Senior Director, Analyst - Software Engineering Leader – AI, Testing and Quality REMOTE EMEA

About the role: 

Gartner Analysts are industry thought leaders who create must-have research, market predictions and best practices for a broad range of world-leading organizations. A Senior Director serves as a leader within Gartner’s Research and Advisory sector, establishing oneself as a credible voice within their designated market at local, regional and global levels. Utilizing exceptional research and analytical skills, a Senior Director plays a significant role in producing pragmatic and provocative research which Gartner clients consume and apply to propel their business toward key objectives. They are a trusted source of advice for clients, reinforcing Gartner’s value every day by engaging them via in-person meetings, virtual meetings, sales support visits and Gartner conferences to discuss complex client challenges and offer appropriate recommendations.  

This role is part of Gartner's growing software engineering practice. Testing and quality tools and practices are undergoing rapid change driven by ever higher demand for software and AI-based innovation. Working with a team of experts, you will be responsible for writing about and addressing client inquiries on a variety of topics, including test management technology and business processes, test automation, performance testing and code quality.   

We are looking for candidates with knowledge and practical experience of leading and delivering AI based software engineering projects, products and programs. 

What you will do:  

• Create innovative, thought provoking, and highly leveraged “must-have research” content 
• Develop new research and ideas through thought leadership and offer compelling, actionable approaches to client's needs and requests that accelerate the client's ability to act 
• Develop in-depth analysis to identify the root cause of a client’s barriers or overall needs and reframe thinking to drive strategy forward  

• Demonstrate thought leadership in establishing research positions across a team of analysts 

• Bring provocative, independent insights to Gartner leaders that can evolve the course of a research agenda 

• Research, analyze and predict market trends and shifts to provide clients and vendors with actionable insights  

• Provide clients and prospects with actionable advice aligned to their designated content area via virtual or face-to-face interactions  

• Create and deliver high value presentation materials on and off stage for Gartner events, industry and professional association conferences, and client briefings  

• Support Research and Sales: Provide sales support serving as voice of the market to help research teams create content and to drive engagement with clients to make progress against their critical priorities to grow their business 

• Provide high quality and timely research content peer review 

• Build credibility as an industry expert to represent Gartner research, methodology and strategy  

• Actively participate in innovation, ideation, and research discussions and collaborate effectively with peers in the research community 

• Identify research process improvements or develop new processes that help the team and Research & Advisory provide excellent service delivery 

• Be a mentor and a coach by supporting more junior team members 

• Be client-centric while actively seeking to help clients engage regularly and often with Gartner research and interactions 

What you will need:  

• Bachelor's degree and 12 years of experience in a related field or an equivalent combination of education and experience. 

• Knowledge and practical experience of AI based project software engineering project and programs.
• Extensive experience of managing and delivering testing and quality initiatives.  

• Knowledge and direct experience with leading testing tools including test management tools, test automation tools, performance testing tools and code quality tools 

• Knowledge and direct experience of leading test automation initiatives across various groups (including badged employees, contractors, centralized testing teams, and software engineers) and project types (waterfall, agile).  

• Demonstrate executive presence; can immediately establish credibility with executives and additional stakeholders 

• Strong organizational skills; ability to work under tight deadlines and produce high quality deliverables 

• Demonstrate excellence in research and writing ability 

• Strong written and verbal proficiency, analytical and presentation skills; ability to engage clients and respond effectively to questions  

• Proficient in analyzing and synthesizing data; can effectively apply patterns and frameworks while drawing and defending conclusions to client challenges 

• Strong communicator who can explain complex concepts concisely and simply  

• Subject matter expert comfortable presenting at large and small-scale speaking engagements  

• Ability to work independently, while also being intrinsically motivated to collaborate across teams and support the workflow of others, in a multicultural global team 

• Ability to represent Gartner's research methodology and strategies effectively at all levels 

• Willingness and ability to travel up to 25% (where applicable) 

Preferred Experience:

• Experience guiding a community of practice dedicated to modernizing the role of quality within an organization.
• Experience with open-source solutions and frameworks like Playwright, Selenium, JMeter, or similar tools, ranging from individual contributor roles to leading teams utilizing these technologies.
• Experience with performance testing and chaos engineering.
• Understanding of the impact of platform engineering on testing and quality initiatives.
• Experience in leading software engineering teams
• Broad knowledge of the entire software development lifecycle with an ability to advise on business strategies related to a range of related topics such as platform engineering, application modernization, CI/CD pipelines, application security and more.
• Experience in SaaS testing including integrations with large packaged applications, e.g. SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Dynamics, Workday, etc.
• Knowledge and direct experience of setting up a QA organization, QA organizational structures and operating model within an organization
• Ability to collaborate with Site Reliability Engineering groups on service level agreements (SLAs).
• Experience in metrics, benchmarks and KPIs for QA and testing.

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