Principal QA Engineer

VanRath; Belfast; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology recruitment agency is seeking a Principal QA Engineer in Belfast. This role involves defining the quality strategy for complex data-driven platforms and leading best practices in an Agile environment. The ideal candidate will have over 7 years of QA engineering experience, strong proficiency in Python, and a passion for quality automation. Competitive salary and pension contribution are offered, along with a collaborative work culture.

Benefits

Competitive salary & benefits

6% company pension contribution

Private Medical Insurance

Supportive and innovative culture

Qualifications

• 7+ years of QA engineering experience including at least 2 in principal capacity.
• Proven experience building and maintaining automation frameworks.
• Solid understanding of cloud environments preferably AWS.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive quality strategy across complex services.
• Own automation frameworks and lead QA methodologies.
• Support production teams in triaging and debugging live issues.

Skills

QA engineering experience

Automation frameworks

Strong proficiency in Python

Understanding of cloud environments

Passion for quality

Tools

Playwright

Cypress

Selenium

JUnit

NUnit

Git

JIRA

Job description

VANRATH is partnering with a leading technology organisation to recruit a Principal QA Engineer. This role sits within a high-impact engineering function responsible for building next-generation data-driven platforms and back-office systems. The Principal QA will operate as a technical leader within an Agile, cross-functional team, ensuring that engineering solutions deliver maximum value, reliability, and performance.

The successful candidate will define and drive the overall quality strategy across complex back-end services, APIs, and data pipelines. You will own automation frameworks, champion best practices, and lead continual improvement of QA methodologies. Working closely with software engineers, data engineers, and product stakeholders, you will shape robust testing approaches, support architectural discussions, and guarantee the delivery of high-quality, production-ready systems.

Experience & Competencies

• 7+ years of QA engineering experience, including at least 2 years in a senior, lead, or principal capacity.
• Proven experience building and maintaining automation frameworks for complex distributed systems.
• Strong proficiency in Python for test automation; exposure to C# or TypeScript is beneficial.
• Demonstrated experience shaping test strategies across both software and data platforms.
• Solid understanding of cloud environments (preferably AWS) and cloud-based testing approaches..
• Passion for quality, automation, and continuous improvement across the engineering lifecycle.

Technical Skills

• Strong background in automation and manual testing, particularly unit, integration, and end-to-end testing.
• Hands‑on experience with automation frameworks and tools such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, JUnit, NUnit, or similar.
• Experience in data testing and working closely with data engineering teams.
• Familiarity with Git, CI/CD practices, and backlog management tools (e.g., JIRA).
• Ability to produce clear, concise test cases, documentation, and defect reports.
• Ability to support production teams through effective investigation, triage, and debugging of live issues.

What's on offer

• Competitive salary & benefits
• Work with cutting‑edge technology in a global environment
• Opportunity to influence architecture & engineering standards
• 6% company pension contribution (4% from you)
• Private Medical Insurance
• Supportive, innovative, and collaborative culture
• And Many more