Junior Automated Test Engineer

As a Junior Automation Test Engineer, you'll play an important role in ensuring the quality, reliability and performance of the systems and products developed across Newcastle Building Society Group. Working within an Agile Scrum team, you'll design, build, test and deploy automated testing solutions that help us deliver high-quality technology efficiently and effectively. You'll focus on increasing test automation coverage wherever possible, creating robust and maintainable automated test suites that support rapid and reliable software delivery.

You'll be involved throughout the full development lifecycle, collaborating closely with Product Owners, developers and fellow testers from the earliest stages of design through to deployment. As a key member of the squad, you'll contribute to Agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, retrospectives, and sprint reviews, helping to shape solutions and ensure quality is considered from the outset.

The role offers the opportunity to work across a wide range of testing activities, including functional, regression, acceptance, performance, load and user interface testing within a TDD/BDD environment. You'll help define and document acceptance criteria, develop comprehensive test cases, accurately estimate work using story points and provide clear feedback on testing outcomes to support continuous improvement.

We're looking for someone with a passion for quality, technology and continuous improvement who is keen to develop their career in automation testing. You should be educated to degree level in a relevant subject, or be able to demonstrate equivalent practical experience, and have a solid understanding of automation testing principles and tools, such as Playwright. Knowledge of Agile delivery methodologies, including Scrum or Kanban, would be advantageous.

You'll be an organised and proactive individual with excellent time management skills and the ability to balance priorities in a fast-paced environment. Strong communication and interpersonal skills are essential, enabling you to work effectively with colleagues across a range of disciplines and present information in a clear, structured and balanced way. You'll also have the confidence to challenge constructively, influence positive outcomes and contribute to successful project delivery.

A keen eye for detail and a commitment to delivering high-quality solutions are key to success in this role. Experience of both automated and manual testing approaches would be beneficial, alongside hands-on exposure to Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD).

You'll ideally have experience working within a live Agile, multidisciplinary delivery environment, supporting the development and testing of web-based transactional platforms. Experience gained within a commercial technology environment, whether as part of an external service provider or an in-house delivery function, would be valuable. Familiarity with Jira, or similar work management and collaboration tools, will also help you thrive in the role.

Pulled from the full job description

• Annual leave
• Gym membership
• Employee assistance programme
• Company pension
• Paid volunteer time
• On-site gym
• Cycle to work scheme, What do you get in return? As well as receiving a competitive annual salary based on above-market pay scales, our reward package includes:

Financial

• Corporate bonus scheme (on target 5 %, up to a maximum 1 0 %)

• Pension s cheme (up to 9% employer contribution)

• Annual performance related pay reviews

• Colleague mortgage scheme

• Electric car salary sacrifice scheme

• Life assurance (4x salary) and income protection

• Access to our financial advisers

• Access to a range of high street and online discounts

Work/Life Balance

• A 35-hour weekly contract - We are happy to talk flexible working and welcome discussions

• 25 days' annual leave + bank holidays (rises to 30 with length of service)

• The option to buy and sell up to 5 days' holiday

• Hybrid working ( t ypically 3 days' home based)

• Above statutory family leave entitlement - 3 months full pay, 3 months half pay, regardless of gender or route to parenthood

Health and Wellbeing

• Access to a health cash plan through a Medicash scheme

• Access to an employee assistance programme

• Free onsite gym at our Cobalt head office and access to discounted gym's

• Two paid volunteering days' each year

• Cycle to work scheme

The Newcastle Building Society Group comprises of Newcastle Building Society, Manchester Building Society, Newcastle Financial Advisers and Newcastle Strategic Solutions. Our purpose, connecting our communities with a better financial future inspires and directs our activities. The Group provides traditional financial services, helping people own their own home, plan and manage their finances and operate a 32-branch network across the North-East, North-West, Cumbria and Yorkshire. Our Strategic Solutions subsidiary owns the UK's leading savings management platform and provides managed technology services to new challenger banks and other established providers. As an inclusive employer and member owned mutual, we aim to reflect the diverse communities we serve and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. We believe everyone should feel valued, respected, and celebrated for who they are, we want colleagues to feel this is a place they belong. A place to be you.