Senior QA Tester (SC Cleared)

This is a great opportunity for a quality-focused, SC cleared, Senior QA Tester to play a key role in delivering high-quality software and systems for a growing organisation. You’ll start with manual testing and have genuine scope to expand into automation, CI/CD integration, and accessibility testing, helping to shape and mature the wider quality function as it develops. If you’re curious, confident challenging assumptions, and passionate about raising testing standards, this contract role in Leeds offers real influence over how quality is delivered.

Non-negotiables

• MUST have active SC clearance or higher
• Proactive by nature

Test Engineer Responsibilities

• Design, execute, and maintain manual test cases and scripts from requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria
• Conduct functional, regression, integration, exploratory, and accessibility testing
• Log defects clearly, track progress, and retest to confirm resolution
• Contribute to reusable test suites and automation frameworks as capabilities mature
• Support integration of automated tests into CI/CD pipelines
• Promote effective testing practices, encouraging early involvement and proactive risk identification
• Help shape and evolve testing and quality processes across the organisation
• Perform accessibility testing aligned with recognised standards such as WCAG

• Strong experience designing and executing manual test cases
• Ability to analyse requirements, user stories, prototypes, and technical specifications
• Highly experienced in System Testing, SIT, and UAT, including first-occurrence validation, live proving, and validating end-to-end behaviour in real operational scenarios
• Solid understanding of defect management and structured test documentation
• Clear communicator, comfortable with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Strong attention to detail and a methodical, logical approach
• Experience writing or maintaining automated tests using Playwright
• Experience using Postman for API testing
• Understanding of accessibility principles and how to validate them
• ISTQB Foundation (CTFL) essential; ISTQB Agile Tester (CTFL-AT) desirable