Automation Test Lead

Automation Test Lead 6 months contract (Extendable) Sheffield - Hybrid, 3 days onsite Up to £450pd inside IR35 Role Summary We are looking for a highly skilled Automation Test Lead with strong expertise in Identity and Access management (IAM), skilled in identity orchestration, API testing, data ingestion and transformation, and event-driven (Pub/Sub) architectures. This role focuses on testing secure, scalable workload identities and access workflows across Google Cloud Platform, integrating identity services with custom APIs, Pub/Sub pipelines, and cloud-native applications. Using an automation first approach, you will collaborate closely with tech leads, Cloud Security, DevOps, and Application Engineering teams to thoroughly test robust IAM, identity lifecycle workflows, and secure service integrations that support enterprise-level cloud and Identity operations. Key Responsibilities

• Test Architecture, Strategy and Governance (Hands-on + Strategic
• Automation Engineering and CI/CD
• Test Delivery, Defects and Stakeholder Management
• Technical Leadership (Non-line management) Required Skills:
• Extensive experience in Identity and Access Management (IAM).
• Strong backend automation experience using Python and Pytest, with 5+ years leading automation projects.
• Proven experience testing functions and decision logic defined “as code”, including policy-as-code.
• Experience validating event-driven platforms (Pub/Sub, queues, Kafka, etc.) and batch processing.
• Experience with identity warehousing and protocols/formats for data ingestion including SCIM, REST API, LDAP, OIDC, and CSV.
• Experience with policy-based testing (RBAC / ABAC / ReBAC / PBAC).
• Experience in consumer-driven contract testing.
• Experience in risk-based test prioritisation.
• DevOps & CI/CD integration experience, including integrating automation tests into GitHub and CI/CD pipelines and implementing shift-left testing practices.
• Strong experience in cloud testing approaches and methodology, especially GCP; additional exposure to AWS, Azure, Entra, Ali Cloud, and systems such as ServiceNow, AD, and ADLDS.
• Extensive experience using JIRA and Zephyr (mandatory).
• Experience executing defined test plans including coordination, tracking, and reporting.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with proven stakeholder engagement at all levels.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor engineers (technical leadership). Desired Skills
• Knowledge of AI governance, model evaluation, explainability, and responsible AI principles.
• Exposure to orchestration tools like n8n.
• Exposure to GenAI tool integrations into Quality Engineering.
• Experience testing solutions built on GraphDB (Neo4j).
• Experience testing OPA / Rego policies.
• Exposure to containerised test execution.
• Knowledge of JMeter, Gatling, LoadRunner, NeoLoad (or similar) for load/stress/volume testing, including licensing requirements, configuration, dashboards, and reporting.
• GDBMS performance analysis.
• Exposure to SailPoint IdentityIQ.
• Exposure to GitOps repos.
• Exposure to testing HashiCorp Vault solutions