About the job

Job summary

The Civil Service embraces equality, diversity, and inclusion. At HSE, your personal qualities are as important as your professional experience. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and all walks of life.

Our approach is to recruit “on merit on the basis of fair and open competition”, in line with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. As such, our thorough selection process ensures that you and every other candidate receive equal and fair treatment.

Keeping people safe and healthy matters and that’s what we do at the Health and Safety Executive. Every day, everyone on the team contributes to protecting lives and we apply our expertise to help influence change in mindsets about health and safety throughout industry. We undertake world-class science to build our knowledge about safe working practices, and then apply that understanding to the workplace, guiding every part of the economy to function safely. And when accidents happen, we investigate and hold those at fault to account whilst ensuring that lessons are learnt across industries. We are a modern, independent, data drive Regulator and we are proud to have made Great Britain one of the safest places to work in the world.

Technology, data, and digital services underpins everything that HSE does. We are a knowledge organisation, with a wealth of experience in keeping people safe. It is the responsibility of the Information Technology Services (ITS) Division to ensure that everyone in the organisation can access our data and information, to share it and to use it to make effective decisions. We support over 3000 colleagues working in a hybrid style at home and in 26 offices across Great Britain. Our services keep inspectors functioning effectively and efficiently on industrial sites nationwide, from oil platforms in the North Sea to our deepest mines and quarries.

We strive to constantly improve the technologies and services supporting the organisation. Our end user computing devices are leading edge, and we are making significant progress in delivering new cloud-based services.  Our service management and information management services are very highly regarded within the organisation and pride themselves on excellent customer service. Our commercial team has built strong relationships with suppliers and our project management team is embedded in our corporate change programme, transforming the older legacy systems that have underpinned the organisation for a long time.

Job description

To support the QA Test Manager with testing of Digital and Technology Services, including all infrastructures and components, during the delivery of Major Change Programmes and Continuous Improvement pipelines. You will work within programmes structured to deliver both Waterfall and Agile methodologies, ensuring that user functional and non-functional requirements are delivered completely and appropriately. You will prioritise and report defects, to allow Programme Management to determine the progress of development and to manage the risks associated with delivery. This role will engage with users, supporting their needs and ensuring that a high-quality customer-focused service is delivered.

Key Responsibilities

• Support on the definition, management and execution of Test Strategies, Test Approaches and Test Methodologies to be used by HSE, encompassing Data, Unit, Integration, System, Acceptance, User, Performance, Security and Compatibility.
• Manage the delivery of all testing, including writing test plans, test cases and test scripts to ensure the quality delivery requirements.
• Support QA team with Management Information (MI and reporting) of the quality of the Digital and Technology Services within Major Change Programmes, Change Projects and Continuous Improvement projects.
• Manage the identification, recording, analysis and prioritisation of all Defects and coordinate the re-testing of all Defects within Major Change Programmes, Change Projects and Continuous Improvement projects.
• Develop and maintain testing documentation and procedures.
• Support the Change Lifecycle, testing changes for Digital and Technology Services.
• Work with and ensure the quality of Suppliers developing applications and systems for the HSE.

Working Pattern

Part time working hours are available for this role. We can accept part time applicants who can commit to working a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Hybrid Working

Whilst the post can be based in any HSE location (except for our London office), it should be assumed that the successful candidate will be required to attend our Bootle HQ on a occasional basis.  For further information about HSE locations please click here.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

There will be occasional requirement for some out of hours work dependent on business needs.

Person specification

Essential skills and criteria:

• Proven experience of testing Digital and Technology Services
• Experience of QA in a modern Agile environment
• Effective communicator
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office
• Experience in manual test workloads such as test design, document review and accessibility testing.

Desirable:

• Experience of Microsoft Power Platform, Azure DevOps,Microsoft 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Experience of using modern test tools, test management tools and test automation

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,802, Health and Safety Executive contributes £8,856 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, Strengths and Experience.

Application Information

As part of your application, you will be invited to complete a CV detailing your qualifications and employment history. You will also be asked to complete a Personal Statement of no more than 500 words, which demonstrates your experience and why you are suitable for the role. 

For guidance on how to apply and how to complete an application, please visit Civil Service Careers (opens in a new window).

Sift Information

A sift will take place from week commencing 11th March 2024. You will be assessed on your CV and Personal Statement.

Interview Information

Interviews due to take place during week commencing 25th March 2024, via Microsoft Teams. You will be assessed on your experience from your CV and Personal Statement, Strengths and the listed Behaviours.

In the event of a high number of applications at sift or that pass the interview standard we will assess on the lead Behaviour Managing a Quality Service.

Please note that these dates could be subject to change due to panel availability.

Further Information

Please note that a Reserve List will be held for the period of up to 12 months.

Security Clearance

Due to the nature of security checks undertaken, applicants must have 3 years continuous residency in the UK up to the date of the application and, Home Office approval for indefinite leave to remain within the UK.

AI Tools & Platforms

During the application process candidates are allowed to utilise AI (artificial intelligence) platforms and Tools to support them in writing their Behaviours, CV’s and Personal Statements. However, all information submitted must be factually accurate. This includes presenting the ideas and experience of others, or those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. All presented information will be assessed at the Interview Stage.

Sponsorship

This role is not open to application from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship your application will be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment will be withdrawn.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application.

For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document. Any move to HSE from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments.

You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility Childcare Choices , 30 Hours Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More , Help with Costs , GOV.UK

HSE is proud to be a part of the Disability Confidence Scheme (DCS). As a Disability Confident employer, we positively welcome applications from disabled people. We are committed to making workplace adjustments to ensure anyone can participate in the recruitment and selection process.

We offer a guaranteed interview scheme for all disabled applicants who provide evidence of meeting the minimum requirements necessary for the post. If, during the application or interview process, you require any assistance due to a disability or a medical condition, please contact us at the email address below to discuss how we can support you.

If successful in securing your role, HSE can provide suitable workplace adjustments to support you throughout your career with HSE. If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.