Senior Test Engineer - Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency - SEO

Location

Bristol, Swansea, Leeds, Nottingham, Newcastle, Oldham (Chadderton), Birmingham(Garretts Green) or Uxbridge.

This role is being advertised in Uxbridge, however the contractual base will be Yeading. While estates work is being carried out in Yeading all posts are being temporarily based at Uxbridge.

Successful applicants will start with us at our Uxbridge location. However, everyone will be required to work from Yeading when it reopens in 2028.

You will receive the London Weighting allowance of £4,000 while based at Uxbridge and this will continue when we move to Yeading.

About the job

Job summary

The central responsibility of this role is for delivering excellent, scalable automated and manual testing capability and providing overall direction and management of software testing, while ensuring that technology standards are defined and followed to meet users’ needs efficiently and reliably. 

You will perform gap analysis on current testing processes, competencies and capacity and implement plans to remove identified gaps, while keeping abreast of new technology patterns and trends to lead the evolution of test standards, tools, and processes. 

The focus will be on building in quality from the start and testing throughout development phases. 

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including: 

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here 
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday 
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance. 

Read more in the Benefits section below! 

Find out more about what it's like working at Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency - Department for Transport Careers 

Job description

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to: 

1. Managing all test processes, including test plans, resources, costs, timescales, test deliverables and traceability. 
2. Coordinating, managing, and communicating the planning of the system and/or acceptance tests within a development or integration project / programme.
3. Providing authoritative advice and guidance on any aspect of test planning and execution.  
4. Building tests to a standard that allows multiple use.
5. Serving as coach and mentor to individuals in the service assurance team to ensure that the team is appropriately trained and up to speed regarding methodologies, policies, and tools.   
6. Providing input to the environment requirements, setup, manage, maintain, and ensure test data & environments are available to satisfy project and/or work package test requirements. 

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.  

For further information on the role, please read the role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process. 

Person specification

To be successful in this role you will need to have the following experience: 

1. Experience in testing within a large-scale ICT estate, including integrating new and legacy products.
2. Experience building test frameworks and detailed knowledge of at least one programming language (we use a range of languages including Java, JavaScript, Groovy and Scala) and awareness of front-end web development (CSS/HTML).
3. Ability to quickly research and learn new programming tools and techniques, learn by proof of concepts and iteration.
4. Ability to mentor and coach other QA & testing colleagues.