QA / Test Engineer – Data (Outside IR35 Contract)

QA / Test Engineer – Data (Outside IR35 Contract) Department: Data &amp; Technology Location: Manchester (Hybrid – 3 days per week onsite) Reporting to: Engineering Delivery Lead Contract Type: Outside IR35 - 6 months initial<br />Day rate: £(Apply online only) per day Direct Reports:

None About the Business Our client is a well-established international consumer brand operating across multiple global markets, serving millions of customers every year through a high-volume retail and digital ecosystem.

As part of a significant business-wide transformation, they are investing heavily in modernising their data estate to become a more customer-centric, digitally enabled organisation. This is a key opportunity to join during a major phase of growth and transformation.

About the Programme This role sits within a large-scale data modernisation programme focused on replatforming and transforming enterprise-wide reporting and analytics capabilities.

Over the next 9–12 months, the business is migrating from legacy on-premise data warehouses to a modern cloud-based architecture built around Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, and Azure. The programme spans multiple international markets and is business-critical, with strong visibility from senior leadership.

The environment is fast-paced, highly collaborative, and focused on delivering a scalable, reliable data platform. The Role The QA / Test Engineer will play a key role in ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of the new data platform. This is a specialist data testing role rather than traditional application or UI testing.

The focus is on validating data pipelines, transformations, reconciliations, and automated quality frameworks across a modern cloud stack.

Working closely with Data Engineers, Business Analysts, and stakeholders, you will design and implement robust testing frameworks covering dbt models, data reconciliation, regression testing, and CI/CD integrations. The fixed-term route will focus heavily on parallel running and migration cutover activities.

Key Responsibilities<br />Design and execute testing strategies across the modern data platform, including unit, regression, reconciliation, and data quality testing.<br />Build and maintain dbt test frameworks (generic, singular, and custom tests).<br />Develop automated reconciliation suites comparing outputs between legacy warehouse environments and new cloud-based outputs at row, column, and aggregate levels.<br />Embed testing into CI/CD pipelines to prevent defects reaching production.<br />Define and own the wider data quality framework, including monitoring, alerting, and remediation processes.<br />Translate business requirements into testable and automated validation criteria.<br />Investigate and document data quality issues identified through monitoring or business users.<br />Maintain regression coverage for critical business reporting datasets.<br />Promote testing best practices across engineering teams, improving test coverage and code quality.<br />Support release sign-off and contribute to go/no-go deployment decisions.<br />Partner with business stakeholders during UAT cycles to ensure successful delivery.Skills &amp; Experience Essential<br />3+ years’ experience in QA, Test Engineering, or Data Quality Engineering within data platform environments.<br />Strong SQL skills, including complex query writing for reconciliation and validation.<br />Experience building automated testing frameworks in modern data stacks (e.g. dbt, Great Expectations, Soda, Python-based frameworks).<br />Hands-on experience with at least one modern cloud data warehouse (Snowflake preferred).<br />Experience integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or similar).<br />Strong understanding of data validation, transformation testing, and reconciliation methodologies.<br />Comfortable working with Git-based workflows and pull request processes.<br />Strong written communication and defect documentation skills.<br />High attention to detail with a pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset.<br />Must have the right to work in the UK without sponsorship.Desirable<br />Experience supporting data migration or modernisation programmes.<br />Background in reconciling legacy warehouse platforms (MSSQL, Oracle, Teradata) with cloud-based platforms.<br />Python for test automation.<br />Experience testing downstream BI outputs (Power BI or similar).<br />ISTQB or equivalent certification.<br />Exposure to data observability tools (Monte Carlo, Bigeye, Elementary).<br />Experience in retail, hospitality, e-commerce, or other high-volume transactional environments.Why Apply?<br />Genuine opportunity to own and shape data quality within a major transformation programme.<br />Work with a modern data stack:

Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, Azure.<br />High-impact work supporting critical reporting for finance, operations, and commercial teams.<br />Opportunity to influence engineering best practices in a growing data function.<br />Competitive salary and benefits package.<br />Hybrid working model based in Manchester