Department for Education Hiring for Software Test Engineer Job at Manchester, England Full Time

182069

£36,498 – £40,297

“New entrants are expected to join on the pay band minimum however salaries up to £40,297 may be applied, dependent on skills and experience.

Permanent

DFE – Education and Skills Funding Agency

Operational Delivery

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

1

Coventry CV1 2WT, Manchester M1 2WD, Sheffield S1 2FJ – Whilst we aim to be flexible with working hours and location, please ensure you live within a commutable distance of your selected office locations. Coventry is the apprenticeship service base and you will be required to travel there occasionally.

Apprenticeships are exciting options for both apprentices and employers – learning new skills, growing talent and making sure employers have access to the right skills to thrive.

We work in the Department for Education (DfE) and Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to put employers and apprentices at the heart of apprenticeships – delivering a programme that is led by employer choice and demand, is higher quality and focused on occupational competence.

To do this we deliver innovative, user-focused services that operate at scale and enable employers, apprentices, training providers and end-point assessment organisations to work together to make apprenticeships great.

We are proud to be known as pioneers across government. We never stop looking for ways to improve, from new product development, to the use of robotics. Our line of work is fascinating and we want you to be part of it.

If you share our vision, and you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you.

Join us, and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

Some of the great benefits of working with us include:

• You will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK – Contributory pension (worth 26.6 – 27.9% of salary)

• The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently said that “the biggest difference between public and private sectors remains the value of employer contributions to public service pensions. These are much more generous in the public sector than in the private sector”

• If you have accrued pension rights in another pension scheme, you may be eligible to transfer these rights into the Civil Service Pension Scheme

• Learning and development opportunities tailored to your role

• An environment with flexible working options – We welcome a blended approach of working from home and in an office.

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

This role is for a candidate who has good software testing experience and expected to take on more senior responsibilities and increasing the testing capability of the organisation using both agile and traditional methods as they grow in both confidence and skills.

You will contribute to delivering a high quality, maintainable software solutions and public facing APIs that conform to industry best practices, Government Digital Service (GDS) standards, internal testing guidelines and which meet all given acceptance criteria, non-functional requirements, and definitions of done.

As a Software Tester in the Apprenticeship Service you will work with colleagues of other professions such as Architects, Business Analysts, Developers, User Researches and Designers to create the best solutions and take responsibility for the support of the applications you build, including occasional 3rd line support outside of office hours.

You will continuously seek to improve your own knowledge and take an active role in presenting and organizing the Test Clan community. You will do this by practice to share that knowledge with others, help to identify good practices for adoption and share our experience and knowledge with the wider team of both technical and non-technical colleagues.

Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities

• Planning and integrating testing activities into the overall project and involvement in all phases of Software Development Life Cycle
• Requirements and Technical specifications analysis, and preparing appropriate Test approach based on the requirements and technical specifications, in line with the ESFA guidelines & best practices
• Creating comprehensive and reusable test artifacts applying a range of testing techniques and analysis skills (such as Test cases, scenarios, steps, data)
• Defining the test process and procedures in order to achieve the objectives set in the Test plan/approach, based on the requirements & complexity in line with the department priorities and schedule
• Designing and Executing the test specifications covering Functional, Integration, End to End, Non-functional and Test Automation areas
• Identifying the suitable candidates and creating test automation scripts
• Co-ordination of cross product/team testing activities to ensure appropriate Integration & End-to-End testing conducted
• Reporting any bugs/issues identified
• Measure and report on test activity, producing test summary reports, metrics and conducting demo/reviews with senior project stakeholders to evaluate the quality of software
• Test environment set-up and configuration
• Working closely with the release/delivery management team to ensure the right version of the software with appropriate configuration gets released
• Evaluate the testing requirements with a good knowledge of the processes involved in each and have a good understanding of security, performance and accessibility testing.
• Ensure adherence, monitoring, and improvement of the current testing processes and tools for both Automation and manual testing
• Work with the wider Testing community and Agile teams, Service managers, Delivery managers and Product owners to promote, advocate and advise on testing best practices and ensure that they are being complied with.
• Promote the organisations policy, strategy, processes, methods and procedures, so that best practice is applied across ESFA and its customers.

Skills

Essential

• Experience working within Agile environment and understands the Software development methodologies/processes very well
• Experience of defining or breaking down user stories and acceptance criteria using test design techniques, and contributing to the definition of ‘Done’, from a software quality perspective
• Experience of manual and automated testing across different test phases including Functional, Non-Functional, System Integration (SIT), Application Program Interface (API)
• Experience of Test automation in either Java or .NET (preferably C#), Continuous Integration and Version control tools
• A broad knowledge of existing testing approaches and tools and their potential to enhance the quality, performance and delivery of technical solutions.
• The ability to visualise, articulate, solve complex problems and make decisions based on available information
• Understand their own work area, be able to quickly adapt to changes get up to speed with issues

Desirable

• To have a good understanding of the links to other areas and how their work fits within the structure of the organisation as well as having a good understanding of the external business environment
• To have technical expertise that allows them to make sound and balanced judgements
• To have the ability to persuade and influence senior stakeholders and advise and have the expertise to be able to guide more junior colleagues on complex issues within their area of the business
• Sound analytical skills and good judgement to inform their decisions or when providing opinions or advice to others
• Good interpersonal skills
• Knowledge of the Government Digital Standards (GDS)

Desirable criteria will only be assessed in the event of a tie break situation to make an informed decision.

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• A short technical test in C#Sharp

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the Queen’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.