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Lead Automation Engineer - Leeds, UK
Ready to lead the future of quality engineering and become the driving force behind our test automation strategy?
Want to build scalable automation frameworks that improve software quality, accelerate delivery, and enhance customer experiences?
Excited by the opportunity to combine hands-on automation expertise with technical leadership, mentoring, and strategic influence?
As our Lead Automation Engineer , youll play a pivotal role in shaping and driving our approach to quality engineering across digital products and platforms. Youll lead the design and implementation of modern test automation frameworks, champion best practice testing approaches, and help embed quality throughout the software development lifecycle.
Working within a collaborative Agile environment, youll combine hands-on automation engineering with team leadership and stakeholder engagement, ensuring the delivery of robust, reliable, and high-quality software solutions that make a meaningful difference to our clients.
What will you be doing?
As the technical lead for test automation, youll define and implement the automation strategy across multiple projects and products, ensuring quality is embedded from the earliest stages of delivery. Youll design, build, and maintain scalable automation frameworks using Playwright and Vitest, enabling efficient, reliable, and repeatable testing across our applications.
Remaining hands-on, youll develop automated test suites using BDD and Gherkin-based approaches, creating robust test scenarios that support both rapid delivery and long-term maintainability. Youll work closely with engineers, Product Owners, and stakeholders to ensure testing is integrated throughout the development lifecycle and aligned with business objectives.
Youll lead automation delivery within Agile squads, helping shape technical solutions, supporting planning and estimation activities, and ensuring automation capabilities keep pace with product development. Through effective use of tools such as Jira and BrowserStack, youll coordinate test execution, defect management, cross-browser testing, and reporting activities to provide visibility and confidence in software quality.
As a people leader and mentor, youll provide day-to-day guidance to both manual and automation testers, helping build capability across Playwright, Gherkin, BrowserStack, and modern quality engineering practices. Youll foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and continuous improvement while supporting onboarding and development across the wider team.
Youll also champion operational excellence by defining meaningful quality metrics, improving testing processes, supporting root cause analysis and incident investigations, and driving improvements in application reliability, automation productivity, and delivery velocity. Alongside this, youll act as a trusted advisor to stakeholders across the business, promoting quality engineering as a strategic enabler of successful digital delivery.
You will bring
Your passion for quality engineering, automation, and continuous improvement to a role where youll influence both technology strategy and delivery outcomes. Youll have strong hands-on experience with Playwright, Vitest, JavaScript and/or TypeScript, alongside a proven track record of designing and implementing successful automation frameworks.
Youll bring deep knowledge of automated testing approaches, including behaviour-driven development and Gherkin-based frameworks, together with experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines. Your understanding of Agile delivery practices and modern software development principles will enable you to embed quality throughout the development lifecycle.
Youll be an effective leader and mentor, capable of developing high-performing teams while providing technical guidance and support. Whether youre coaching engineers, establishing testing standards, managing automation delivery, or engaging stakeholders, youll be passionate about creating a culture where quality is everyones responsibility.
Experience with tools such as BrowserStack, Jira, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins would be beneficial. Additional exposure to API, performance, and security testing, as well as ISTQB qualifications, would be advantageous. Most importantly, youll bring a proactive mindset, excellent communication skills, and a commitment to delivering exceptional software quality.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
Equality, diversity, and inclusion are incredibly important to us; we have a culture of belonging. Were always looking to increase the diversity of our workforce to ensure we can provide the best service possible for everyone. Its not just about the professional experience you bring were interested in who you are and your potential. If theres an adjustment to our recruitment process that would help you to be your best, speak to our team and theyll be happy to help.
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Lead Automation Engineer - Leeds employer: MindMatch
At Nottingham Building Society, we pride ourselves on being an excellent employer, offering a supportive and inclusive work culture that prioritises personal and professional development. As a Customer Service Representative in Brigg, you'll enjoy a competitive salary, generous annual leave, and the opportunity to make a meaningful impact in your local community while working alongside a dedicated team. Our commitment to employee wellbeing and sustainability ensures that you can thrive both personally and professionally in a role that truly values your contributions.
