Principal Test Automation Engineer

We’re a digital insurance provider with ambitious plans to become The Best and Biggest in the UK market. Over the past few years, we’ve made significant investments in our data and tech capabilities, particularly within our CIO function. Our CIO team is at the forefront of driving innovation and ensuring our technology infrastructure supports our ambitious goals. We’ve nurtured our 4Cs culture, fostering collaboration, creativity, and continuous improvement.

The CIO team plays a crucial role in this journey, working on cutting-edge projects that enhance our digital presence and improve customer engagement. We provide insurance to nearly four million customers, but we know there’s even bigger opportunity out there. If you are excited about joining us and think you have some of what we are looking for, even if you’re not 100% sure, we would love to hear from you. Our CIO team is always looking for passionate individuals who are eager to make a difference and contribute to our success.

Job Details

• Provide automation capabilities that support the Scrum Teams to deliver on the Automation Only approach, reducing the percentage of tests that cannot be automated through designing and implementing extensions / adjustments to the Automation Frameworks.
• Identify new opportunities to enhance / extend our test automation capabilities with new and/or updated tooling, supporting the evaluation, decision making, implementation and maintenance of these tools.
• Managing the ongoing maintenance of the tooling to meet the growing demand, increasing performance and allowing the Scrum Teams to test early and often on a continuous basis.
• Provide capabilities to support the provision of timely and accurate Test Automation MI for all Scrum Teams, which includes quality measures where possible supporting continuous improvement.
• Define, implement and maintain test automation best practices and drive proactive collaboration and engagement within Scrum Teams and the wider QA community through the Centre of Excellence as well as regular Brown Bag sessions and other means of engagement.
• Mentoring all direct reports, junior staff, and new joiners to achieve the necessary competencies to progress.

Skills we would love you to have

• Proficient practical experience working in a Testing Automation role.
• Extensive experience working in an agile environment.
• Transformational leadership skills being able to influence decision making and implement new tools, processes and procedures in support of the company’s vision.
• Good mentoring skills to support direct reports in their ongoing development.

Tools & Technologies:

• Proficient knowledge of at least one agile methodology (e.g. Scrum, Kanban, SAFe).
• Familiar with backlog and test case management in a system of record such as Jira or Octane.
• Excellent knowledge using declarative Gherkin to capture business rules, run as automated tests with Cucumber.
• Strong coding skills to implement automated tests in one or more of Java, JavaScript, Typescript, C#.
• Comfortable with source control using GitHub.
• Skilled in user interface automation with Selenium & Selenium Grid, Playwright or Cypress.
• Ability to implement tests against API either in code or via tools such as SoapUI, Postman.
• Good understanding and experience using continuous integration platforms such as AzureDevOps or Jenkins (or equivalent).

What we offer

• Flexible working – we champion a flexible hybrid working approach.
• Competitive bonus scheme - all colleagues are eligible for our annual 4Cs performance bonus.
• Physical wellbeing – Hastings pays for you to receive private medical Insurance (PMI).
• Financial wellbeing – providing you with 4x your salary with our life assurance cover, income protection at no extra cost, and matched pension contributions up to 10%.
• Mental wellbeing programme – we have the thrive mental health app, our colleague assistance programme available 24/7, and support groups.
• 27 days annual leave + bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell one of your weeks.
• Access to our health care cash back plans, dental plans, discounted health assessments, Cycle to work and tech schemes, and social events throughout the year.

Hastings Group is an equal opportunities employer which means we treat people fairly. We welcome applications from all suitably skilled persons regardless of their gender, age, race, disability, ethnic background, religion/belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment or marital/family status. Our recruitment team is here to provide the support you need to ensure a fair and accessible experience for all.