Lead Technical Test Engineer

Sopra Steria Ltd; Salisbury; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading defense technology firm in Salisbury is seeking a Lead Technical Test Engineer to solve complex testing challenges. The role involves manual and automated testing, Agile and DevOps approaches, and building test automation capabilities. Candidates should have SC security clearance and experience with testing tools like Selenium and Ansible. Benefits include a competitive salary of £60-70k, car allowance, and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

£5,400 car allowance

25 days annual leave

Private medical

Life assurance

Pension

Flexible benefits fund

Qualifications

• Experience in manual and automated testing across Waterfall and Agile or DevOps.
• Knowledge of testing infrastructure including SDN, Windows Server 2022+, and Linux.
• Ability to produce clear documentation using Microsoft Office.

Responsibilities

• Delivering test services in line with standards and established strategies.
• Carrying out manual infrastructure testing within an Agile environment.
• Developing and maintaining automated test capabilities.

Skills

Manual and automated testing

Agile methodologies

DevOps practices

Infrastructure testing

Clear documentation skills

Education

ISEB or ISTQB Intermediate accreditation

MCSE or MCSA certification

ITIL 3 or 4

Tools

Ansible

Jira

Selenium WebDriver

PowerShell

Git

Job description

Overview

Do you enjoy solving complex testing challenges and want to make a real impact on national security? Join us as a Lead Technical Test Engineer, working on a major defence client site. You’ll be part of a supportive test team with a strong culture of knowledge sharing, delivering a wide range of infrastructure testing across multiple classifications. We can offer great career progression opportunities, location in Salisbury, benefits you can flex to your needs, and full access to training and development. You’ll help shape test strategies, carry out manual and automated testing, build Agile and DevOps approaches, and strengthen our test automation capabilities.

What you’ll be doing

• Delivering test services in line with standards and established test strategies across Agile, DevOps and waterfall.
• Carrying out manual infrastructure testing within an Agile environment.
• Building and maintaining DevOps and Agile test capabilities and frameworks.
• Developing and maintaining automated test capabilities and tooling.
• Creating acceptance tests to assure all criteria are met.
• Reporting progress, risks and issues clearly and on time.

What you’ll bring

• SC security clearance and willingness to undergo DV.
• ISEB or ISTQB Intermediate accreditation (or equivalent expertise).
• Strong experience in manual and automated testing across Waterfall and Agile or DevOps.
• Knowledge of testing infrastructure across SDN, Windows Server 2022+, Linux (R8/R10+), cloud architectures, ACI, SBD, Windows 11 and Ubuntu.
• Experience building test automation using tools like Ansible, Bitbucket, Jira, Selenium WebDriver, Git, Puppet, PowerShell or Python.
• Ability to produce clear documentation using Microsoft Office, Jira and ServiceNow.

It would be great if you had

• Experience building automated test frameworks in Agile or DevOps.
• Exposure to performance, volume, load or stress testing.
• Security or penetration testing experience, including SBD.
• Accessibility testing experience.
• MCSE or MCSA certification.
• ITIL 3 or 4.

Employment details

• Employment Type: Full‑time, Permanent.
• Location: Salisbury.
• Security Clearance Level: SC MOD.
• Internal Recruiter: Rebecca.
• Salary: £60–70k.
• Benefits: £5,400 car allowance, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy more, private medical, life assurance, pension and a generous flexible benefits fund.

Although this role is advertised as full‑time, we support different ways of working and can offer a range of flexible arrangements. If you need to work flexibly, please apply and talk to us about what might be possible.

About us

Loved reading about this job and want to know more about us?

Sopra Steria’s Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and delivers digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do directly supports national security. We invest in professional development, coach and mentor each other, and create an environment where people feel valued and proud of the work they deliver in complex safety‑ and security‑critical markets.