Inside IR35
£640/day max (Umbrella, dependent on experience)
12-month contract
SC Clearance required
Locations: Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle (60% hybrid)
(No London-based candidates)
Overview
We are seeking an experienced Lead Test Engineer / Principal SDET to support a major digital transformation programme within a large government environment.
You will play a key role in shaping and embedding a scalable, automation-first test strategy across multiple engineering teams, supporting the transition from monolithic systems to a modern microservices-based architecture.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role, combining strategic influence with active contribution to automation frameworks and engineering practices.
Key Responsibilities
Test Strategy & Leadership
- Define and implement an end-to-end test strategy aligned to microservices architecture
- Establish testing standards, patterns, and best practices across multiple teams
- Assess existing testing approaches and drive continuous improvement
- Embed scalable testing frameworks and reusable solutions across engineering teams
Hands-on Engineering
- Design, build, and maintain robust automated test frameworks
- Deliver testing across all levels: unit, integration, contract, system, and end-to-end
- Lead automation efforts within Java-based environments
- Actively contribute to code and framework development, not just governance
Collaboration & Governance
- Work closely with engineering teams and stakeholders to ensure alignment on quality
- Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and coaching to engineers and testers
- Promote consistent application of testing practices across delivery teams
- Maintain visibility of quality metrics and delivery outcomes
Essential Skills & Experience
Technical Expertise
- Strong experience defining and implementing test strategies in microservices environments
- Hands-on automation experience using:
- Java, Selenium, Rest Assured
- Strong experience in API, integration, and contract testing
- Experience working across both monolithic and distributed systems
- Solid understanding of:
- CI/CD pipelines
- Spring Boot-based applications
- Kafka or similar event-driven messaging systems
Modern Testing Practices
- Experience with contract testing (e.g. Pact, Spring Cloud Contract)
- Strong API testing and service-level testing experience
- Awareness of non-functional testing (performance, accessibility)
- Experience with NoSQL databases such as MongoDB
- Ability to build scalable, maintainable, reusable automation frameworks
Leadership
- Experience operating at Lead or Principal SDET level
- Ability to influence across teams without direct authority
- Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Proven ability to drive engineering quality in complex environments
Desirable Skills
- AWS experience
- Playwright / Serenity BDD
- Performance testing tools (Gatling, K6)
- Observability tools (Grafana, Prometheus, Splunk)
- Docker and modern DevOps practices
Tools & Technologies
- AWS
- Java, Selenium, Rest Assured
- Serenity BDD / Playwright
- Pactflow / Spring Cloud Contract
- Kafka
- MongoDB
- Jenkins / GitHub / GitLab
- Docker
- Gatling / K6
- Grafana / Prometheus / Splunk
About You
You are a hands-on technical leader who can define direction while actively contributing to delivery. You thrive in complex, multi-team environments and are passionate about building scalable, reliable, automation-first testing solutions.
You are equally comfortable writing automation code as you are shaping strategy and influencing senior stakeholders.