Principal Test Engineer in Chatham

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Chatham, Petersfield, Bradford

Working Pattern: Hybrid—typically a couple of days a week in the office. Part-time or flexible arrangements are considered to support work-life balance.

What We Offer:

• Holidays: 25 days holiday up to 30 days (depending on service)
• Pension: We will contribute up to 10%
• Maternity/Paternity: Enhanced maternity and 4 weeks paternity leave
• Volunteering: 2 paid days to ‘give back’ to the charity of your choice
• Development: LinkedIn Learning for all
• Finance: Snoop Premium available to all colleagues
• Medical: Opportunity to opt in for Private Medical Insurance
• Bonus: Discretionary annual bonus

The Role:

You and Your Team: We are looking for a motivated Principal Test Engineer to join Data & Analytics team, working on our Data Transformation programme. You'll have strong experience in Data & API testing, and ideally, you'll have experience writing complex SQL queries, validating data integrity and complex data transformation rules. Working in an Agile environment, you’ll collaborate closely with Change, Tech, and Product teams to deliver high-quality solutions.

Skills & Competencies

Skills Required:

• Extensive hands-on experience in Data Testing and Quality Assurance, with the ability to define and execute comprehensive testing strategies across complex data platforms, ensuring accuracy, completeness, traceability, and regulatory compliance.
• Strong technical expertise in SQL, Snowflake, Coalesce, Cortex, Excel, and Notebook-based data validation, with proven capability in data validation, reconciliation, profiling, lineage analysis, synthetic test data creation, and root cause investigation.
• Knowledge of modern testing practices and emerging AI-driven solutions, including Agile and DevSecOps methodologies, test automation frameworks, AI-assisted testing, agentic workflows, and data-driven quality engineering approaches.
• Excellent stakeholder management, leadership, and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior stakeholders, collaborate effectively with Data Modellers, Business Analysts, Developers, Product Owners, Delivery Managers, and Operations teams, while translating complex technical concepts into actionable business outcomes.
• Strong people leadership and mentoring capability, with experience coaching testers across multiple squads, driving testing best practices, fostering a quality-first culture, and ensuring consistent delivery standards within large-scale programmes.

What We’re Looking For:

• Experience working with Snowflake or SQL Server Management Studio & writing complex SQL queries. Experience working with Data Vault methodology is a plus.
• Proven track record of working within a variety of test frameworks and methodologies, in particular Agile and DevSecOps.
• Good interpersonal, organisational and communication skills. Articulate, assertive and persuasive with the ability to use appropriate communication channels (written and verbal), striving to adapt style and approach to suit the audience.
• Good problem-solving skills.
• Sound knowledge of Testing Principles with the ability to manage a variety of testing types for example: System Test, SIT, UAT and Performance testing in a complex project environment.
• Ability to handle multiple tasks assigned to them and handle changing priority with perseverance and professionalism.
• Team player who is able to build a good rapport with developers through to business stakeholders and reporting to test Manager.

Offers are subject to satisfactory background checks, including credit, fraud, and employment references.

Who We Are:

At Vanquis, we have a simple purpose: to deliver caring banking so our customers can make the most of life’s opportunities. Established in 1880, we’re now a FTSE All Share company and leading specialist bank. We lend responsibly, providing tailored products and services to over 1.75 million UK customers.

We take care of our colleagues as well as our customers, working hard to create a rewarding and supportive work environment. That means competitive salaries, benefits, and a Group-wide recognition scheme. Everyone can enrol in our pension and after six months, you can join our ‘Buy as You Earn’ scheme.

We’re about more than financial rewards though. We give everyone a voice in the business and room to be their authentic self. And we know you’re here to build your career, so we help every colleague with training and development opportunities. Making sure there’s always something new to learn.

Vanquis Bank is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Here at Vanquis Banking Group, we embrace everyone’s unique strengths and identities to be themselves at work. Regardless of how you identify yourself, your sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national background, faith, disability, or age – your experiences and background help enrich our teams, and most importantly help support our customers in the best way possible.

If there’s anything we can do in the recruitment process to help you achieve your best, get in touch. Whether it’s a copy of our application form in another format or additional assistance, we’re available to help. You can contact us at careers@vanquis.com