Automation Test Engineer 

Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom | Posted on 10/11/2026

About the Role

We are looking for automation-first Test Engineers to join agile teams building public sector digital services. You will design and maintain test frameworks, not just run tests, with a strong focus on accessibility and quality across APIs and cloud-native systems.

What you will do

• Design, build and maintain test automation frameworks, with Playwright as the main tool.

• Automate API testing using Rest Assured, Postman and Swagger.

• Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub or GitLab).

• Write BDD scenarios using Cucumber, SpecFlow or Reqnroll.

• Run functional, integration, end-to-end, regression and acceptance testing.

• Carry out accessibility testing to WCAG standards.

• Run performance testing, ideally with k6 (JMeter or BlazeMeter also used).

• Validate data using SQL and test event-driven systems such as Kafka and Azure Service Bus.

• Manage defects, plan tests using a risk-based approach and maintain traceability.

What you will bring

• Strong hands-on test automation experience, ideally with Playwright.

• API testing experience with Rest Assured, Postman or similar tools.

• Experience building and maintaining automation frameworks and integrating them into CI/CD pipelines.

• Solid understanding of QA methodologies, defect management and test planning.

• Working knowledge of SQL, Docker, Linux basics and cloud-native test environments.

• Experience working in agile delivery teams.

Desirable

• Accessibility testing with tools such as Axe, WAVE, Lighthouse, JAWS, Dragon or ZoomText.

• UK government or GOV.UK service experience.

• Existing BPSS or SC clearance, or eligibility for SC.

• Performance testing with k6, JMeter or BlazeMeter.

• Monitoring tools such as Grafana and Kibana.

• Test tooling such as Jira, Xray, Zephyr, Azure DevOps, and Allure or Extent Reports.