Fixed Term Contract
SC CLEARED- 58K
NOT SC CLEARED- 48K
Locations: London Speechmark/Newbury/Birmingham Small Heath/Manchester/Glasgow - hybrid, with customer site visits
Clearance: SC-cleared/Non SC Immediate Start
LOCATION, TRAVEL & CLEARANCE:
Candidates must be in proximity to one of the UK office locations of demand: London (Speechmark), Newbury, Birmingham (Small Heath), Manchester or Glasgow.
Working pattern is hybrid, with attendance at the relevant customer hub and occasional customer site visits as required by project scope (including, where applicable, the customer lab in Spain).
Newbury HQ attendance is required to liaise with the wider Test team.
All candidates must either hold current SC clearance
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
Own test design and execution for assigned workstreams across the VBTS estate.
Review requirements, HLDs, LLDs and project documentation to identify test scenarios and coverage gaps.
Produce and peer-review test scripts, test cases and execution evidence to sign-off standard.
Lead defect triage, root-cause analysis and retest coordination across delivery, design, engineering and operations teams.
Validate System Integration, Functional, Non-Functional, Disaster Recovery and Operational Acceptance test coverage before execution windows open.
Provide technical guidance and mentoring to Test Engineers; raise the standard of scripts, evidence and defect records across the workstream.
Maintain ALM discipline: test case structure, requirements traceability, defect life cycle and reporting accuracy.
Execute and lead complex testing across Routers, Switches, Firewalls, hosting, data centre, LAN/WiFi, SD-WAN, UC & Unity, telephony, mobility, MPN & cloud, IoT, fixed connectivity, cloud & security and service transition.
Set up and validate complex test environments, including network test equipment and RFC 2544 performance testing where required.
Support Test Managers with status reporting, risk identification, defect trend analysis and milestone readiness assessments.
Represent testing in technical design discussions, ensuring testability is considered in HLD/LLD reviews.
Interface confidently with stakeholders and customer representatives in test working groups and triage calls.
Escalate risks and blockers within the same working day, with proposed mitigations rather than bare problems.
Drive reuse: contribute and curate test assets, automation candidates and AI-assisted test design patterns supporting the programme's 5%/10%/18% cumulative productivity commitments.
Support onboarding, knowledge transfer and continuity across joiners and leavers with no impact to the Project Test Plan.
Comply with the client's security policy, data handling and audit requirements at all times, on and off site.
Attend the client's hubs and customer sites as required, including Newbury HQ liaison with the wider Test team and where applicable, the customer lab in Spain.
TECHNICAL SCOPE & DOMAIN COVERAGE
Testing services are delivered across the full VBTS UK product and service estate: Hosting; LAN & WiFi; Data Centre; Service Transition; SD-WAN; Telephony; UC & Unity; MPN & Cloud; IoT; Fixed Connectivity; Mobility; Cloud & Security.
Test phases in scope: Unit Testing, System Integration Testing (SIT), Functional Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Disaster Recovery Testing and Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT).
Deep hands-on telecom/network infrastructure testing: Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Cisco console competence.
Strong technical understanding across hosting, data centre, SD-WAN, LAN/WiFi, UC, mobility, cloud & security and service transition.
Ability to interpret complex infrastructure designs and translate them into structured, traceable test scenarios.
Advanced ALM usage: coverage modelling, traceability, defect analytics and management reporting.
Performance and conformance testing: RFC 2544, network test equipment, service management toolsets (eg StableNet).
MANDATORY SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
Minimum 5 years' relevant experience, with demonstrably deeper hands-on telecom/network testing than the Test Engineer band.
Strong QA and test industry knowledge of standards and methodologies.
Proven test design ownership on complex infrastructure or service transition programmes.
Strong defect management, root-cause analysis and test evidence discipline.
Excellent organizational, coordination and stakeholder management skills, comfortable in customer-facing settings.
Proficient Excel and strong Microsoft Office, Teams and SharePoint skills.
DESIRABLE SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
Experience in customer-facing or critical infrastructure environments (CNI/National Grid advantageous).
Test automation experience and AI-assisted test design exposure.
Experience mentoring or technically leading small test teams.
ITIL working experience.
Multi-domain breadth across three or more of the twelve VBTS domains.
CERTIFICATIONS & QUALIFICATIONS
ISTQB Foundation - expected.
ITIL - desirable.
Relevant network/cloud certificateons (eg CCNA/CCNP, cloud provider certs) are desirable.