About the role - Overview
Astuco is recruiting Test Engineers to prove out a Federated Mission Networking (FMN) Spiral 6 data-centric interoperability pilot on a major UK Defence programme. Two positions are available.
This is the assurance seat. You'll design the tests, run them, and produce the evidence that takes the solution through acceptance - reaching across infrastructure, security, identity and information-exchange components, from first test design through to Authority-witnessed demonstration, inside secure and regulated Defence environments.
Responsibilities
- Write, maintain and run the test scripts that underpin verification, validation and acceptance.
- Help shape and then deliver the Validation and Verification (V&V) plan.
- Build out scenarios covering functional and non-functional behaviour, integration, interoperability and regression.
- Test across the stack - infrastructure, security, identity, policy enforcement and interoperability.
- Prove interoperability between the platform, partner systems and FMN-aligned services.
- Confirm that coalition information sharing, policy-based controls, auditability and traceability all behave as designed.
- Exercise Federated Identity and Access Management (FIAM), Public Key Infrastructure and trust services.
- Keep the documentation set current: plans, scripts, procedures, evidence packs and reports.
- Raise and track defects through investigation, root cause and closure.
- Help build and validate the test and demonstration environments themselves.
- Work shoulder to shoulder with architects, engineers and security specialists to get the solution integrated and proven.
- Hold the evidence trail needed for assurance, compliance, acceptance and audit.
- Support FMN Spiral 6 compliance checks and Authority-witnessed demonstrations.
- Write up outcomes, lessons identified and recommendations coming out of validation.
- Improve the test process, tooling and methodology as you go.
- Deliver to the programme's timelines, quality bar, configuration management discipline and security rules.
Candidate Requirements - Essential
- Active SC clearance, and willingness to undergo DV.
- A solid test engineering background - planning, script writing, execution and reporting.
- Producing the full documentation set: plans, scripts, procedures, defect and test reports, evidence packs.
- Functional, non-functional, integration and regression testing.
- Backing validation and acceptance inside complex enterprise or infrastructure estates.
- Integration testing and proving services end to end.
- Testing infrastructure, networking, security or identity management solutions.
- Identity and Access Management concepts - authentication, authorisation and role-based access control.
- Public Key Infrastructure, digital certificates and certificate-based trust.
- Testing where security or regulatory constraints apply.
- Sharp analytical and troubleshooting skills, clear communication, and the flexibility to re-prioritise against a moving schedule.
- Delivery inside Agile or structured environments; competent across MS Office.
Candidate Requirements - Desirable
- Interoperability testing in Defence, NATO or coalition settings.
- Knowledge of Federated Mission Networking standards, FMN Spiral 6 above all.
- Validating data-centric interoperability or information-sharing capabilities.
- Federated identity solutions in practice.
- Data-centric security concepts, policy enforcement tooling and metadata-driven handling controls.
- PKI implementations and certificate-based authentication services.
- Virtualised environments - VMware, VDI, multi-tenancy.
- Exposure to military or Defence Digital information systems.
- Test management and collaboration platforms (JIRA, Confluence).
- Formal verification, validation, demonstration and acceptance activity.
- Certification such as ISTQB Foundation or Practitioner, Security+, or VMware VCP.
- Familiarity with Agile (SAFe) and Waterfall delivery.