Release Engineer in Cheltenham

Our Capability Development team delivers bespoke, high-assurance software for clients in the Cyber Security domain. We engineer resilient systems ranging from rigorously assured products to rapid cyber solutions and blended operational platforms. Common to all is our commitment to technically led decisions, architectural clarity, and delivering software that operates reliably in high-stakes environments.

To support this mission, we are seeking a Release Engineer to own the intersection of quality assurance and release delivery. You will be responsible for designing, automating, and governing the processes that validate and ship code from commit to production, ensuring every release is thoroughly tested, auditable, and operationally resilient. This role sits at the heart of our engineering lifecycle, bridging test strategy, quality gates, and release management to maintain engineering rigour without sacrificing delivery speed. Ideally, you will hold an active Security Clearance to join our team.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines that embed comprehensive automated testing and quality validation directly into the release workflow.
• Develop and execute test strategies for new "clean-slate" products and existing core components, aligning QA milestones with release cadences.
• Build and maintain automated E2E/UI test suites using modern frameworks such as Cypress and Playwright, integrating them into release validation gates.
• Define and enforce release criteria, quality gates, and automated acceptance checks to ensure consistent, risk-managed deployments.
• Manage test environments, test data provisioning, and configuration management to support reliable, repeatable release validation.
• Drive the defect lifecycle from detection through resolution, collaborating with developers to eliminate regressions and improve test coverage.
• Champion shift-left quality practices by participating in design reviews, requirement analysis, and risk-based test planning.
• Produce release documentation, traceability matrices, and compliance artefacts to support auditability and smooth client handovers.
• Monitor post-release stability and customer feedback, feeding insights back into continuous improvement of both QA and release processes.

Desirable Skills

• Hands-on experience building and integrating automated testing frameworks into CI/CD pipelines, with specific proficiency in tooling for UI/E2E validation.
• Strong command of QA methodologies (Black-box, White-box, Regression, Exploratory, and Risk-based testing) and test strategy design.
• Practical experience with CI/CD platforms (e.g., GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or Jenkins) and embedding automated quality gates.
• Familiarity with test management and defect tracking tools (e.g., Jira/Xray, TestRail, Zephyr, or similar).
• Understanding of release management practices: versioning strategies, branching models, release trains, feature toggles, and rollback planning.
• Scripting and automation proficiency (e.g., JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, or Bash) to support test development and pipeline scripting.
• Strong analytical troubleshooting skills, meticulous attention to detail, and a demonstrated ability to bridge development, QA, and operations teams.

This vacancy is for experienced Release/QA Engineers who can take ownership of the full validation-to-release lifecycle. You should demonstrate practical expertise across several of the areas listed and a proven track record of building reliable, automated, and auditable release processes in complex engineering environments.

Work Benefits

• Promotions are based on technical excellence and reviewed regularly.
• 25 days holiday per year (with bank holidays on top), option to buy up to 5 days per year.
• Level up with an extra day of holiday per year, up to an extra 5 days, starting from 2 years' service.
• We offer financial support to cover HMRC allowable costs of relocating if you’re moving to the area.
• Training and development opportunities to support your career aspirations.
• O'Reilly books subscription which provides access to huge range of technical books.
• Regular events including internal technical conferences, company socials and pizza-fuelled lunchtime seminars.
• Free seasonal fruit, tea, coffee, milk, squash and hot chocolate.

Health Benefits

• Private online GP, and a helpline to speak with various healthcare professionals.
• Physiotherapists, osteopaths or chiropractors for muscle, bone, and joint pain.
• Mental health - counselling, and specialist consultations and treatment with psychologists and cognitive behavioural therapists.
• Annual Health assessment.

Financial Benefits

• A company bonus scheme so that everybody is rewarded for company success. This is an annual award that is based on the company hitting its targeted forecast. We have achieved this every year to date.
• 8% company contribution to pension with no minimum requirement for employee contribution.
• Death in Service cover of 4x base salary.

Lifestyle Benefits

• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave: 12 weeks maternity leave at full pay as soon as you join, further enhanced to 20 weeks full pay from 2 years’ service.
• 2 weeks paternity leave at full pay as soon as you join, further enhanced to 4 weeks full pay from 2 years’ service.
• Enhanced cycle-to-work scheme including the ability to purchase a bike over £1,000 (e-bikes, specialist cycles and trikes allowed).

Salary

We reward staff based on technical excellence and not years of experience, so it's important to us to speak with you to see which grade you would fit into - it's not always obvious from a CV. Your interviewer will spend time during your first interview speaking with you about how your skills and experience map against our grades, and discuss a salary band so that you know early what you can expect if you receive an offer from us. The technical interview will provide a deeper assessment of your skills against your mapped grade which ultimately determines whether you receive an offer and the exact salary.

Location

We are based in the centre of Cheltenham in a stunning new build contemporary office, 5 minutes walk from the local shops and cafes.

Additional Details

Our interview process is quick and to the point: if you look like a good fit for the role, we'll schedule a brief call to discuss it in more detail and answer any questions you may have. If that goes well, we'll arrange a technical interview to understand your level of experience. We aim to get back to you with an answer within a couple of days of the technical interview. If you’re looking for a challenging role where you can make a real impact in the world, in a friendly environment and with all the support to advance your career, click apply.