Lead Test Engineer: Scalable QA & Automation Architect

Manchester Digital; Salford; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Home Office Digital is seeking a Lead Test Engineer to define and drive test strategies across large projects. You will lead a team of test engineers, build scalable automation frameworks, and promote data-driven, measurable quality across the SDLC.

You will apply Java-based automated testing, Selenium, RestAssured and Serenity, along with Maven/Gradle, Git and CI/CD to deliver robust, secure software with strong accessibility and performance practices.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading test engineering teams and defining test strategies.
• Strong automation framework design and development skills.
• Deep knowledge of modern testing tools and CI/CD integration.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve test frameworks at scale across programmes.
• Lead and coach a team of test engineers and drive quality improvements.
• Promote tooling for virtualization, data mocking, contract testing, and automated test data management.
• Oversee distributed, parallel tests using containerized/cloud environments.
• Promote code quality, accessibility testing and observability.
• Engage with performance testers to identify bottlenecks and interpret results.

Skills

Java programming

Test automation

Team leadership

CI/CD

Performance testing

Accessibility testing

Code quality

Data-driven testing

Tools

Selenium

RestAssured

Serenity BDD

Maven

Gradle

Git

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Home Office Digital is seeking a Lead Test Engineer to define and drive test strategies across large projects. You will lead a team of test engineers, build scalable automation frameworks, and promote data-driven, measurable quality across the SDLC.

You will apply Java-based automated testing, Selenium, RestAssured and Serenity, along with Maven/Gradle, Git and CI/CD to deliver robust, secure software with strong accessibility and performance practices.