Automation Test Lead in Sheffield

• Automation Test Lead
• 6 months contract (Extendable)
• Sheffield - Hybrid, 3 days onsite
• Up to £450pd inside IR35

Role Summary

We are looking for a highly skilled Automation Test Lead with strong expertise in Identity and Access management (IAM), skilled in identity orchestration, API testing, data ingestion and transformation, and event-driven (Pub/Sub) architectures.

This role focuses on testing secure, scalable workload identities and access workflows across Google Cloud Platform, integrating identity services with custom APIs, Pub/Sub pipelines, and cloud-native applications.

Using an automation first approach, you will collaborate closely with tech leads, Cloud Security, Dev Ops, and Application Engineering teams to thoroughly test robust IAM, identity lifecycle workflows, and secure service integrations that support enterprise-level cloud and Identity operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Test Architecture, Strategy and Governance (Hands-on + Strategic
• Automation Engineering and CI/CD
• Test Delivery, Defects and Stakeholder Management
• Technical Leadership (Non-line management)

Required Skills

• Extensive experience in Identity and Access Management (IAM).
• Strong backend automation experience using Python and Pytest, with 5+ years leading automation projects.
• Proven experience testing functions and decision logic defined “as code”, including policy-as-code.
• Experience validating event-driven platforms (Pub/Sub, queues, Kafka, etc.) and batch processing.
• Experience with identity warehousing and protocols/formats for data ingestion including SCIM, REST API, LDAP, OIDC, and CSV.
• Experience with policy-based testing (RBAC / ABAC / Re BAC / PBAC).
• Experience in consumer-driven contract testing.
• Experience in risk-based test prioritisation.
• Dev Ops & CI/CD integration experience, including integrating automation tests into Git Hub and CI/CD pipelines and implementing shift-left testing practices.
• Strong experience in cloud testing approaches and methodology, especially GCP; additional exposure to AWS, Azure, Entra, Ali Cloud, and systems such as Service Now, AD, and ADLDS.
• Extensive experience using JIRA and Zephyr (mandatory).
• Experience executing defined test plans including coordination, tracking, and reporting.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with proven stakeholder engagement at all levels.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor engineers (technical leadership).
• Desired Skills
• Knowledge of AI governance, model evaluation, explainability, and responsible AI principles.
• Exposure to orchestration tools like n8n.
• Exposure to Gen AI tool integrations into Quality Engineering.
• Experience testing solutions built on Graph DB (Neo4j).
• Experience testing OPA / Rego policies.
• Exposure to containerised test execution.
• Knowledge of JMeter, Gatling, Load Runner, Neo Load (or similar) for load/stress/volume testing, including licensing requirements, configuration, dashboards, and reporting.
• GDBMS performance analysis.
• Exposure to Sail Point Identity IQ.
• Exposure to Git Ops repos.
• Exposure to testing Hashi Corp Vault solutions