Principal Test Engineer (Contract)
Posted 1 day ago by djr
£550 Per day
Outside
Hybrid
Manchester, UK
Summary: The Principal Test Engineer role involves leading a QA transformation project for a critical system undergoing cloud migration. This hands-on position requires a consultative background to drive change and improve testing practices across teams. The engineer will work closely with leadership to implement automation frameworks and enhance release stability. The role is based in Manchester or Leeds, requiring one day a week on-site, with the remainder being remote.
Key Responsibilities:
- Leading the rollout of a modern test automation strategy across multiple teams
- Coaching and influencing engineers and QA teams to embed shift-left practices
- Defining test strategy and improving release pipelines
- Reducing manual test bottlenecks and improving lead time
- Supporting the migration of a critical platform from on-prem to Azure
Key Skills:
- A strong consultative background - you've driven QA change across large or complex organisations
- Deep experience with automation tooling (Playwright, Cypress, K6, Selenium, etc.)
- Strong grasp of load testing, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps cultures
- Confident communicator able to influence stakeholders and mentor teams
- A hands-on mindset, combined with strategic thinking
Salary (Rate): £550/day
City: Manchester
Country: UK
Working Arrangements: hybrid
IR35 Status: outside IR35
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: IT
Principal Test Engineer - £550/day - Manchester or Leeds (1x/week)
6-month contract | Outside IR35
A leading tech-driven business is seeking a Principal Test Engineer to lead a QA transformation project on a business-critical system undergoing a large-scale cloud migration. This is a hands-on role with strategic influence, ideal for someone with a consultative background who's comfortable challenging existing approaches and driving change across teams.
You'll be working closely with engineering leadership to reduce manual testing, implement scalable automation frameworks, and improve release stability through performance and load testing. This is not just about writing tests, it's about transforming how testing is done.
What you'll be doing:
- Leading the rollout of a modern test automation strategy across multiple teams
- Coaching and influencing engineers and QA teams to embed shift-left practices
- Defining test strategy and improving release pipelines
- Reducing manual test bottlenecks and improving lead time
- Supporting the migration of a critical platform from on-prem to Azure
- A strong consultative background - you've driven QA change across large or complex organisations
- Deep experience with automation tooling (Playwright, Cypress, K6, Selenium, etc.)
- Strong grasp of load testing, CI/CD pipelines, and DevOps cultures
- Confident communicator able to influence stakeholders and mentor teams
- A hands-on mindset, combined with strategic thinking