Sidero have a fantastic opportunity for a Test / QA Lead to join us on one of our Client projects. As the Test Lead, you will be involved across multiple projects simultaneously for our Client and your activities will lead to each project team being perceived as having delivered a well-tested product.

You will also have responsibility for presenting options to the leadership team for growing the test function and for managing the implementation of this.

A UK Government Security Check (SC) clearance is required for this role. If you don’t hold SC clearance, we will support you to apply assuming you are currently living and working in the UK for the last 5 years.

REQUIREMENTS

For each project you are involved in, you will typically need to do most or all of the following:

• Understand the business case, solution and associated delivery risks
• Identify areas of ambiguity and get them resolved, usually by discussing with business analysts and/or other team members
• Make good test strategy judgement calls
• Give the project clear and realistic options on how to allocate resources for ranges of risk coverage, both at the start of the project and throughout as the project evolves, especially when there isn’t enough time to do everything we would like
• Create, review and communicate test plans consistent with the above
• Write code to implement automated integration and acceptance tests
• Get tests executed with an appropriate level of manual activity/scripting/full automation (including Jenkins/Drone pipeline jobs where relevant)
• Track issues and find ways to remove blockers to get them solved
• Support other members of the project team so they can contribute towards the test goals
• Contribute towards continuous improvement where it is relevant with re-usable frameworks, libraries and process specifications

Note that this is a highly technical role and your time is likely to be split approximately as follows:

• 50% writing, reviewing or testing code either alone or pair programming with developers, other testers or business analysts
• 25% general meetings such as daily scrum meetings, planning meetings, broader team design meetings
• 25% test strategy and management activities, checking Jira tickets are up to date, asking people for updates, writing reports

Technical

• Java – must be sufficient level to write reliable test automation code, for example Cucumber steps
• CI platform e.g. Jenkins, Drone – must be familiar with patterns for running tests and be able to implement new jobs on an existing CI platform
• Linux shell – must be adept at having a look in test systems, inspecting files and poking around to see what’s wrong
• Docker – must be confident in using it both on a local and on a remote environment
• Git – must be familiar with standard patterns such as creating pull requests and using git flow
• Kafka – must be familiar with either Kafka or a similar publish/subscribe technology such as Kinesis
• Avro – must be familiar with either Avro or some other formal schema technology such as Protobuf
• IDE – must be familiar with developing using a modern IDE environment such as IntelliJ
• REST – must be confident at using and testing REST based services
• Cucumber – must be familiar with both feature file creation and step code implementation
• AWS – must be familiar with basic services and able to do tasks like get a file from S3 for inspection
• SQL – must be able to write SQL for efficient data analysis, Athena is used extensively though it’s not necessary to be already familiar specifically with that type of SQL
• Jira – should be familiar with managing tasks and issues in Jira – though the person who can do all the above will find this easy enough to learn if not familiar

Non-Technical

• Must be able to clearly and concisely convey relevant information so that the recipient takes the right actions in response, even if they’re not listening and/or don’t want to take those actions – it’s not enough to be a “good communicator” in terms of speaking eloquently, sometimes you’ll need to do more than that, especially given you’ll sometimes be talking about a significant project risk that people may not want to face
• Must be quick to understand technical and non-technical information – you don’t need to be as good at development as the developers or as good at analysis as the business analysts but if they show some code or a specification you should be able to understand it properly, it’s absolutely fine to ask questions but everyone needs to be clear you’re one of the smart people on the team
• Must stay calm, realistic and continually able to think of practical options without getting stressed when things don’t go to plan
• Must be able to work remotely effectively, especially regarding being able to work out who to ask for help when problems come up

OTHER SKILLS

• Highly motivated, with a proven ability to work on own initiative within a challenging and dynamic work environment
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team with professionals at all levels
• Assist in project planning and task estimation
• Ability to prioritise tasks and work on multiple assignments
• Strong commitment to professional and client service excellence
• Maintain current industry / business knowledge
• Develop and share reusable knowledge that can be readily applied to new client projects

We provide a challenging and exciting work environment with scope for personal development and on-going training. We offer fflexible working options - Learning & Development support - English lessons - Employee Wellness & Wellbeing - Health Insurance - Life Assurance - Pension - and more...