About the job

Job summary

Take the lead in helping us transform the energy sector. 

The work of Ofgem is vitally important. As the regulator for the energy sector, we are responsible for ensuring that UK businesses and households can rely on an affordable and sustainable source of energy. In order to meet this challenge, we must therefore embrace the most cutting-edge technologies and approaches.

Taking the lead of a talented team who are passionate about helping us achieve this goal, you will be at the heart of our Net Zero ambitions. Working with project managers, technical leads and other internal stakeholders, you’ll plan and execute the testing of the digital solutions and services that support us as we perform our regulatory duties. Serving as a subject matter expert in the configuration, maintenance and administration of testing tools and environments, your other responsibilities will include looking after the quality assurance within testing environments, tools and pipelines, developing test automation assets and evidence, and proposing automation best practice for continuous improvement.

Supporting colleagues in designing and delivering manual and automated test strategies, your reach will extend from documenting frameworks and controls through to defining test automation scripts and running test-end reports. Experience in Selenium or similar for front-end automation, Rest Assured or similar for API testing, Azure DevOps and using Git to manage branches and merge requests through distributed version control. A solid understanding of protocols and architectural styles involved in implementing UI and backend API for applications will be imperative in this role. 

As there will be plenty of networking opportunities across the organisation and with external partners, you will excel in this role if you are a natural leader with good communication and team-playing skills. With senior-level experience in defining and implementing testing for functional and non-functional cloud platforms, APIs, data and applications, you will have the capacity to identify and mitigate risks, and you will be keen to share expertise.

Ofgem relies on having a workforce that reflects the society we serve, so we welcome candidates from all backgrounds, and especially those from underrepresented groups. While this is a full-time role, flexible working patterns and job shares are welcome, and we offer a fully hybrid environment. We’ll also support you with excellent training and development opportunities, plus a competitive pension and generous annual leave.

Job description

Help drive the digitisation of renewable energy schemes within Ofgem’s Delivery and Schemes division, as part of the governments drive towards Net Zero.  With the countries ambition to achieve Net Zero, it has never been more necessary to efficiently and securely develop digital applications to support the governments renewable energy schemes. 

As a Principal Test Engineer , you will lead with expertise in Automation and agile delivery and you will be responsible for defining our testing strategy for functional and non functional requirements across multiple teams. This involves developing new frameworks, reviewing, and enhancing existing frameworks to help deliver scalable solutions.

You will define and implement product level test engineering strategies in large scale or complex projects while ensuring that these are aligned to portfolio level Test Engineering approaches and follow QAT Engineering principles.

You will lead a team of QA engineers including coaching and mentorship to develop individuals and the wider Test Engineering community.

You will work closely with the Technical Leads to reach a common understanding and collaborate very closely with stakeholders to make sure the required functional and non-functional tests are documented and delivered.

Key Responsibilities

At this level, you will:

• Collaborate closely with development teams and Product Owners to deliver exceptional products and services.
• Work across all of the applications within Delivery and Schemes to ensure consistency of application testing:
  • Develop and execute comprehensive test strategies, test plans, and test cases to uphold the quality of software releases.
  • Lead the implementation and maintenance of automated testing within the CI/CD process, ensuring continuous improvement of testing practices.
  • Lead the development of scalable test automation frameworks and mentoring the team in creating resilient automated tests.
  • Monitor, measure, control and report on the test progress, the product quality status and the test results, adapting the test plan and compensating as needed to adjust to evolving conditions.
  • Support testing (including UAT) phase to ensure the applications meet specified requirements.
  • Support post -implementation testing by monitoring application performance and user satisfaction.
  • Oversee and participate in webservice and API testing, ensuring seamless CI/CD integration.
  • Collaborate with colleagues from Security and Digital Services.
• Mentor and develop colleagues within the Quality Assurance team.
• Ability to actively engage with performance testing engineers and work alongside them to identify performance bottlenecks. Ability to read, interpret and articulate performance reports.
• Develop new frameworks, reviewing, and enhancing existing frameworks to help deliver scalable solutions.
• Participate in the assessment and adoption of emerging automation testing tools.
• Apply strong programming skills, including OOP concepts and design patterns, to enhance the quality of automated test scripts.
• Continuously explore and implement best practices, emerging tools, and techniques to enhance overall software quality and testing efficiency.
• Demonstrate strong prioritization skills to manage multiple testing initiatives in a dynamic environment.
• Communicate effectively across teams and stakeholders, with exceptional attention to detail in documentation and reporting.
• Professional Development Lead responsibility.

Person specification

• Experienced in strategic and technical leadership to support delivery of functional and non-functional testing (LEAD)
• Strong experience in assuring quality of test cases/specifications, documentation of the test results and risk analysis/assessment (LEAD)
• Expertise in using tools like Selenium or similar for front-end automation, Rest Assured or similar for API testing, Azure DevOps and using Git to manage branches and merge requests through distributed version control. A solid understanding of protocols and architectural styles involved in implementing UI and backend API for applications.
• Familiarity using CI/CD tools for pipeline automation and a solid understanding of release pipeline concepts.
• Familiarity with cloud computing concepts
• Experience of working within an Agile environment
• Knowledge and experience of release procedures.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £58,520, OFGEM contributes £15,800 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

When you press the ‘Apply now’ button, you will be asked to complete personal details (not seen by the sift panel), your career history and qualifications.

You will then be asked to provide a 1250 word ‘personal statement’ evidencing how you meet the essential and desirable skills and capabilities listed in the role profile. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your personal statement, how you meet each of the essential and desirable skills and capabilities.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.