SDET/Automation Engineer

ZipRecruiter; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative start-up is seeking a skilled Automation Engineer/SDET to enhance their post-trade automation platform. This hybrid role in Cambridge involves designing and implementing automation frameworks, focusing on API and microservices. You'll collaborate across teams to ensure a reliable system, leveraging modern technologies like TypeScript, Playwright, and cloud platforms. Join a dynamic team dedicated to building scalable financial infrastructure and make a real impact in the capital markets sector.

Benefits

Hybrid Work Model

Competitive Compensation

Collaborative Culture

Ownership & Impact

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience as an Automation Engineer or SDET.
• Strong skills in API and service-level automation using TypeScript.
• Familiarity with microservices and distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement system-level automation for APIs and microservices.
• Integrate automated checks into CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaborate with teams to improve testability and quality.

Skills

API Automation

TypeScript

Playwright

Kotlin

Python

Microservices

CI/CD Integration

Performance Testing

Kubernetes

Docker

AWS

Job description

Job Description

ABOUT TOKENOVATE

Tokenovate is a next- post-trade automation platform for derivatives and SFTs. Our unified, data-agnostic solution ensures automated and seamless transaction processing across all asset classes, products and market infrastructures — no matter what you trade or where your assets are held.

By operationalising and embedding industry standards such as the Common Domain Model (CDM) directly into our platform, we harness the power of blockchain, smart contracts and tokenisation to drive automation, interoperability, and efficiency across capital markets.

Founded in 2022, we are a fully funded UK-based start-up in the early commercialisation stage. Our team blends deep technical expertise with a pragmatic approach to enterprise blockchain adoption. We are collaborative, execution-focused, and hands-on—our sleeves are permanently rolled up, and we value ownership, clarity, and teamwork.

We have offices in Cambridge (Cambridge Science Park) and London (City of London). This role is hybrid, based in Cambridge, with 2-3 days per week in the office.

THE ROLE

We are looking for an Automation Engineer / SDET to help shape and embed system-level and service-level automation into our platform. Working within the Platform team, you will focus on verifying our distributed, blockchain-integrated post-trade system through robust automated checks across APIs, microservices, and infrastructure.

This is a hands-on role combining technical automation, performance testing, enablement, and manual verification, helping us deliver a highly reliable and correct system where financial correctness is paramount.

You will collaborate across engineering, quality, and product teams to drive automation into our pipelines, surface actionable quality metrics, and enable others to verify effectively.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Design and implement system-level and service-level automation, focusing on our public API and internal microservices.
• Build and maintain automation frameworks and tests, primarily using TypeScript and Playwright, but also working with Kotlin and Python where needed.
• Integrate automated checks into our CI/CD pipelines and continuously improve quality gates.
• Collaborate with platform, development, and quality teams to improve testability, working closely with Kubernetes, Docker, and AWS.
• Contribute to and help deliver performance testing, both at the platform level and on critical components such as trade automation engine and blockchain integrations.
• Surface quality, performance, and reliability metrics to inform engineering and business decisions.
• Support the preparation and validation of sandbox environments, including data and verification to enable both internal and external users.
• Develop tooling and workflows to help enable Quality Engineers, Developers, and Sales to test more effectively.
• Assist with manual and exploratory verification where required, especially for high-risk and business-critical areas.
• Investigate issues across distributed systems, contributing to root cause analysis and continuous improvement efforts.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

Must-haves

• 3-5 years of experience as an Automation Engineer, SDET, or related role, preferably within complex or highly regulated domains.
• Strong skills in developing and maintaining API and service-level automation, with hands-on experience using TypeScript and frameworks like Playwright (or similar).
• Familiarity with working across multiple and tech stacks — comfortable reading or contributing to tests written in Kotlin and Python.
• Solid understanding of microservices, distributed systems, and associated quality challenges.
• Experience integrating automated checks into CI/CD pipelines, including designing effective quality gates.
• Comfortable working directly with Kubernetes, Docker, and AWS (or any other cloud platform) to deploy and verify distributed systems.
• Experience with performance testing of APIs and services.
• Happy to embrace the roll-your-sleeves up attitude required for a fast moving startup.
• Willingness to work 2-3 days a week in our Cambridge office.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with blockchain client software.
• Understanding of performance and reliability testing for financial applications.
• Prior experience working in regulated financial environments (e.g. compliance testing).

WHY JOIN US?

• Cutting-Edge Work – Build innovative solutions at the intersection of Capital markets and post trade automation
• Hybrid Work Model – Enjoy the flexibility of remote work while collaborating in person at our Cambridge Science Park office (2-3 days per week).
• Ownership & Impact – Your contributions will shape our technology and product roadmap.
• Competitive Compensation – We offer a strong package based on experience and expertise.
• Collaborative Culture – No egos, just a team of experienced and empathetic professionals working together to deliver real impact.

If you’re passionate about building scalable financial infrastructure, and working with an expert team, we’d love to hear from you!

Apply now and let’s build the future of post-trade together!