Christopher Haycock

chris.haycock+iopage@gmail.comlinkedin.com/in/christopherhaycockUK Expat living in Denmark

Personal Summary

Certified Agile QA Leader with over 20 years of experience driving quality initiatives, building high-performing QA teams, and developing end-to-end testing strategies across industries including gaming, finance, and audio hardware. Proven track record of enhancing product quality through strategic process improvements, mentoring, and cross-functional collaboration with stakeholders. Highly skilled in aligning testing processes with business goals, implementing cutting-edge testing methodologies, and fostering a quality-driven culture to achieve consistent, reliable software releases.

Leadership & Strategic Skills

  • Agile Leadership
  • Quality Assurance Strategy
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Resource & Release Planning
  • Risk Analysis & Mentorship

Certifications

  • Agile Leadership (CAL-E, CAL-O, CAL-1)
  • ISTQB Advanced / Foundation
  • ITIL Foundation

Technical & Testing Skills

  • System, Manual, Web & Mobile Testing
  • Defect Tracking, UI/UX Testing
  • Automation tooling & Test Management
  • Device & Virtual Device Testing
  • JIRA, Confluence, CI pipelines

Education

  • HNC in Computing
  • NVQ in Using Technology Level 2

Professional Abilities

I am a T-shaped manager with 20+ years in QA, blending deep expertise with broad cross-industry experience to elevate QA standards and mentor Test Leads and teams. I drive quality initiatives, champion testing maturity, and foster collaboration between stakeholders and developers to deliver reliable software releases.

Employment History

Pascal Audio — Head of Testing

August 2023 — Present

  • Overall management and leadership responsibility for the testing of software.
  • Hands on: defining the test strategy, build test plans, and ensure coverage.
  • Mentor software team in testing best practices and uplift QA capability.
  • Identify and manage testing risks; ensure appropriate mitigation strategies.
  • Foster collaboration between stakeholders, developers and testers to improve delivery.

EPOS — Software Test Team Manager

Nov 2021 — July 2023

  • Line responsibility for on-site Test Leads and resource management for 19 testers.
  • Release Gate participant and executor; championed quality gates across releases.
  • Mentored and developed in-house testers and improved test practices.
  • Liaison for manual and automation testing strategies with product and engineering.

SYBO Games — Senior QA Manager

July 2018 — Oct 2021

  • QA for Subway Surfers and Blades of Brim; provided QA leadership for live services.
  • Mentor for testers, involved in hiring and building QA capability across teams.
  • Implemented QA processes and supported CI/CD release pipelines.
  • Collaborated with design and art partners to align quality goals with product vision.

ExLibris — Senior QA

June 2016 — June 2018

  • Attendance monitoring and QA process improvements across teams.
  • Helped mentor graduates and junior testers, improving onboarding and skills.

Digital Animal — Lead QA

June 2014 — July 2015

  • Led rollout of digital security procedures and set up testing processes.
  • Implemented automation testing software and best practices for test teams.

Inspired Gaming — Integration and QA Developer

Sept 2011 — May 2014

  • Integration and QA development; setup server room and gaming terminals for events.
  • Migrated VMs and wrote automated integration tests for the platform.

Ranger Services — Principal QA/Analyst

Nov 2009 — March 2011

  • Collaborated on strategies to improve QA and helped with Dev Team backlog grooming.
  • Led small automation/POC efforts and supported test analysts.

Earlier roles

2001 — 2009

  • Senior Tester / Principal Test Analyst roles across multiple organisations.
  • Responsibilities included test execution, mentoring, and customer UAT support.