Test Engineer

Our Capability Development team delivers bespoke, high-assurance software for clients in the Cyber Security domain. We engineer resilient systems ranging from rigorously assured products to rapid cyber solutions and blended operational platforms. Common to all is our commitment to technically led decisions, architectural clarity, and delivering software that operates reliably in high-stakes environments.

To support this mission, we are seeking a Test Engineer to help ensure the quality and reliability of our software through thorough, hands-on testing. Working closely with Engineers and Technical Leads, you will execute structured test plans, perform exploratory testing, identify defects, and verify that new features and fixes meet the required standards before release. You'll play a key role in ensuring our software behaves as expected in real-world scenarios while helping us continually improve our testing practices.

We are ideally looking for a candidate who holds an active Security Clearance to join our team, however, we will consider sponsoring new clearances for candidates that meet our technical requirements.

What you'll do

As a member of our engineering team, you will:

• Execute manual and automated test plans across new and existing software products.

• Perform functional, integration, regression and exploratory testing to validate new features and identify defects.

• Record, reproduce and clearly document software issues, working closely with developers to investigate and verify fixes.

• Help develop and maintain automated test suites using tools such as Cypress or Playwright where appropriate.

• Validate software builds prior to release, ensuring acceptance criteria and quality standards have been met.

• Create and maintain clear, repeatable test cases and test documentation.

• Assist with setting up and maintaining test environments and representative test data.

• Work closely with Software Engineers throughout development, providing timely feedback on software quality.

• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement and feature reviews to understand requirements and identify potential test * scenarios.

• Contribute ideas to improve our testing processes, tooling and automation over time.

Desirable Skills

• Experience in software testing, QA or a similar engineering role.

• Good understanding of software testing techniques, including functional, regression, integration and exploratory testing.

• Experience writing clear and repeatable test cases from user stories or requirements.

• Familiarity with defect tracking and test management tools such as Jira, Xray, TestRail or Zephyr.

• Experience using automated testing frameworks such as Cypress or Playwright, or a willingness to develop these skills.

• Basic scripting or programming knowledge (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python or similar) to support test automation.

• Familiarity with Git and modern software development workflows.

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills with excellent attention to detail.

• Good communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively within an agile engineering team.

About You

We're looking for someone who enjoys understanding how software works by putting it through its paces. You'll be naturally curious, methodical and persistent, taking satisfaction in finding issues before our customers do. While experience with automated testing is beneficial, this is primarily a hands-on testing role where executing test plans, investigating unexpected behaviour and working closely with developers are the core responsibilities.

This vacancy is ideal for Test Engineers with commercial experience who want to develop their technical skills in a unique delivery area while remaining closely involved in the day-to-day validation of software. You'll have the opportunity to contribute to automation and continuous improvement, but your primary focus will be ensuring every feature we deliver meets the high standards expected of software operating in demanding environments.

Work Benefits

• Promotions are based on technical excellence and reviewed regularly.

• 25 days holiday per year (with bank holidays on top), option to buy up to 5 days per year.

• Level up with an extra day of holiday per year, up to an extra 5 days, starting from 2 years' service.

• We offer financial support to cover HMRC allowable costs of relocating if you’re moving to the area.

• Training and development opportunities to support your career aspirations

• O'Reilly books subscription which provides access to huge range of technical books

• Regular events including internal technical conferences, company socials and pizza-fuelled lunchtime seminars.

• Free seasonal fruit, tea, coffee, milk, squash and hot chocolate.

Health Benefits - Private medical including access to

• Private online GP, and a helpline to speak with various healthcare professionals.

• Physiotherapists, osteopaths or chiropractors for muscle, bone, and joint pain.

• Mental health - counselling, and specialist consultations and treatment with psychologists and cognitive behavioural therapists.

• Annual Health assessment.

Financial Benefits

• A company bonus scheme so that everybody is rewarded for company success. This is an annual award that is based on the company hitting its targeted forecast. We have achieved this every year to date.

• 8% company contribution to pension with no minimum requirement for employee contribution.

• Death in Service cover of 4x base salary.

• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave: 12 weeks maternity leave at full pay as soon as you join, further enhanced to 20 weeks full pay from 2 years’ service. 2 weeks paternity leave at full pay as soon as you join, further enhanced to 4 weeks full pay from 2 years’ service.

• Enhanced cycle-to-work scheme including the ability to purchase a bike over £1,000 (e-bikes, specialist cycles and trikes allowed).

Salary

We are recruiting staff at all levels in this team, and are able to support market-leading salaries for every grade within our sector/location. We reward staff based on technical excellence and not years of experience, so it's important to us to speak with you to see which grade you would fit into - it's not always obvious from a CV! Your interviewer will spend time during your first interview speaking with you about how your skills and experience map against our grades, and discuss a salary band so that you know early what you can expect if you receive an offer from us. The technical interview will provide a deeper assessment of your skills against your mapped grade which ultimately determines whether you receive an offer and the exact salary.

Location

We are based in the centre of Cheltenham in a stunning new build contemporary office, 5 minutes walk from the local shops and cafes.

Additional Details

Our interview process is quick and to the point: if you look like a good fit for the role, we'll schedule a brief call to discuss it in more detail and answer any questions you may have. If that goes well, we'll arrange a technical interview to understand your level of experience. We aim to get back to you with an answer within a couple of days of the technical interview.

If you’re looking for a challenging role where you can make a real impact in the world, in a friendly environment and with all the support to advance your career, click apply.