Lead Automation Tester

Location: Newport (1-2 days per week onsite)

Salary: Up to £70,000 + great benefits

We're supporting a large organisation on an exciting digital transformation journey and are looking for an experienced Lead Automation Tester to play a key role in delivering high-quality digital services and platforms.

This is a fantastic opportunity to work with modern cloud technologies, contribute to innovative projects involving AI and machine learning, and help shape the future of test automation within a highly collaborative engineering environment.

You'll lead automation testing activities across multiple agile delivery teams, drive quality engineering best practices, mentor Test Engineers, and contribute to technical strategy while remaining hands-on with automation tools and frameworks.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead automation testing activities across multiple digital products and services.
• Design, build and maintain automated test frameworks from scratch.
• Develop automated testing solutions to support continuous integration and deployment pipelines.
• Execute functional and non-functional testing against defined acceptance criteria.
• Champion quality engineering and shift-left testing practices across delivery teams.
• Lead, mentor and develop Test Engineers, providing coaching and line management.
• Collaborate with Developers, Product teams, Architects and business stakeholders.
• Support the investigation, diagnosis and resolution of system issues and defects.
• Contribute to engineering standards, test strategy and technical decision-making.
• Promote continuous improvement, knowledge sharing and best practice across the wider technology function.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience leading automation testing activities within complex technology environments.
• Experience managing, mentoring or leading teams of Test Engineers.
• Strong background building automation frameworks and test solutions from scratch.
• Experience working in cloud-based environments, particularly Azure.
• Strong API automation testing experience using technologies such as C#, Selenium, SpecFlow, BDD, MSTest and RestSharp.
• Experience testing RESTful APIs and web services.
• Strong understanding of modern software delivery practices including Agile and Scrum.
• Experience using Git and source control/version management tools.
• Knowledge of SQL and database testing principles.
• Strong understanding of DevOps practices and CI/CD environments.
• Experience working within microservices and service-oriented architecture environments.

Desirable Experience

• Experience working on large-scale digital transformation programmes.
• Exposure to AI or machine learning solutions.
• Experience contributing to engineering strategy and quality standards.
• Experience within large-scale enterprise environments.

Why Apply?

This is an excellent opportunity to join a forward-thinking technology team working on modern cloud-based platforms and digital services. You'll have the chance to influence testing strategy, lead automation initiatives, develop engineering talent and work with cutting-edge technologies while benefiting from strong career development and flexible hybrid working.