You're making quality decisions every sprint.
Someone should own them.
Senior QA leadership embedded in your business on a monthly retainer. Strategy, process ownership, and release confidence — without the overhead of a full-time hire.
Quality without ownership
is just risk accumulation.
Every engineering team makes quality decisions. Which tests to skip before a release. Whether this defect warrants a delay. How much regression is enough. In most growing teams, those decisions happen implicitly, under pressure, and without a framework.
The result isn't chaos — it's drift. Coverage gaps that compound quietly. A test suite nobody trusts. Releases that feel risky but ship anyway. Production incidents that surprise everyone and nobody owns.
A Fractional Head of Testing puts a senior practitioner accountable for those decisions. Not a consultant who writes a report and leaves. Someone embedded in your sprints, your planning, your tools — who owns the quality function and answers for it.
Choose the level of engagement your team needs.
Every tier includes senior QA oversight and a monthly quality report. The difference is time commitment and depth of involvement.
- Test strategy ownership
- Monthly quality report
- 1× team review session
- Async advisory (Slack / email)
- Tooling selection & governance
Right for teams with no QA function today who need strategic direction before building anything.
- Everything in Essentials
- 2× planning sessions / month
- QA representation in sprints
- Test automation oversight
- Team mentoring & upskilling
- Release confidence sign-off
Right for teams shipping regularly who need QA embedded in the delivery cycle, not bolted on at the end.
- Everything in Growth
- Full PI / sprint planning QA
- Hiring & onboarding support
- Stakeholder & exec reporting
- On-site days (UK)
- AI tooling integration
Right for teams scaling rapidly, running a major programme, or preparing to bring QA in-house and need transition support.
Rolling monthly contract · 30 days' notice to cancel · All prices ex-VAT
What a typical month looks like.
Based on the Growth tier. Essentials removes sprint representation; Embedded adds exec reporting and on-site.
Sprint review & planning
I review the last sprint's QA outcomes, attend the planning session as the QA voice, and flag risks in the upcoming work before they reach the test phase.
Strategy & oversight
Async advisory on defects, tooling questions, and process decisions. Automation oversight — reviewing test code, checking coverage, keeping the suite healthy.
Team mentoring
Working with developers or testers on quality practices: test case design, shift-left habits, defect analysis. Building internal capability, not dependency on me.
Quality report
Monthly written report: coverage trends, defect patterns, open risks, and the three things to address next month. Written for engineering leaders and, where needed, the board.
This model works.
The numbers are real.
I've operated as an embedded QA lead across twenty years of programmes in financial services. The outcomes below came from exactly this model — a practitioner accountable for quality, embedded in the delivery cycle.
Defect leakage
Across 30+ production releases at Munich Re Digital Partners — John Lewis Home Insurance pricing models. Driven by the governance framework, regression strategy, and release sign-off process I designed and ran.
Fewer post-release incidents
Year-on-year reduction in production incidents at Allianz Global Commercial Specialty, achieved through changes to the end-to-end testing strategy and introduction of earlier defect detection.
Faster defect reduction
Defect leakage into production cut by 30% within three months of being onboarded at Convex Insurance — not through a transformation programme, but through strategy and governance.
✓ Developers are making quality decisions they shouldn't have to
✓ A production incident has made the leadership team nervous
✓ You're in a regulated environment where release risk is board-level
✓ You've outgrown ad hoc testing but aren't ready for a full-time hire
From discovery call to first quality report in 30 days.
Discovery call
30 minutes. You describe the current state — team structure, release cadence, incidents, pain points. I ask the questions that surface where the real risk sits.
Proposal
Within 48 hours: a written proposal with a tier recommendation and the reasoning behind it. No hard sell — if a different service fits better, I'll say so.
Kick-off
Week one: team introductions, tooling access, review of the current test estate. I start forming the quality picture immediately — not after a lengthy discovery phase.
First report
End of month one: a written quality report covering current coverage, identified risks, and the priority actions for month two. Something tangible from day one.
What people ask before they book the call.
- How much does a Fractional Head of Testing cost?
- From £2,500/month on the Essentials tier (approximately 4 days), rising to £4,500/month for Growth and £6,500/month for Embedded. All prices are ex-VAT. Monthly rolling retainer — 30 days' notice to cancel.
- What exactly is a Fractional Head of Testing?
- A senior QA leader embedded in your business on a fixed monthly retainer — typically 4–12 days per month — who owns quality strategy, process, and release decisions. Same as a full-time Head of Testing, at a fraction of the cost and commitment.
- How is this different from hiring a QA contractor?
- A contractor executes tasks under direction. A Fractional Head of Testing owns quality outcomes — defining the strategy, making the decisions, being accountable for release confidence. The relationship is that of a senior leader, not a resource.
- How quickly can you start?
- Typically within 2–4 weeks of a signed contract. The first engagement begins with a discovery session to understand the team's current state before any changes are proposed.