Test Engineer (SC Cleared or Eligible) - 12 Months - Newcastle (Hybrid) - Inside IR35

We are looking for an experienced Test Engineer to join an Agile, multidisciplinary team delivering high-quality, citizen-facing digital services for a major UK government department. You will drive quality through UI and API automation, functional validation and accessibility testing, working with cloud-native, microservice and event-driven platforms on public services used by millions of people. The contract is 12 months, hybrid, with 2 days per week on-site. Newcastle is preferred, with London, Leeds, Manchester, Blackpool and Sheffield also possible. Active SC clearance, previously held SC clearance, or SC eligibility is required.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build and maintain scalable UI and API automation frameworks using Java, Selenium, REST Assured and Cucumber BDD
• Develop and run automated functional, regression, integration, end-to-end and risk-based tests
• Automate UI testing with Selenium WebDriver and Playwright, and API testing with REST Assured (validation, authentication, schema)
• Carry out accessibility testing (WAVE, AXE DevTools, VoiceOver) against WCAG standards
• Test AWS (S3, Lambda, DocumentDB) and Kafka event-driven systems
• Support CI/CD pipelines for continuous testing, and contribute to performance testing with K6
• Maintain traceability of testing, risks and defects, and report to stakeholders
• Work with developers, business analysts and product owners in an Agile team

What You Will Ideally Bring:

• Active SC clearance, previously held SC, or SC eligible
• Strong Java test automation with Selenium WebDriver, REST Assured, Playwright and Cucumber BDD
• Building automation frameworks from scratch, with UI and API automation best practices
• REST API testing: JSON/XML validation, Postman, Insomnia, Swagger
• Accessibility testing (WAVE, AXE, VoiceOver) and WCAG compliance
• CI/CD, Git/GitLab and Maven
• Agile (Scrum) and defect management in Jira
• AWS and Kafka exposure, and performance testing with K6

Contract Details:

• Duration: 6 months
• Rate: £350 day - Inside IR35
• Location: Newcastle (Hybrid)
• Start Date: ASAP