Senior QA Engineer

Aker Systems; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Aker Systems seeks a Senior QA Engineer to enhance software quality in agile environments. The role involves designing and executing testing practices, focusing on data-centric systems, along with developing automated test suites. Candidates should possess a strong background in data testing with a collaborative spirit.

Benefits

25 days holiday

Company Paid Medical Insurance

Pension scheme

Cycle Scheme

Season Ticket Loan

Qualifications

• Solid experience in testing data-centric environments including ETL pipelines.
• Strong backend testing experience on Linux-based systems.
• Understanding of BDD/TDD methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Review requirements to create test plans and cases.
• Conduct manual and automated testing of backend systems.
• Investigate defects and work with developers to resolve issues.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication

Troubleshooting

Tools

Jira

Selenium

Cucumber

Docker

Kafka

GitLab

Jenkins

Job description

Aker Systems was founded in 2017 by a team of experienced technology professionals who recognised an opportunity to provide highly secure enterprise data platforms to large organisations. We build and operate ground-breaking, ultra-secure, high performance, cloud-based data infrastructure for the enterprise. Our proprietary technology solutions drive performance and reduce costs while helping our clients to improve the management and sharing of data across their organisations.

In 2024, Aker Systems won the Breakthrough Culture Awards highlighting growth companies putting culture first. In 2020 Aker Systems was recognised as a 'One to Watch' on the Sunday Times Tech Track. The Company was also recognised at the Thames Valley Tech Awards 2020; winning the Thames Valley Tech Company of the year, the Emerging Tech Company and High Growth Tech Business categories. We encourage people of all different backgrounds and identities to apply. We are committed to maintaining an inclusive, and supportive place for you to do your very best work.

A UK Government Security Check (SC) clearance is required for this role. If you don't hold SC clearance, we will support you to apply assuming you have lived and worked in the UK for a minimum of 5 years. Due to the nature of the project it is also required you hold a British Citizenship or Dual Citizenship.

We're looking for a Senior QA Engineer to play a key role in delivering high-quality software in fast-paced, agile environments. As part of our technical team, you will work closely with developers, product owners, and business stakeholders to design, execute, and enhance both manual and automated testing practices across data-centric systems and applications.
Key Responsibilities:

• Review requirements and technical designs to create effective and comprehensive test plans and cases.
• Define and execute testing activities using BDD/TDD approaches to validate functional and non-functional requirements.
• Conduct manual and automated testing of backend systems, APIs, and data pipelines.
• Design and execute performance and regression tests.
• Work collaboratively within cross-functional Agile teams to ensure quality is embedded throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Investigate and triage defects, work with developers to isolate issues, and verify fixes.
• Generate clear and detailed test reports and documentation, including risks and mitigation strategies.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of QA practices and frameworks.

Skills & Experience Required:

• Solid experience in testing within data-centric environments, including ETL pipelines, data migration, and streaming platforms.
• Strong backend testing experience, particularly on Linux-based systems.
• Understanding of Kafka and Docker from a QA perspective.
• Hands-on experience with tools such as Jira, Maven, Selenium, SoapUI, Cucumber, and any of Python, Shell, Java, MySQL, or Perl for test scripting.
• Familiarity with BDD and TDD methodologies, including writing feature files and acceptance criteria.
• Experience creating automated regression test suites and integrating them into CI tools such as GitLab, Jenkins, or Drone.
• Ability to create test strategies and execute tests across cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Excellent analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to trace test failures to system-level issues.
• Strong communication skills for collaboration with developers, analysts, and stakeholders.

Nice to Have:

• Experience with LoadRunner or similar tools for performance testing.
• Exposure to testing strategies in government or secure cloud environments.
• Participation in release test planning and coordination with client test leads or managers.

Aker Systems Attributes

At Aker we work as a team, we are collaborative, hardworking, open, and delivery obsessed. There is no blame culture here: try things, and take responsibility for the outcomes. You are always part of the wider Aker. We help out our colleagues and take pride in successfully achieving difficult tasks. We run towards problems and help solve them. Communicate always, do so accurately and in a timely fashion.

In return, we offer a competitive salary, 25 days holiday (excluding bank holidays), Company Paid Medical Insurance, Life Assurance (4x times basic salary), Pension scheme, Perks at Work, Cycle Scheme, Tech Scheme and Season Ticket Loan. Plus, a list of voluntary benefits including Dental Insurance, Critical illness cover and Virtual GP.

Equal Opportunities

Aker Systems fosters a diverse environment that encourages openness in its communications and is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status or other personal characteristics. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity because they help challenge us and find new groundbreaking technical solutions.