Test Automation Engineer - Principal & Senior Roles

Hastings Direct; Bexhill-on-Sea; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

£5k car allowance

Flexible hybrid working

Annual performance bonus

Private medical insurance

Life assurance cover

Matched pension contributions

Mental health support programme

27 days annual leave plus bank holidays

Job summary

Hastings Direct is seeking an Automation Lead to enhance our test automation capabilities. You will collaborate with Scrum Teams to ensure a robust Automation Framework and mentor junior staff in automation best practices.

This role offers a competitive salary along with benefits such as a car allowance, flexible hybrid working options, and a comprehensive wellbeing program. Join us in our mission to enhance our technology infrastructure!

Qualifications

• Proficient experience in Testing Automation role.
• Extensive experience in an agile environment.
• Transformational leadership with decision-making influence.
• Good mentoring skills for direct reports.
• Knowledge of agile methodologies like Scrum.
• Experience with Jira or Octane for test case management.
• Excellent knowledge of Gherkin for automation.
• Strong coding skills in Java, JavaScript, Typescript or C#.
• Comfortable with source control using GitHub.
• Skilled in UI automation tools like Selenium or Playwright.
• Experience in API testing with SoapUI or Postman.
• Understanding of CI platforms like AzureDevOps.

Responsibilities

• Provide automation capabilities for Scrum Teams.
• Manage ongoing maintenance of tooling for testing.
• Define and implement test automation best practices.
• Mentor direct reports and junior staff.

Skills

Test Automation

Agile Methodologies

Leadership Skills

Mentoring

Jira or Octane

Gherkin

Java

Cucumber

GitHub

Selenium

API Testing

AzureDevOps or Jenkins

Job description

Job Overview

We’re a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become The Best and Biggest in the UK market. Our CIO team leads innovation, ensuring technology infrastructure supports our goals. We value a culture built on collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Provide automation capabilities that support Scrum Teams to deliver on an Automation-Only approach, reducing the percentage of tests that cannot be automated by designing and implementing extensions or adjustments to the Automation Frameworks.
• Identify new opportunities to enhance or extend our test automation capabilities with new or updated tooling, supporting evaluation, decision‑making, implementation and maintenance of these tools.
• Manage the ongoing maintenance of the tooling to meet growing demand, increase performance and enable Scrum Teams to test early and often on a continuous basis.
• Provide capabilities to support the provision of timely and accurate Test Automation MI for all Scrum Teams, including quality measures where possible to support continuous improvement.
• Define, implement and maintain test automation best practices and drive proactive collaboration and engagement within Scrum Teams and the wider QA community through the Centre of Excellence, regular Brown Bag sessions and other means of engagement.
• Mentor direct reports, junior staff and new joiners to achieve necessary competencies for progression.

Qualifications

• Proficient practical experience in a Testing Automation role.
• Extensive experience working in an agile environment.
• Transformational leadership skills – able to influence decision‑making and implement new tools, processes and procedures in support of the company’s vision.
• Good mentoring skills to support direct reports in their development.
• Knowledge of at least one agile methodology (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, SAFe).
• Familiarity with backlog and test case management in a system of record such as Jira or Octane.
• Excellent knowledge of declarative Gherkin to capture business rules and run as automated tests with Cucumber.
• Strong coding skills to implement automated tests in Java, JavaScript, Typescript or C#.
• Comfortable with source control using GitHub.
• Skilled in user interface automation with Selenium and Selenium Grid, Playwright or Cypress.
• Experience implementing tests against APIs using code or tools such as SoapUI or Postman.
• Good understanding of continuous integration platforms such as AzureDevOps or Jenkins (or equivalent).

Benefits

• Competitive salary and £5k car allowance.
• Flexible hybrid working – discuss details with recruiter.
• Competitive bonus scheme – all colleagues eligible for annual 4Cs performance bonus.
• Physical wellbeing via private medical insurance and Islands’ available for specialist care.
• Financial wellbeing: life assurance cover equivalent to 4x salary, income protection at no extra cost, matched pension contributions up to 10%, discounts, cashback, free independent mortgage advice and financial wellbeing support.
• Mental wellbeing programme: thrive mental health app, colleague assistance programme (24/7), in‑house mental health first aiders, support groups and a dedicated support team.
• 27 days annual leave + bank holidays, with option to buy or sell a week.
• Health care cash back plans, dental plans, discounted health assessments, cycle‑to‑work and tech schemes, discounted and free onsite facilities, social events throughout the year.

Equal Opportunities Statement

Hastings Group is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all suitably skilled persons regardless of gender, age, race, disability, ethnic background, religion, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or marital/family status. We employ a thorough referencing process, which includes credit and criminal record checks. We encourage applicants who require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process to let us know.