come join our innovative company and help us improve the lives of people and animals everywhere. Apply today! Job Details Location: France or UK English and French language skills Reports to: Head of Quality and Test (and/or QA Lead – TBC) Team: QA Analysts, Testers; coordination with remote/3rd-party QA teams Tooling: Tricentis qTest (test/defect management) Role purpose The IT Test Manager is accountable for end-to-end functional test leadership across products and projects, ensuring quality is embedded throughout delivery. You will plan, direct, and execute testing activities, lead QA/Test resources, and partner closely with Product Owners, Delivery Leads, Business Analysts, Developers, Architects, Support, and third parties to deliver high-quality releases. This role also includes a hands-on element: demonstrating effective testing practices, improving throughput, promoting reuse of test artefacts, and driving continuous improvement of QA and testing processes. Key responsibilities: Test leadership and delivery Own and lead functional test management for assigned products/projects/workstreams. Define test scope, approach, plans, and acceptance criteria alignment, ensuring requirements are testable. Drive creation, review, and maintenance of test artefacts (test plans, scenarios, scripts, evidence). Manage end-to-end test execution across teams (manual and automation aligned to standards). Provide progress, coverage, and quality reporting, including release readiness input and metrics. Quality governance and continuous improvement Assure quality of QA/test artefacts and relevant development artefacts related to releases, fixes, integrations, and project deliverables. Identify risks, issues, assumptions, and dependencies; propose mitigation and escalate appropriately. Contribute to and evolve QA processes, standards, frameworks, and ways of working; strengthen test efficiency and reusability. Ensure adherence to defect management processes; drive effective triage, prioritisation, and remediation. Test data, environments, and UAT Coordinate test data planning, creation/curation, and test data activities across stakeholders. Ensure data and configuration requirements are identified early (story refinement) and considered in CI/CD pipelines where applicable. Lead UAT test management, including stakeholder engagement and coordination. People and stakeholder management Lead, coach, and mentor QA Analysts and Testers; identify training needs and drive capability uplift. Manage capacity planning and allocation of internal, remote, and third-party QA resources. Collaborate with Product, Delivery, Architecture, Development, and Support teams to embed quality throughout the lifecycle. Key stakeholders: Project & Delivery Leads Product Owners Business Analysts QA Analysts / Testing teams Remote development QA team (3rd party) Application Support teams Release Manager / QA Leads / Head of Quality and Test (TBC) Required experience and technical skills: Significant commercial experience leading QA and functional testing for enterprise systems. Strong knowledge of testing methodologies, frameworks, and test management practices. Proven experience with test/defect management tooling (qTest preferred). Solid understanding of test data requirements and test environment management. Practical experience with Agile and/or DevOps delivery approaches. Good knowledge of CI/CD and functional testing methods. Understanding of TDD/BDD concepts and techniques. Advantageous experience: Automation and testing tools (e.g., Selenium, LoadRunner, Postman, Tricentis Tosca). UI and accessibility testing. SQL; Linux/Unix; Jenkins; Jira/Confluence. Azure/AWS services; XML/JSON; working with large databases. Knowledge of quality maturity models (e.g., TMMi), ISO 9000 series, and risk-based testing models. Disaster recovery, high availability testing, backup/restore (where relevant to infrastructure-oriented initiatives). Qualifications: ISTQB Foundation (minimum). Additional certifications beneficial. Behavioural competencies Self-starter with strong ownership and bias to action. Excellent written and verbal communication; able to explain quality needs and outcomes to technical and non-technical stakeholders. Highly organised; able to plan, track, and report progress against commitments. Strong analytical skills: translating requirements into test scenarios and scripts with attention to detail. Proactive problem solver and sound decision-maker; able to present options and recommendations. Influencer: able to challenge constructively and drive adoption of QA/testing best practices. Coaching/mentoring mindset; actively supports capability growth across teams. . Success measures (examples): Improved defect containment (earlier detection), reduced UAT escape defects, and increased test coverage of E2E journeys. On-time delivery of test milestones with transparent reporting. Increased reuse of test assets; improved maturity and consistency of QA practices across teams. Effective adoption and utilization of test across agreed projects. What Cencora offers ​Benefit offerings outside the US may vary by country and will be aligned to local market practice. The eligibility and effective date may differ for some benefits and for team members covered under collective bargaining agreements. Full time Affiliated Companies Affiliated Companies: Alliance Healthcare Management Services Limited Equal Employment Opportunity Cencora is committed to providing equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, age, disability, veteran status or membership in any other class protected by federal, state or local law. The company’s continued success depends on the full and effective utilization of qualified individuals. Therefore, harassment is prohibited and all matters related to recruiting, training, compensation, benefits, promotions and transfers comply with equal opportunity principles and are non-discriminatory. Cencora is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the employment process which are consistent with legal requirements. If you wish to request an accommodation while seeking employment, please call 888.692.2272 or email . We will make accommodation determinations on a request-by-request basis. Messages and emails regarding anything other than accommodations requests will not be returned