The public sector client is looking to recruit a Test Engineer for a short term contract, which is likely to extend after the end of the financial year. The client has advised that the successful candidate will be able to work remotely for this assignment, bit will need to visit the office in Swindon, once a month.

The Organisation Operating across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of more than 6 billion, UK Research and Innovation is a new entity that brings together nine partners to create an independent organisation with a strong voice for research and innovation, and a vision to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation. UKRI will build on the successful elements from the current funding system and maximise the contribution of each of the component parts to create the best environment for research and innovation to flourish.

Job Purpose As a Test Engineer you will influence quality at all stages of the project, driving continuous improvement and getting involved with requirements, analysis, design, testing and release of enterprise level software applications. You will work to ensure the successful delivery of the major platform work items from different IT projects through robust integration and test processes. The ideal candidate for this role will be able to demonstrate experience with Acceptance testing (Including UAT), Exploratory Testing and Automation of functional and non-functional requirements.

Experience  Strong Stakeholder Management skills.  Ability to apply a risk-based methodology across the fundamental test process such as in the creation and execution of test plans.  Be able to plan and prioritise all testing activities in alignment to operational objectives and to agreed deliverables.  Strong hands on test automation experience with experience of building and maintaining test automation frameworks from scratch or being part of a team that has done this.  Demonstrable experience with testing tools and frameworks particularly Robot Framework/Selenium(with either of Java, Python, JavaScript).  Experience with all aspects of the testing lifecycle and test automation: functional, system, performance, stress, etc.  Knowledge of software best practices like test-driven development (TDD), behavioural driven development (BDD), continuous integration and continuous deployment.  Knowledge and experience in Agile Methodologies such as Scrum.  Understand a variety of testing methods including the current / latest testing methods and tools. Skills  Excellent written and verbal communication skills.  Strong task planning and delivery skills.  Ability to manage multiple priorities concurrently.  Care, accuracy and attention to detail.  Be able to take personal accountability for progress and reporting.  Self-awareness.  High levels of professionalism.  Self-motivated.  Resilient under pressure.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities A test engineer is responsible for writing, debugging and refactoring test code. At this level, you will:  Work closely with software developers to reach a common understanding of the code base and test coverage at unit level.  Collaborate with analysts to make sure the required business scenarios are covered in the acceptance test scripts.  Test engineers work on both functional and non-functional areas of an application.  Coach and mentor more junior colleagues Skills needed for this role:  Functional testing. You can design and execute test cases using standard testing techniques. You can come up with different business scenarios for a feature, working with others in the team.  Non-functional testing. You can design and execute non-functional test cases using standard testing techniques, in instructed environments. You can come up with different business scenarios for a feature, working with others in the team.  Technical breadth. You can use a range of technologies for testing. You know how to use one type of tool to write test scripts. You may use technologies to design and execute test cases under guidance.  Test analysis. You can identify simple patterns and trends. You know how to investigate problems and opportunities in existing processes and can contribute to recommending solutions to these. You know how to work with stakeholders to identify objectives and potential benefits.

Person Specification Qualifications  Educated to Degree-level or equivalent is not essential but is desirable.  ITIL Foundation desirable.  ISTQB Test Foundation desirable.  Certified Agile Tester Certification desirable.

The successful candidate will have a valid DBS or be willing to apply for one on CV submission or when a job offer has been made and accepted. This assignment sits inside IR35.

About the Rates of Pay:  Please note: The higher pay rate advertised in our job advert/s will always be the highest Ltd or Umbrella Company pay rate that the client is willing to pay up to and the lower pay rate advertised in our job advert/s will always be the highest PAYE pay rate, that the client is willing to pay up to, unless otherwise specified. If the PAYE rate is not indicated in the job advert then please contact us for confirmation of the PAYE daily pay rate.