QA Engineer/Tester About Us 3173 is a privately owned UK firm of pensions experts with clients throughout the UK, serviced from offices in London, Belfast, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds. The 3173 Group of companies includes Dalriada Trustees Limited (Dalriada) one of the UKs largest professional pension scheme trustee companies. Spence & Partners provides full pension actuarial, consulting, investment consulting and administration services that provide simply smarter solutions for trustees, employers and members and Mantle, which reimagines the traditional models of defined benefit pensions administration and actuarial valuation software. Established in 2010, Mantle Services emerged from the vision of a small group of pension professionals who identified a critical gap in the pensions technology landscape. Born from real-world experience and frustration with legacy systems, the company was founded on the principle of unifying actuarial precision with efficient administration. Mantle is fast growing, supporting clients across both the private and public sectors. The company licenses software solutions to in-house pension schemes, third-party administrators, actuarial firms, and buy-out providers. About You We are looking for an experienced QA Engineer to join a small, collaborative development team working on an innovative pensions platform. This role will be the first dedicated QA position within the team and will play a critical role in improving the reliability, testability, and overall quality of our product. You will take ownership of reshaping how quality is approached across the team, helping to reduce change-based risks, improve confidence in new releases, and ensure that core user journeys remain stable and reliable. Working closely with developers and subject matter experts, you will build a deep understanding of the system, capture and formalise existing knowledge and testing processes, and introduce new pragmatic, scalable testing practices that fit our ways of working. This is a hands-on role suited to someone who is comfortable working in a complex, evolving environment and who can balance immediate needs with longer-term improvements to quality and testing maturity. Responsibilities & Criteria Key Responsibilities Quality & Testing Develop a deep understanding of the platform and its core user workflows Design and execute test strategies focused on high-risk and business-critical areas Create and maintain clear, reusable regression test scenarios Perform exploratory testing to identify edge cases and unexpected behaviours Process Improvement Introduce lightweight, effective QA processes suited to a small, fast-moving team Reduce reliance on manual SME testing by capturing and formalising knowledge Improve defect reporting, triage, and communication across the team Collaborate with developers to ensure testability and quality are considered early Automation Identify opportunities for test automation with a focus on high-value areas Build and maintain a pragmatic, maintainable automated test suite Support integration of automated tests into the development workflow where appropriate Collaboration Work closely with developers, product stakeholders, and SMEs Act as an advocate for quality while balancing delivery timelines Share knowledge and help embed QA practices across the team Skills and Experience Proven experience in a QA or SDET role within a software development team Experience testing complex or legacy systems with limited existing test coverage Strong understanding of manual testing, exploratory testing, and regression strategies Experience introducing or improving QA processes in a growing or evolving team Technical Skills Experience with test automation tools and frameworks Ability to read and understand code (comfortable working with developers) Familiarity with APIs, databases, and debugging tools Soft Skills Strong analytical and problem-solving skills Excellent communication and collaboration abilities Pragmatic mindset with a focus on delivering value Comfortable working with ambiguity and evolving processes What Success Looks Like (First 612 Months) Core user journeys are clearly documented and consistently tested Regression risk is reduced through repeatable test coverage QA processes are embedded into the team without slowing delivery Initial automated tests are in place for high-value areas Reduced reliance on ad-hoc SME testing Circumstances Location: Belfast or Glasgow ideally but flexible within commutable distance of one of our established offices and able to travel to our other offices across the UK when required. Working hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week with additional hours as and when required. Our Company is committed to work life balance and our flexi-working policy and opportunity for remote working enables individuals to maintain that balance. All roles are subject to a six-month probationary period and all prospective employees are required to complete an Access NI check. As part of the pre-hire process the successful candidate will be subject to reference checking security vetting. 3173 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Applying with a disability or long-term health condition? As part of our belief that we benefit from the differences among us, we are committed to increasing the representation of disabled colleagues and want to remove any barriers or challenges that get in the way of candidates with a disability or long-term health condition from applying to work with us. As part of this commitment, we guarantee to automatically interview anyone with a disability who meets the minimum criteria. If there is support or an adjustment that we can provide to enable you to be at your best during the recruitment and selection process, we encourage you to advise us in good time so that we may make suitable arrangements. We understand that being open with us may feel uncomfortable so please only share with us the information that you are comfortable to share, and rest assured that we will use this only to provide you with the right support. Any information you give us will be treated completely confidentially. To discuss this further please call and ask to speak to a member of the People team.
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