London, Southport
The Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) profession enable the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. They do this by designing, building, and running the services that help people apply for visas or passports, support policing and counter-terrorism operations, and protect the UK’s borders.
Team members have specialized knowledge and a calling to build on it. We want the best people to come to the Home Office and work in the diverse roles and communities they’re passionate about. This is how we produce exceptional outcomes.
The Home Office has created a government-leading bespoke career framework that enables career planning, while ensuring our people can be the best they can be. The framework includes Heads of Role, who are industry specialists. They build communities, set standards for what ‘good’ looks like, and ensure we have the right people in the right jobs at the right time.
We also have a profession management unit, which aims to provide the best professional experience to all our technical staff with a real passion for – and focus on – continuous professional development. We invest heavily in our people as part of growing our collective capability.
You can keep up to date with our work on the Home Office DDaT blog
Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) is an important part of the Home Office mission. Everyone is responsible for quality and we have a team of skilled people who make sure quality is delivered in the most effective way. This means getting fast feedback, understanding how a service performs, and helping the development team to make more informed decisions. We value automating as much of the test effort as possible allowing our team of specialists and domain experts to undertake better evaluations.
You can see more here Quality, Assurance and Testing - Home Office Careers
Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT)
As a Senior Test Engineer, you will drive the test engineering approach within your product area. You will determine and implement approaches to assure, measure and build quality into every phase of the software development life cycle. You will define and implement product level test engineering strategies while ensuring that these are aligned to portfolio level Test Engineering approaches and follow QAT Test Engineering principles.
You will be responsible for solving engineering challenges of QAT approaches adopted in projects that you work with. This involves developing or enhancing frameworks that help deliver scalable tests which are faster, frequent, and continuous. You will be expected to build relationships with Software engineering, DevOps, Product and Project delivery partners.
You will provide support and guidance to a team of engineers, further developing your own delivery management and leadership skills.
To help the QAT practice thrive, you will also keep up to date with emerging tools and approaches and work out how these could help the organisation to deliver better success. You will be an active contributor and a mentor within the QAT Test Engineering community. You will also promote the value of QAT within the larger DDaT community.
There is a link to how it feels to work in QAT on our GOV.UK site here: Day in the life of a QAT'er
Responsibilities
Your main day to day responsibilities will be:
Other day to day activities may depend on the delivery approach, business area or requirements of the product team
Essential Skills
You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Test Engineering, with the following skills or some experience in:
The skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office DDaT Profession Skills and Competency Model (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Please see below for the relevant skills required for your role:
Strategy & Architecture:
Development and Implementation:
Desirable Skills
Ideally you will also have the following skills or some experience in:
Our skills align with the cross gov DDaT Capability Framework
Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Qualifications
You may also hold the following desirable qualifications or have equivalent experience:
Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA)
This post is eligible for a DDaT RRA. Successful Candidates with exceptional skills and experience may apply for an RRA up to a maximum of £7,300. This allowance is subject to an initial review within six months of taking up the post and thereafter an annual review in-line with departmental priorities and could be reduced or withdrawn at any time.
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
You’ll also have access to the same benefits available to all civil servants in the Home Office:
You can find more information at Benefits - Home Office Careers.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment
principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance
HORecruitment.GRS@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.
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