Senior Software Tester

Dlk-Group; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

The Western Cape Department of Health is seeking a Senior / Lead Automation Tester to join the Provincial Health Data Centre (PHDC) engineering team in Cape Town. You will take ownership of deliverables, lead testing efforts, and mentor junior testers to ensure high-quality software across projects.

You will design test strategies, build scalable Playwright-based automation, perform API testing, and coordinate with developers within Agile/Scrum and DevOps delivery cycles.

Qualifications

• 5-7+ years of professional software testing experience, mix of manual and automated testing.
• Tertiary qualifications and/or training in application programming and/or International Software Testing Qualifications (ISTQB).
• Experience with MS SQL Server and data access methods, SQL, and databases (MS SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL), including stored procedures.
• Strong experience in Agile/Scrum and DevOps delivery cycles.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead Test Strategy & Planning: define testing scopes, objectives, and robust test strategies.
• Lead Test Automation: design, build, and maintain scalable automated testing frameworks (Playwright).
• Execution & Defect Tracking: functional, integration, regression, and API testing; log and track defects in Jira/Azure DevOps.
• Lead the Testing effort; mentor team members; introduce effective processes.
• Coordinate work with the software team; ensure data validation and CI/CD support.

Skills

Test leadership

Mentorship

Agile/Scrum

DevOps collaboration

Data validation

Education

ISTQB / International Software Testing Qualifications

Tools

Playwright

Jira

Azure DevOps

MS SQL Server

PostgreSQL

MySQL

Job description

Cape Town, South Africa | Posted on 07/08/2026

The Western Cape Department of Health is looking for a highly skilled Senior / Lead Automation Tester to join a highly motivated engineering team at the Provincial Health Data Centre (PHDC). This role requires an experienced professional who is both technically hands‑on and capable of leading, coordinating, and mentoring junior testers.

The successful person will take full ownership of their deliverables as well as the team’s output, ensuring a high standard of quality across all testing initiatives.

Core Responsibilities

• Lead Test Strategy & Planning: Collaborate with stakeholders to define testing scopes, objectives, and robust test strategies.
  
• Lead Test Automation: Design, build, and maintain scalable automated testing frameworks (using Playwright).
  
• Execution & Defect Tracking: Perform functional, integration, regression, and API testing. Log, track, and reproduce defects using tools like Jira or Azure DevOps.
  
• Required to lead the Testing effort. Skill to
  
• Introduce and adopt processes
  
• Streamline work
  
• Coordinate work with the software team
  
• Environment & Data Validation: Work with databases and CI/CD pipelines to validate backend data integrity and support continuous deployment.
  
• Mentorship: Guide junior testers, review test scripts, and drive continuous quality improvement across the team.
  

Requirements

Requirements & Experience

• Experience: 5 to 7+ years of professional software testing experience, often with a mix of manual and automated testing.
  
• Technical Skills and Certifications: Tertiary qualifications and/or applicable training in application programming courses and/or International Software Testing Qualifications.
  
• Experience with MS SQL Server and data access methods, SQL, and extensive work done on Database Technologies (MS SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL) – including familiarity with Stored Procedures.
  
• Methodologies: Strong experience working within Agile/Scrum and DevOps delivery cycles.
  
• Good written and verbal communication skills
  

The Team

• The current team is made up of experienced software developers, analysts, data scientists and database engineers who operate in an agile environment, implementing continuous automation, integrated unit testing and agile processes.