Software Development Engineer in Test (QA Engineer)

Oliver James Group; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Oliver James Group in Manchester is seeking an experienced Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to own test automation for cloud-based AI products. This hands-on role focuses on building automation frameworks and automating UI and API tests.

You will work with TypeScript, Playwright, Cucumber/Gherkin, and CI/CD, designing scalable tests, maintaining a large regression suite, and debugging flaky tests across UI, API, and data pipelines. Hybrid work pattern: 2 days on site.

Qualifications

• You will have strong commercial experience as an SDET or QA Automation Engineer.
• You should have strong TypeScript or JavaScript development skills.
• You will have hands-on experience with Playwright.
• Experience designing and maintaining automation frameworks, not just writing scripts.
• Experience with UI and API automation.
• Experience with Cucumber, Gherkin or another BDD framework.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs and HTTP.
• Good knowledge of SQL, including joins, aggregations, subqueries and data validation.
• Experience investigating defects and identifying root cause.
• Experience with Git and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience working in a software engineering environment with PRs and code reviews.
• Ability to read and understand unfamiliar languages in application code.
• Strong analytical and debugging skills.
• Excellent attention to detail and a methodical, evidence-led approach.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain robust UI and API automation frameworks using TypeScript and Playwright.
• Build and maintain automated tests using Cucumber/Gherkin and BDD principles.
• Develop scalable automation using Page Object Model or similar frameworks.
• Maintain and expand a large automated regression suite.
• Run automated tests in parallel with reliable test data and isolation.
• Investigate and resolve flaky or unreliable automated tests.
• Identify root causes by investigating defects across the stack.
• Use browser dev tools to diagnose network requests, console errors and DOM behavior.
• Validate REST APIs and payloads; use SQL to reconcile data.
• Read source code to support investigations and CI/CD workflows.
• Collaborate with Git, PRs and CI/CD pipelines within the engineering team.
• Suggest and implement improvements to prevent recurring defects.
• Provide evidence-based findings to developers and stakeholders.
• Maintain QA documentation and knowledge across the team.

Skills

SDET

QA Automation

TypeScript/JavaScript

Playwright

Cucumber/Gherkin

BDD

UI automation

API automation

REST APIs

SQL

Git

CI/CD

Code reviews

Debugging

Analytical thinking

Tools

GitHub Actions

Docker

AWS

MySQL

JSON Schema/AJV

Job description

Location: Manchester, Exchange Quays
Working pattern: Hybrid- 2 days on site

Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to join a growing technology team and take ownership of test automation across a suite of cloud-based AI products.

This is a hands-on engineering role rather than a traditional manual QA position. You will design, build and evolve automation frameworks while working closely with software engineers, Product and BA teams to improve the quality and reliability of our products.

Our technology combines modern web applications, APIs, databases, data pipelines, analytics dashboards and machine-learning technology. You will have the opportunity to investigate issues across the full technology stack, from the user interface through to the underlying data and application code.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain robust UI and API automation frameworks using TypeScript and Playwright.
• Build and maintain automated tests using Cucumber/Gherkin and BDD principles.
• Develop scalable and maintainable automation using Page Object Model or similar frameworks.
• Maintain and expand a large automated regression suite.
• Run automated tests in parallel while maintaining reliable test data, isolation and execution.
• Investigate and resolve flaky or unreliable automated tests.
• Investigate defects across the full technology stack and identify the true root cause.
• Use browser developer tools to investigate network requests, console errors, DOM behaviour, cookies and client/server interactions.
• Validate REST APIs and request/response payloads.
• Use SQL to investigate data issues and reconcile UI and API results against underlying database data.
• Investigate data pipelines, ETL processes and dashboard calculations where required.
• Read and understand application source code to support technical investigations.
• Work with Git, pull requests, code reviews and CI/CD pipelines as part of the wider engineering team.
• Identify opportunities to improve automation and prevent recurring defects.
• Provide clear, evidence-based technical findings to developers and stakeholders.
• Contribute to maintaining technical documentation and QA knowledge across the team.

About You

You will be an engineering-focused QA professional with strong commercial experience in SDET or QA Automation roles.

You should be comfortable going beyond simply reproducing a defect. You will be expected to investigate problems independently, gather technical evidence and determine whether an issue sits within the frontend, backend, API, database, data pipeline, automation or environment.

You will have:

• Strong commercial experience as an SDET, QA Automation Engineer or similar.
• Strong TypeScript or JavaScript development skills.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Playwright.
• Experience designing and maintaining automation frameworks rather than simply writing individual test scripts.
• Experience with UI and API automation.
• Experience with Cucumber, Gherkin or another BDD framework.
• Strong understanding of REST APIs and HTTP.
• Good knowledge of SQL, including joins, aggregations, subqueries and data validation.
• Experience investigating defects and identifying root cause.
• Experience working with Git and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience working within a software engineering environment involving pull requests and code reviews.
• The ability to read and understand application source code, including unfamiliar languages.
• Strong analytical and debugging skills.
• Excellent attention to detail and a methodical, evidence‑led approach.

Technical Environment

The core technologies include:

• TypeScript / JavaScript
• Playwright
• Cucumber / Gherkin
• REST APIs
• SQL
• Git
• CI/CD
• GitHub Actions
• MySQL
• AWS

Experience with the following would also be beneficial:

• Node.js
• React / Redux
• Docker / Docker Compose
• AWS RDS
• Advanced Cucumber.js
• JSON Schema / AJV
• ETL and data-pipeline testing
• Analytics and dashboard testing
• Python or R
• Performance testing and investigation
• Figma
• Canvas-based visualisation libraries such as Chart.js, D3 or amCharts

Prior experience with ColdFusion is not required, although you should be comfortable reading application code in an unfamiliar language when investigating defects.

The Company

We develop cloud-based technology that helps organisations improve how they engage with the communities they serve.

Our products combine data science, behavioural insights, digital technology and artificial intelligence to support organisations across sectors including social housing, local authorities and healthcare.

The technology platform is highly configurable and operates at significant scale, supporting hundreds of thousands of customer interactions every week.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing technology team where you will have genuine ownership of automation, work closely with developers and play a key role in improving the quality of AI-driven products.