Quality Assurance Analyst

UKRI; Swindon; Hybrid; GBP 46,000; Full time

Job summary

UKRI is seeking a Quality Assurance Analyst to influence quality at all stages of enterprise-level software projects. The role involves driving continuous improvement through requirements analysis, design, testing, and release processes, with a strong focus on effective collaboration and communication.

Benefits

30 days annual leave

10.5 public and privilege days

Flexible working hours

Defined benefit pension scheme

Qualifications

• Educated to Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience.
• Strong knowledge of robot framework, Selenium, and other test frameworks.
• Experience working in an Agile environment.

Responsibilities

• Manage, plan, and perform exploratory and automation activities.
• Ensure quality issues and defects are documented, tracked, and resolved.
• Work closely with developers and scrum team members.

Skills

Strong knowledge of robot framework

Selenium

API testing

Performance testing

Communication skills

Experience in Agile environment

GIT

JIRA

Education

Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience

Job description

Applications must be submitted by;

20-06-2025 Quality Assurance Analyst

As a Quality assurance analyst, 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.

*Please note this advert will close on the 19th June 2025 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here .

Title: Quality Assurance Analyst

Band: UKRI Band EUKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary: £45,272 gross per annum

Reports to: Quality Assurance Lead

Location: Swindon (Hybrid Working)

Contract: Permanent

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Job Purpose:

As a Quality assurance analyst, 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. You will need to have an aptitude to pick up new skills quickly and a desire to provide coaching and mentoring to other testers within the team and other areas of the organisation.

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Services/API, Performance & Accessibility test frameworks with DevOps CI/CD
• Propose solutions to clients, when needed
• Manage, plan and perform exploratory and automation activities throughout the project
• Ensure that quality issues and defects are appropriately identified, documented, tracked, and resolved in a defect tracking system.
• Own and manage the release process to deliver the product effectively.
• Work closely with developers, Junior test engineers and cross functional scrum team members to increase the test coverage and reduce the test bottlenecks.
• Update and maintain regression suites as the products evolve
• Work collaboratively and effectively in a DevOps way of working environment.
• Provide feature demos to the stakeholders

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting

(I) – Assessed at interview

(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential –

• Educated to Degree-level qualification or equivalent experience (S)
• Strong knowledge of robot framework, Selenium and other test frameworks - (BDD, cucumber) (S&I)
• API testing with Rest Assured or Postman (S&I)
• Performance testing with JMeter or equivalent (S&I)
• Great communication skills - you will be speaking with and presenting to your team members and the clients (I)
• Experience working in an Agile environment (S&I)
• Passionate about IT and new technologies (I)
• Work withGIT (commands, branching, merging)for version control. (S&I)
• Manage test execution using tools such asJIRA (S&I)

Desirable –

• ITIL Foundation desirable (S)
• ISTQB Test Foundation desirable (S)
• Certified Agile Tester Certification desirable (S)
• Experience of delivering digital projects is a benefit (S&I)
• Python or JavaScript (medium knowledge of reading and scripting) (S&I)

• Working knowledge ofAWSnice to have (I)
• Experience with security testing (I)

• Medium knowledge of reading and scripting of SQL (S&I)

• Bash scripting (I)
• SQL knowledge (I)

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

Swindon-based: There may be the occasional requirement for national travel.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role. UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.

Applications must be submitted by;

20-06-2025