Full-time (Permanent) National: £54,470- £61,000 London: £59,900 - £67,090 plus up to £17,770 allowance
Published on 6 August 2025 Deadline 18 August 2025

Location

Our main Defra DDTS hubs are in York, Warrington, Newcastle, Reading and Bristol, however the successful candidate may be contractually based at any Defra office.

Please be aware that space within the London office is restricted and it may not be possible to be based in this location.

About the job

Job summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Digital, Data Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.

We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

Find out more about DDTS:

Digital and Delivery within Digital, Data Technology and Security (DDTS) are looking for Lead Test Engineers.

Take on the role of Lead Test Engineer and be a part of the team who deliver transformative change across the Defra group.

In Defra, you will have the opportunity to influence delivery at a strategic level on some of the most exciting IT transformations cross-government as a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET). We can offer you a position in our established test function with a supportive team, learning and career pathways and the opportunity to develop your skills. We are recruiting for two Lead Test Engineers.

In this role you will be working on several digital services in a challenging environment which continues to evolve as an exemplar in the Quality Assurance and Test (QA&T) profession.

Working in a supportive, diverse and user-focused culture our flexible working arrangements mean you can maintain a healthy work-life balance. You will play an important part in building a digital future for Defra and our customers.

Person specification

Responsibilities

• Working in a multidisciplinary agile team on a wide range of digital projects, you will use Government Digital Service Standards (GDS) and software testing tools.
• You will ensure the right level of quality is built into services throughout the lifecycle of a delivery by engineering automated and functional and non-functional tests.
• As a Lead Test Engineer, you will provide professional software test engineering leadership and influence the automated testing approach.
• You will contribute to the team community, coaching and mentoring team members, promoting knowledge transfer and a culture of continuous improvement.
• You will assess, and own escalated risks raised by other QA&T engineers at the programme and project level.
• Challenge timelines where appropriate and ensure quality of services is in line with standards.
• Driving improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of test processes.
• Helping recruit testers including sifting and interviewing.

Skills and Experience

• A strong dedication to developing self and others. Excellent self-organisational and time management skills enabling you to manage multiple projects often under high pressure and to short/urgent timescales.
• Experience of validating acceptance criteria and using Behavioural Driven Development or similar approaches in practice.
• Experience in testing APIs using Postman, Axios, RestAssured or similar.
• An excellent working knowledge of non-functional testing, using open-source tools.
• You can advise on and implement up-to-date non-functional testing techniques, peer review code and coach others.
• Experience of writing test strategies for business-critical services and providing guidance on risk approaches.
• Experience of testing within a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline using Jenkins or Azure DevOps on cloud platforms.
• Experience using source control tools such as GitHub and GitLab.
• Experience using exploratory test techniques to focus testing on the areas of greatest risk.

Selection process

The Civil Service marks each element of the selection process on a merit basis. You can visit the gov.uk website for further information on the Civil Service rating scale.

Ensure you have tailored your CV and Personal Statement to the 'responsibilities' and 'skills and experience' section of the job advert by providing examples on how you are suitable for the role. We would recommend using the STAR method .

For further information on STAR, you can check out our hints and tips document.

Application

As part of the application process, you will be assessed on yourExperience and will be asked to complete:

• A CV
• A 250 word personal statement - "Referring to the 'responsibilities' and 'skills and experience' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples."
• Provide automated functional tests for a shopping cart example web site such ashttps://www.saucedemo.com/ . Your code should be published in Github and a link to the repository included in your application. It should cover 2-3 basic tests. At interview you will be asked further questions about the solution you have provided. Please include the link as part of your personal statement.

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Sift

Sift will begin shortly after the advert closes.

Should there be a large number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted using your personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview.

Interview

If successful at sift stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed onTechnical Skills and the Behaviours listed below.

A presentation or additional exercise may also be assessed.

The technical skills are aligned with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability framework for theLead Test Engineer profession. To find out more about them, please visit the website.

Interview dates are to be confirmed. Please note that these may be subject to change.

Interviews will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams.

Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Developing Self and Others
• Leadership

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process: