Senior SDET / QAI Engineer
Contract, London - Q1 /Q2 2027 Start, Hybrid, £400, SC Clearance, BPSS - Applicants must have the right to work in the UK and be eligible to obtain Security Check (SC) clearance. Additional nationality restrictions may apply where legally required by the client.
We're looking for an experienced Senior SDET to support the delivery of a major UK Public Sector digital transformation programme. You'll work across frontend, backend APIs and cloud-native services, driving functional and non-functional testing, test automation, performance, security and continuous quality engineering. This is a hands-on engineering role combining Playwright, TypeScript, API automation, AWS/GCP, CI/CD and non-functional testing, while leveraging GitHub Copilot and emerging agentic AI workflows to accelerate delivery and strengthen engineering quality.
What you’ll do
- Design, build and maintain scalable automated test frameworks using Playwright and TypeScript.
- Develop frontend, API, integration and end-to-end automated tests across complex digital services.
- Drive functional and non-functional testing strategies covering performance, security, accessibility and resilience.
- Design and execute performance tests using k6, JMeter or Gatling, including load, stress, spike and soak testing.
- Validate REST APIs, microservices, backend integrations and cloud-native architectures.
- Embed automated functional, performance and security quality gates within Jenkins CI/CD pipelines.
- Perform exploratory, regression, cross-browser and compatibility testing.
- Test and validate applications deployed across AWS and GCP cloud environments.
- Leverage GitHub Copilot, AI agents and AI-assisted tooling to accelerate test generation, code reviews and defect analysis.
- Implement accessibility testing using Axe and security testing aligned with OWASP standards.
- Collaborate with developers, DevOps, architects and product teams to champion shift-left quality engineering.
- Investigate defects, analyse performance bottlenecks and support root cause analysis.
- Support release assurance, continuous improvement and delivery of secure, scalable Public Sector digital services.
What you’ll need
- Strong hands-on experience as a Senior SDET, Automation Engineer or Quality Engineer.
- Advanced Playwright automation skills using TypeScript/JavaScript.
- Strong API testing experience covering REST, JSON, authentication and integration testing.
- Experience testing modern frontend applications, ideally React or Angular.
- Solid programming and software engineering fundamentals.
- Experience designing scalable, maintainable automation frameworks.
- Practical experience with AWS and/or GCP cloud environments.
- Experience integrating automated tests into Jenkins CI/CD pipelines.
- Knowledge of Git, Docker, SQL and automated regression testing.
- Experience with GitHub Copilot or other AI-assisted development tools.
- Strong understanding of Agile delivery, shift-left testing and quality engineering practices.
- Experience working on complex, enterprise-scale digital services.
Nice to have
- Previous experience delivering UK Government or Public Sector programmes.
- Knowledge of GDS Service Standard and accessibility requirements.
- Experience with Java, Spring Boot or Node.js backend services.
- Experience using Postman, REST Assured or Pact for API and contract testing.
- Performance testing experience with k6, JMeter or Gatling.
- Accessibility testing using Axe or Lighthouse.
- Experience with Kubernetes, Terraform or infrastructure as code.
- Familiarity with GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps or GitLab CI.
- Experience with AI agents, MCP, agentic workflows and LLM-assisted test generation.
- Security testing experience with OWASP ZAP and automated security gates.
- Current or previous BPSS/SC security clearance.