Senior Software Test Engineer

Portal Biotech Limited; London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Portal Biotech is seeking a Senior Software Test Engineer to verify backend services and the UI used by platform scientists to launch analyses, follow runs, and review reports. You will also support testing across the full software product.

The role is full-time, permanent, based in London with a hybrid arrangement (3–4 days per week at Scale Space, White City).

Qualifications

• 6+ years in full product development lifecycle.
• Significant experience testing APIs and user interfaces in a commercial software environment.
• Experience with modern testing frameworks (integration & end-to-end).
• Ability to own outcomes and push work to finish in a fast-moving setting.
• Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and domain experts.

Responsibilities

• Test services and UI that launch and manage data analyses for internal and external users.
• Provide testing expertise across the product, coordinating with instrument and bioinformatics teams.
• Ensure testability is built into system components.
• Review product requirements, software design, and test cases.

Skills

Testing APIs & UI

Manual & automated testing

Ownership & accountability

Cross-functional collaboration

Fast-moving environment

Tools

pytest

Cucumber

Playwright

Job description

About Portal Biotech

Portal Biotech has built the world's only platform capable of sequencing full-length proteins at the single-molecule level. Using our nanopore technology, we read intact proteins of any size, capturing both sequence and post-translational modifications in a way no other system can. This opens up entirely new ways to understand protein biology, with applications across drug discovery, diagnostics, and biosecurity.

Our technology works, and customers are engaging with it. We're now focused on scaling, turning breakthrough science into products that deliver real biological insight as we move beyond Series A towards global product launch.

About the Role

We are seeking a Senior Software Test Engineer to join our Analysis Platform team. You'll verify the backend services and user interface that platform scientists use to launch analyses, follow runs and interact with reports from our analysis pipeline. You will also support testing across our entire software product.

What you'll work on

• Test the services and user interface that launch and manage data analysis workflows, serving both internal teams and external users
• Provide software testing expertise across the product, working with the instrument team to test the instrument software and the bioinformatics team to test the analysis workflows
• Help ensure that testability is designed into our system components
• Review product requirements, software design, and test cases

Full-time, permanent role.

London hybrid at Scale Space, White City, 3-4 days/week.

Requirements

• 6+ years' experience, with exposure to the full product development lifecycle
• Significant experience of manual and automated testing of APIs and user interfaces in a commercial software environment
• Experience with modern testing frameworks, including integration and end-to-end testing (e.g. pytest, Cucumber, Playwright)
• Comfortable owning outcomes, making decisions, and pushing work over the finish line in a fast-moving environment
• Ability to collaborate effectively as part of a cross-functional team, with domain experts and product leads

Desirable

• Experience developing an automated test suite from scratch
• Broad experience of the full software testing domain, with exposure to usability testing, security testing and performance testing
• Familiarity with Azure infrastructure components and terminology
• Experience using AI to augment productivity while maintaining rigour as part of an SDLC process
• Experience of software verification within a Quality Management System
• Scientific, bioinformatics or lab-software experience

Portal is an equal opportunities employer. We are enriched by our diversity and are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive and equitable environment for all. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and life experiences.