Lead QA Engineer - 1 Year FTC (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds and London) London

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future. Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.

This is a senior, hands-on Lead QA role, responsible for strategy, frameworks, and raising QA standards across multiple squads. As a Lead QA Engineer at Genomics England with deep Java expertise, you’ll own the technical direction of quality across the organisation, tackling complex testing challenges and driving best practice at scale. You’ll shape how we approach testing, define standards, and act as a hands-on authority in modern QA. This role is about influence and expertise rather than people management, combining strategic thinking with strong technical delivery.

Everyday responsibilities include:

• Act as a cross-tribe source of expertise in automation, performance, resilience, and security testing.
• Design, build, and maintain robust test frameworks with a strong emphasis on both Java and Playwright.
• Guide squads in embedding automated, performance, and security testing into CI/CD pipelines.
• Mentor QA engineers and developers, raising skills and confidence across teams.
• Produce clear, practical documentation and golden paths that help squads adopt best practice.
• Confidently lead initiatives to improve test tooling, documentation, and knowledge sharing.
• Collaborate with wider engineering leadership and other senior level stakeholders to embed test practices into CI/CD pipelines and shift testing left.
• Define, track, and properly report on testing effectiveness metrics.
• Stay current with new tools and techniques, bringing fresh thinking into our QA strategy.

Essential skills and experience:

• Strong hands-on programming with both Java and Playwright.
• Demonstrable experience designing and maintaining automation frameworks (e.g. Selenium WebDriver, JUnit, TestNG, REST-assured).
• Proven track record in performance testing (e.g. JMeter, Locust).
• Confident with security testing tools (e.g. OWASP Zap, Snyk).
• Experience embedding QA into CI/CD pipelines (e.g. GitLab, Jenkins).
• Proven experience designing and implementing scalable test automation strategies and frameworks across multiple projects.
• AWS/cloud-based testing experience (Terraform, containers, serverless, monitoring).
• Experience mentoring, coaching, and leading on QA strategy.

Nice to have:

• Contract or mock API testing (e.g. PACT, WireMock).
• Accessibility testing tools (e.g. Axe-core).
• Knowledge of data privacy, compliance, and auditability in testing.
• Familiarity with bioinformatics, scientific, or healthcare data is a strong plus.

Qualifications: Relevant, and demonstrable experience operating at Lead QA level. No formal qualifications are required.

Additional Information: Salary From: £58,800. Please Note: This is a 1 Year FTC (Fixed Term Contract). Closing Date: Monday 2nd March at 23:00 (UK time).

Benefits: Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required). Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits. Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme. Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required). Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme. Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace: Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background.

Culture: We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other.

Blended working model: Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader.

Onboarding background checks: As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.