Senior Test Engineer

As Senior Test Engineer you will be responsible for :

• Defining and implementing the Test Automation strategy that helps to assure the quality of DWPs digital services.
• Lead Test Engineers across several teams, providing technical leadership and guidance.
• Foster effective cross-functional collaboration to solve problems and deliver consistent solutions and strategies.
• Design and build Test Automation solutions that help to assure the quality of DWP products and services. Identify opportunities to maximise the value of automation.
• Ensure that usability, accessibility, security, stability, and capacity are embedded in the development of services.
• Encourage teams to take a risk based, context driven approach to agile testing.
• Lead the adoptions of Continuous Integration/Delivery pipelines to run a full range of tests against our products and assure our builds.
• Lead on test traceability, defect management and risk mitigation, reporting project progress to stakeholders.
• Challenge assumptions and improve existing processes by reviewing and rethinking strategies and tooling. Identify solutions that drive continuous improvement to ensure we build the right product in the right way.
• Drive the identification of tooling and solutions to aid constant improvements, ensuring we build the right product in the right way.
• Proactively share knowledge, solutions and support our internal communities along with mentoring, coaching, and supporting your peers.
• Contribute to discussions around the latest technology trends, tools and best practices within Testing., Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide. The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge. An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift. If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Coding Test

Candidates who are successful at the sift stage will be sent a coding test to complete remotely. The exercise will focus on the technical elements listed in the essential criteria in this advert.

Full details will be sent to candidates when the exercise is issued. Candidates will have 7 days to complete the test from the date of receipt. Candidates that are not successful in the technical exercise will not progress to the interview stage.

Please add: Digital.EngineeringRecruitment@dwp.gov.uk to your safe senders list or monitor your spam folder to ensure safe receipt of the code test via email.

The code test must be completed by the candidate using their skillset without using any AI or generative tools.

Stage 3: Interview

If you’re successful at the coding test, you’ll be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. During the interview, you’ll be assessed against the experience criteria listed under both the essential and technical skill.

Candidate are expected to execute the code and solve additional coding problems during the interview, which can be given on the spot., * UK nationals

• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Do you have experience in UI?, * Experience of working in a complex, multi-disciplinary environment, delivering products within specific timescales and engaging with multiple Stakeholders; knowledge of microservice architecture and it’s testing.

• Experience in modern programming language in Java.
• Experience in modern programming language preferably Java or JavaScript.
• Experience in building and maintaining API automation testing preferably Rest Assured or similar tools.
• Experience in building and maintaining UI automation testing preferably Selenium / Playwright / Cypress or similar tools.
• Experience using DevOps tool such as GitLab CI, Jenkins or similar tools.
• Experience of conducting and enabling non-functional testing such as Performance (preferably k6, Gatling, JMeter or similar tools), Security, Compatibility and Accessibility.

4. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Technical Breadth. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:

• Proven experience in working on different test automation frameworks across complex digital services., You must meet the security requirements before you can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

You must have resided continuously in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years, 2 of which must have been the immediately preceding years from the point of applying for this job., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

Alongside your salary of £57,946, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £16,786 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £57946 to £78205.

The maximum salary for the grade is £68205 however a Digital Allowance of up to £10000 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

We’re looking for outstanding Senior Test Engineers to design, build and maintain our flagship service, Universal Credit and our Working Age Benefits systems. Universal Credit is one of the highest profile digital transformation programmes in the world, praised for its fast and flexible response to the Covid-19 pandemic and now in use by over 5 million claimants and 30,000 staff. As a Senior Test Engineer you will be part of a multi-functional agile delivery team and be an integral part of shaping and delivering automated test solutions that enable Universal Credit Working Age Benefits to deliver quality services consistently that meet the needs of our agents and claimants. The successful candidate will be expected to lead engineers and collaborate with stakeholders. This role represents a unique opportunity to join the Universal Credit and Working age programme at DWP Digital, to be part of a team delivering real value to people that need help during the difficult times of their lives.