Lead Test Engineer

Job summary

Do you want to shape the quality of services that support millions of citizens?

Ready to lead testing across large scale digital transformation programmes while developing and supporting a high performing engineering community?

If so, come and join us as a Lead Test Engineer.

Debt Solutions is responsible for DWP's Debt Management, Compensation Recovery and Debt Management Information Systems. These critical services are used by thousands of colleagues and customers, helping to recover around £3 billion in debt each year while supporting and protecting some of the most vulnerable people in society.

We're delivering ambitious transformation programmes to replace legacy debt management platforms with modern, cloud first technologies and commercial off the shelf solutions, while continuing to operate and enhance our existing mission critical services.

You will provide strategic leadership for testing across the entire Debt Solutions portfolio. Leading a community of around 25 Test and QA Engineers, supported by Senior Test Engineers, you will define and implement testing strategies, promote best practice, and drive quality across multidisciplinary delivery teams.

You'll play a key role in ensuring the reliability, performance and quality of products and digital services that deliver real value to citizens, while helping to shape the future direction of test engineering within Debt Solutions.

Job description

• Work with, influence and drive collaboration with key stakeholders and technical decision makers across disciplines to define a strategic testing/quality vision and influence products and services.
• Enable the identification of skills gaps within the team, capability building and support recruitment and retaining of talent into the organisation within Debt Solutions.
• Drive adoption of risk and context based approaches to Agile and Waterfall testing techniques, principles, and tools.
• Ensure that usability, accessibility, security, stability, performance and quality is embedded in the development of our services, in a consistent and standardised way.
• Lead the team to build appropriate engineered repeatable tests and contribute to the value automation adds to quality solutions.
• Promote engagement with continuous integration, delivery and deployment practices following standards and tooling methodologies
• Proactively share knowledge, solutions, tooling and support our internal communities along with mentoring, coaching, and supporting your peers and line manage Senior Test Engineers.
• Work with our technology stack which includes commercial-off-the-shelf products (e.g. DM6 debt system), Java/node.js microservices, Postgres/MongoDB databases, Azure cloud infrastructure, Gitlab CI/CD pipelines, PowerBI/Business Objects.

Person specification

When completing your CV, please provide clear evidence of your extensive experience, strategic leadership and measurable achievements against the essential criteria listed below:

• Lead Criterion - Leading and proactively owning test/quality strategies across multiple teams and tech stacks and types such as Microservices, API’s, GUI’s, CoTs and message brokers.
• Proactively defining and embedding Test Engineering practices in Java especially around BDD.
• Leading and enabling non-functional testing approaches (e.g. accessibility, performance, security, usability), including test types, tools and appropriate standards.
• Driving and implementing of shifting testing earlier, including CI/CD, and use of automated pipelines within cloud infrastructure.
• Leading, developing and line managing agile and diverse teams of embedded test Engineers, promoting skills development, good practices and continuous improvement.
• Providing technical leadership across the full software development lifecycle, from understanding business needs to delivery into production. Delivering technical leadership and managing risk, issues, defects, reporting progress.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact [email removed].

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £75,026 to £90,267.

The maximum salary for the grade is £80,267, however a Digital Allowance of up to £10,000 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

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