Test Engineer Senior

Senior Test Engineer

Location: Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Blackpool or Leeds. 60% on-site

Inside IR35

Contract Length: 6 months

Overview

My client is seeking an experienced Senior Test Engineer to provide technical leadership across test engineering teams and play a key role in defining and delivering effective testing strategies.

The successful candidate will have strong experience across functional and non-functional testing, test strategy, test tooling and test infrastructure, with the ability to provide technical guidance to teams and senior stakeholders.

You will help establish best practice, improve testing approaches, identify opportunities for automation and technical improvement, and ensure quality is Embedded throughout the software development life cycle.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and implement effective test strategies and approaches across multiple product or delivery teams.

• Provide technical leadership, guidance and mentoring to Test Engineers and wider delivery teams.

• Lead and oversee testing activities, ensuring quality, delivery and technical objectives are achieved.

• Act as a technical escalation point for complex testing issues, defects and delivery challenges.

• Plan and coordinate functional and non-functional testing activities.

• Define approaches for test infrastructure, environments, tooling and test automation.

• Identify and recommend appropriate testing tools, technologies and methodologies.

• Monitor test suites and testing processes, identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, reliability and maintainability.

• Identify and reduce technical debt within testing processes and infrastructure.

• Promote standardisation and the reuse of test frameworks, libraries, services and best practices across teams.

• Work collaboratively with development, product, delivery and technical teams to understand dependencies, risks and priorities.

• Develop appropriate test reporting and communicate testing outcomes to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Ensure appropriate consideration is given to performance, accessibility, usability, security, stability and capacity throughout the development life cycle.

• Investigate complex problems, analyse conflicting information and develop recommendations for improvement.

• Identify opportunities to improve existing testing processes and contribute to the development of organisational best practice.

• Support teams in selecting appropriate testing approaches and methodologies based on the requirements of each project or product.

• Coach and mentor less experienced Test Engineers and promote continuous improvement.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Significant commercial experience in Test Engineering, Software Testing or Quality Engineering.

• Strong experience developing and implementing test strategies and test plans.

• Experience leading testing across multiple teams or complex software environments.

• Strong knowledge of functional and non-functional testing techniques.

• Experience designing and executing non-functional testing, such as performance, load, stress, scalability or capacity testing.

• Experience with test automation, test frameworks and modern testing tools.

• Experience working with test environments and test infrastructure.

• Strong understanding of software development and testing methodologies.

• Experience identifying, managing and prioritising defects.

• Ability to analyse complex technical problems and provide practical recommendations.

• Experience establishing testing standards, processes and best practice.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Experience coaching, mentoring or providing technical leadership to other Test Engineers.

• Ability to evaluate testing tools, methodologies and delivery approaches and recommend appropriate solutions.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working within Agile/Scrum/DevOps environments.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and integrating testing into automated delivery processes.

• Experience with cloud-based environments.

• Experience with automated performance and scalability testing.

• Knowledge of security, accessibility and usability testing principles.

• Experience working on large-scale or complex digital services.

• Experience working across multiple product or engineering teams.

Key Competencies

The successful candidate will be able to:

• Think critically and challenge existing approaches where appropriate.

• Absorb and analyse complex or conflicting information.

• Identify problems and develop evidence-based solutions.

• Make informed decisions about testing approaches and methodologies.

• Communicate technical findings clearly to a wide range of audiences.

• Promote collaboration and knowledge sharing across teams.

• Drive continuous improvement and reduce technical debt.

• Provide authoritative technical guidance while remaining pragmatic and delivery-focused.