Senior Test Engineer – UK Home Office

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The Quality Assurance and Test (QAT) function in the Home Office is one of the largest in the industry, involving circa 850+ specialists. We use new technology, platforms and ways of working to help development teams meet user needs and make the delivery of services even better. Joining our team will mean you are well positioned to help shape the future, providing a balanced and data‑driven approach to Quality Assurance to best support the effective delivery of Home Office goals.

What will you be doing?

• Actively maintain existing test frameworks or help develop new ones when required. You will also undertake code refactoring where necessary.
• Develop tests that are predictable, repeatable and implement automated verification of acceptance criteria to the greatest possible extent. Review test automation code and test utility code, and configure, monitor, and trigger tests to run on demand as well as continuously evaluating the efficacy of this process.
• Determine tools and approaches for virtualisation, data mocking, contract testing or other automated integration testing techniques and determine tools and approaches for automated test data management, test results aggregation and release management. Enable precise, real‑time reports of automation test runs.
• Manage test infrastructure usage and determine approach to running distributed, parallel tests. Use container & Cloud technology to orchestrate faster, scalable tests.
• Interpret data from code scan, code quality and observability tools. Agree quality thresholds and provide actionable feedback in aiding quality improvement.
• Participate in the QAT Test Engineering community to help grow it.

Your skills for this role

• Programming using Java to write secure, reusable, and maintainable automated tests and test utilities. Familiarity with thread management, synchronisation, resource, and memory management, and scripting languages like bash or PowerShell (Lead essential criteria).
• Using tools like Selenium for front‑end automation, RestAssured for API testing, Serenity BDD, build tools like Maven or Gradle and using Git to manage branches and merge requests through distributed version control.
• Working with unit test frameworks like Junit, assertion libraries and data serialisation tools, leveraging tools like Wiremock to aid automated testing.
• Working with POM test design pattern and SOLID code design principle. Implementing coding guidelines and standards and using BDD tools like Cucumber for developing automated tests.
• Using CI/CD tools while having a good understanding of release pipelines and jobs and familiarity with containerisation platforms like Docker.

Benefits

• Exceptional pension: Employer contribution of 28.97%.
• Generous leave: 25 days annual leave (rising to 30 with service), 8 public holidays, and 1 day for the King’s Birthday.
• Flexible working: Options include full‑time, part‑time, compressed hours, job sharing, and a hybrid model (minimum 60% on‑site).
• Learning and development: Access to training, technical accreditations, and funded qualifications (subject to approval).
• Inclusion and recognition: A culture that champions diversity, enhanced parental leave schemes, annual bonuses, and recognition awards.

This role requires SC clearance. To meet national security vetting requirements, you must typically have been resident in the UK for at least five years.

Seniority level

Mid‑Senior level

Employment type

Full‑time

Job function

Information Technology, Management, and Business Development

Industries

Government Administration, IT System Testing and Evaluation, and IT System Operations and Maintenance

Ready to lead and innovate?

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