James Goatley
12+ years building test architecture and quality engineering practices across fintech, healthtech, banking, and enterprise cloud — now applying AI-driven diagnostics that cut test failure-analysis time by 75%.
activeStaff SDET / QE Chapter Lead · Quality Engineering
- Experience
- 12+ yrs
- Industries
- 5
Who I am
I'm a Staff SDET and QE Chapter Lead, ISTQB-certified, with over a decade of experience helping engineering teams ship reliable software faster. I currently own the quality vision for an engineering department of 15–30 squads and lead a chapter of 25 SDETs at NatWest Boxed, and I've introduced AI-driven diagnostics (Claude, ChatGPT) that cut test failure-analysis time by 75%. My background spans fintech (NatWest Boxed), healthtech (Babylon / eMed), enterprise cloud migration (Fujitsu), banking (EBRD), and property tech (Rightmove) — working across test strategy, automation frameworks, performance testing, and quality tooling.
Alongside my staff role, I run Digital Editions Design, building affordable websites for local businesses, and I run it.passed.ci, a space where I share help, support, and discussion on how I'm using AI — both in and outside of work — for different things. I care about building test architecture that developers actually want to use, and about narrowing the gap between "tested" and "trusted."
Based in
London, United Kingdom
Seevic College
BTEC National Diploma, Sport and Exercise Science
2007 — 2009, Distinction x3
The FitzWimarc School
Secondary Education
Certifications
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Jun 2018
ISTQB Foundation Level (ISEB)
Oct 2012
Clearance
Security Check (SC) Cleared
Valid until Nov 2029
What I work with
Languages
Test Automation
Performance
DevOps & Cloud
Platforms & Frameworks
Leadership & Practice
Where I've worked
Ownerat Digital Editions Designactive
Essex, England, United Kingdom
Providing affordable online presence solutions for local businesses — websites, hosting, and ongoing care.
Aug 2026 — Present
Staff SDET / QE Chapter Leadat NatWest Boxedactive
Hybrid
Own the quality vision for an engineering department of 15–30 squads and lead a chapter of 25 SDETs. Introduced AI-driven test diagnostics that cut failure-analysis time by 75%, and architected an enterprise performance-capacity service in Python.
Jan 2024 — Present
Software Developer in Testat NatWest Boxed
Sole embedded SDET in a five-person scrum team; built automated test solutions into CI pipelines and streamlined Jira processes for the wider operations team.
Jan 2023 — Jan 2024
Quality Engineering Managerat Babylon (eMed)
Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Led a team of SDETs across 8 cross-functional product teams, cut annual CI costs by roughly $60K through workflow optimisation, and drove adoption of automated post-deployment release testing.
May 2022 — Dec 2022
Staff Quality Engineerat Babylon (eMed)
Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Defined quality engineering strategy, testing approaches, and automation frameworks, and worked with stakeholders to resolve testing pain points across the organisation.
Nov 2021 — May 2022
Test Architectat Fujitsu
London Area, United Kingdom
Helped define a robust test strategy for a large-scale cloud migration project.
Apr 2021 — Nov 2021
Test Leadat Fujitsu
London Area, United Kingdom
Feb 2020 — Apr 2021
Senior Test Specialistat Fujitsu (Contract)
London, Greater London, United Kingdom
Led QA across an account as part of a cross-functional Scrum team.
Aug 2019 — Jan 2020
Directorat James WG LTD
Aug 2018 — Sep 2020
Software Developer in Testat European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) — Contract
Technical QA Lead and SDET: built an automation framework for an Angular app using Protractor and WireMock, maintained requirement traceability with Cucumber, defined a performance testing strategy with Gatling/NeoLoad, drove code quality with SonarQube and JaCoCo, and supported Azure deployments and monitoring with Kibana.
Aug 2018 — Aug 2019
Senior Software QA Engineerat Rightmove
London Area, United Kingdom
Jun 2015 — Aug 2018
Test Analystat Cognitran
Chelmsford, England, United Kingdom
Lead tester on a major US project covering API and UI testing, plus automation scripting in Java with Selenium WebDriver, Maven, and TestNG using the page object pattern.
Oct 2014 — Jun 2015
Quality Analystat Blackthorn Technologies
Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Feb 2014 — Oct 2014
What I'm building
Digital Editions Design↗
Affordable, professional websites for local businesses
A self-employed venture providing affordable online presence solutions for local businesses — websites, hosting, and ongoing care, built with the same quality mindset from a career in software testing.
Let's talk
Let's work together.
Whether it's quality engineering, developer enablement, or a new website for your business, feel free to reach out.