About the job

Job summary

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency is an Agency of the Scottish Government. Our principal role is to administer the pensions for employees in the National Health Service, Teachers’, Police and Fire-fighters’ pension schemes in Scotland. The Agency administers these public service pension schemes on behalf of Scottish Ministers with an annual pension spend to over 200,000 pensioners of more than £2.5 billion.

 

Information about the role
The agency requires a Test Manager to develop and own the Test Strategy (incl. Release Management) and test approach across the agency. Currently all development is carried out by 3rd parties, therefore the Route to Live essentially comprises User Acceptance Test, Regression Test and End-to-End testing prior to production deployments.

The primary focus initially will be on the Agency’s Pension and Payroll administration system and associated online services. However, other critical platforms within the Agency are also within scope of this role. A key aspiration for the agency is to introduce Test Automation as we transition to the new pension and payroll administration platform.

 

DDaT Pay Supplement
This post attracts a £5000 Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) pay supplement after a 3 months DDaT competency qualifying period. Pay supplements are temporary payments designed to address recruitment and retention issues caused by market pressures and are subject to regular review. This post is part of the Scottish Government DDaT profession. As a member of the profession, you will join the professional development system, currently BCS RoleModelplus.

Job description

DDaT Role Description
A test manager takes ownership of delivery, creates the strategy and leads its implementation. At this role level you will be responsible for test improvement and optimisation potentially promote and advocate test capabilities internally and outside the government take responsibility for talent, succession planning and supplier management make important decisions relating to test within the context of the delivery environment.

 

Main Duties
•Implement a Test Strategy alongside other artefacts and processes such as; Release and Environment Management, Test Planning and Defect Management across multiple test phases including NFT, UAT and End to End Regression
•Responsible for ensuring the quality and timeliness of software deployments including obtaining sign-offs; work with and guide business teams to support and lead on UAT activities, by creating a UAT strategy implementing changes to processes and governance to ensure effective management of UAT
•Work closely with project and delivery managers, 3rd party developers, system administrators and business stakeholders to share test metrics as a measure of quality as part of the SDLC
•Leading on Entry/Exit gates as part of Release Management and operational readiness; contribute to the Route to Live for the Agency and ensure the non-production Environment Management aligns to best practices.
•Recommend and implement test tooling to support evidencing the execution of manual tests, defect management and provide test metrics for stakeholders.
•Oversee and manage the Non-Functional test phases such as performance, resilience, usability and accessibility across all projects.
•Work closely with the Head of Department to define the resource capacity and capability of the test team and contribute to the production of business cases for quality assurance; responsible for promoting and advocating Quality Assurance and Testing best practices across the Agency by taking responsibility for talent management, succession planning and supplier management.

 

Person specification

1. Experience of leading a team of user testers working on various aspects of testing within multiple systems development projects
2. Proven experience in authoritative advice and guidance on any aspect of test management
3. Knowledge/qualification of industry standards for Testing and a solid understanding of the risks presented by delivery
4. Experience of working within an agile, multi-disciplinary team environment, and collaborating effectively with business stakeholders

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

To apply for this post, you will need to provide the information requested below via the online application process.

 

To apply please submit a CV outlining your relevant skills and experience for the role (no more than 2 sides of A4) and a personal statement (of no more than 750 words). When considering how your experience relates to the role, please tailor your CV and personal statement to reflect the role and the essential skills/criteria as described in the job description/person specification. Please submit your CV and complete the personal statement in the box included. 

 

For further information on this vacancy please download and review the link below:

 

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

Security

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.