HM Revenue & Customs
Senior Test Engineer
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About The Job
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it's really like to work at HMRC.
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HMRC is made up of Customer Groups which are working independently towards one common goal. Our role sits within HMRC's Chief Digital & Information Office (CDIO) Group that deliver in-house solutions for a broad range of technical and operational issues. Our digital delivery centres are hi-tech, state-of-the-art facilities that allow our teams to maximise their capabilities.
CDIO values and empowers the growth of its people and offers the "CDIO University". This is a one stop shop for all things learning and development. The comprehensive offer encompassing academic, personal and career related opportunity and learning, ensuring all receive a consistent approach to technical learning. This includes access to subject matter experts, technical learning, professional communities, academies, apprenticeships, talent schemes as well as providing, delivering, encouraging and supporting activities for personal growth and wellbeing.
Job Description
As a member of the Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) Profession, you will be part of a large community of testing professionals working collaboratively with Product Owners, Developers, Architects, Business Analysts and Operations teams to deliver high-quality, resilient and scalable digital services for HMRC customers.
We have an inclusive environment and have clear pathways in place to support and build on the roles within the Profession through the use of learning journeys, learning platforms, career journeys and skills assessments. These all work together to allow you to take ownership of your own development and career progression with HMRC as well as supporting you in your daily challenges. Along with this we also have an Academy in place to allow you to find everything to support your needs in an easily accessible format.
As a Senior Test Engineer within CDIO, Borders & Trade, You will be responsible for building and enhancing Performance and Non-Functional Testing capability across cloud-based applications, platforms and infrastructure. You will primarily lead the delivery of Performance and Volume Testing (PVT), whilst contributing to Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT), Infrastructure Assurance, Resilience and Operational Readiness activities, ensuring solutions are reliable, scalable and fit for live service operation.
Responsibilities
A Senior Test engineer has similar responsibilities to a test engineer but at a more complex level and on a greater scale. At this role level, you will:
- Lead the planning, design, execution and reporting of Performance & Volume Testing (PVT), including workload modelling, capacity planning and performance analysis, whilst supporting OAT, infrastructure, resilience and operational readiness testing activities where required.
- Define non-functional requirements, workload models, acceptance criteria, test strategies and environment validation approaches to identify and mitigate risks early in the delivery lifecycle.
- Analyse test results, infrastructure behaviour and operational metrics to identify bottlenecks, defects, root causes and service risks, providing evidence-based recommendations for improvement.
- Develop and maintain automated performance testing and validation solutions using tools, scripting languages and CI/CD pipelines to support shift-left quality engineering practices.
- Provide technical leadership, mentoring and knowledge sharing across the QAT Profession, supporting continuous improvement of PVT, OAT and infrastructure testing capability within Borders & Trade.
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Person specification
As a Senior Test Engineer within CDIO Borders and Trade, you will primarily lead and deliver Performance and Volume Testing activities across applications, platforms and cloud infrastructure, whilst providing support and assurance for Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT), Infrastructure and Operational Readiness activities.
- Develop and maintain Performance and Volume Test artefacts, including strategies, workload models, plans, scenarios, test data requirements, evidence packs and reports, whilst supporting OAT and Infrastructure testing artefacts where required.
- Review requirements, architecture designs, infrastructure specifications and operational designs to define appropriate non-functional test coverage and acceptance criteria.
- Provide estimates, plans, risk assessments and technical advice for projects requiring PVT, OAT, infrastructure assurance or platform validation services.
- Deliver and support performance, volume, resilience, failover, disaster recovery, infrastructure and operational readiness testing across complex enterprise environments.
- Investigate defects, incidents and live-service issues through root cause analysis, working with engineering, operations and supplier teams to support resolution.
- Promote automation, quality engineering, knowledge sharing and mentoring to grow the Non-Functional Testing capability.
Essential Criteria
The successful candidate will need to demonstrate practical knowledge and experience in the following:
- Proven experience leading and delivering Performance and Volume Testing across complex enterprise environments, with awareness and practical exposure to Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT), Infrastructure, Resilience, Availability and Disaster Recovery testing.
- Experience defining non-functional test strategies, scope, objectives, workload models, acceptance criteria, test plans and test data requirements, ensuring solutions meet performance, scalability, resilience, availability and operational support requirements.
- Experience planning, executing, analysing and reporting Performance and Volume Testing activities, including load, stress, endurance, scalability, resilience, failover and recovery testing, with the ability to identify bottlenecks, root causes and service risks.
- Experience developing and implementing automated testing and validation solutions using tools such as JMeter, Jenkins and GitLab, supported by scripting or programming languages such as Python, PowerShell, Bash, Java or C#, and integrated into CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience using and validating observability and monitoring platforms such as AppDynamics, ELK, Grafana, Dynatrace, Prometheus, Kafka or equivalent tools, alongside operating system, infrastructure and database monitoring capabilities.
- Knowledge of Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT), including operational readiness, monitoring, alerting, logging, support procedures, operational runbooks, failover, backup and recovery, and live service support.
- Knowledge of cloud and infrastructure technologies, including AWS/Azure, Linux/RHEL, networking, DNS, load balancing, IAM, security controls, distributed architectures and containerised platforms.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills, with the ability to communicate technical findings and risks effectively, influence delivery decisions, and support Agile, DevOps and continuous improvement practices.
Desirable Criteria
Ideally, the successful candidate will also demonstrate knowledge and experience in the following:
- ISTQB Foundation (or equivalent) and/or relevant Performance Testing, Cloud, Infrastructure, DevOps or Automation certifications.
- Experience testing cloud-native and containerised solutions using technologies such as AWS, Azure and Kubernetes.
- Experience implementing shift-left quality engineering practices, including automated non-functional testing within CI/CD pipelines.
- Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), configuration management and modern DevOps practices.
- Experience supporting resilience, failover, high availability and disaster recovery testing activities across cloud and enterprise platforms.
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Further Location Information
Please ensure that you only apply for a location that you are willing and able to work from, as we will only make one offer of employment. Any additional notes included in a 'Further Location Preferences (optional)' field within the application form, will not be considered. Please be aware that you cannot change your location preference after submitting your application.
Office Closures
If your location preference is for the following site, it's important to note that this is not long-term site for HMRC and we will require you to move to a new building in the future, subject to our location strategy and the applicable employee policies at that time.
For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations (opens in a new window)
This Site Is
Telford Plaza, Telford - moving to Parkside Court, Telford
You will be given more information about what this means at the job offer stage.
Leeds Location
Moves Adjustment Payment will be available for this role, provided the successful applicant is a current HMRC colleague in Bradford and meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the HMRC's Moves Adjustment Payment guidance.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £45,544, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £13,194 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.
- Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues' Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
- Family friendly policies.
- Personal support.
- Coaching and development.
To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it's really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service
Things you need to know
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
How To Apply
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:
- A name-blind CV including your job history and relevant experience. Please provide a brief overview of your responsibilities, contributions, and any key achievements in each role. As a guide, we would expect this section to be around 500 words
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