About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Directorate: Digital Technology Services (DTS)

Pay Band:    SEO

Job Title:     Test Manager          

Location:     London / National

Successful applicants will be expected to be office based 2 days per week in any HMCTS Office (subject to business availability). The frequency may increase in the future

Term:          Permanent

Interview:  Video conference via Teams

Important salary details:

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum.

Existing Civil Servants applying on promotion, will usually be appointed on the salary minimum of the new pay band, or receive an increase of 10 percent on the current base salary, whichever is higher (This is restricted to the pay maximum of the new band).

GDD:

Government Digital and Data (GDD) Profession Capability Framework and Success Profiles Frameworks. Using DDaT we will then determine if you will be paid an additional allowance, on top of your basic salary. This role is within the Quality Assurance

Testing (QAT) Job Family, is a Test Manager role at Test Manager level, but carries the title Test Manager within DTS.

Reserve List:

HMCTS run a Reserve List, where candidates who are unsuccessful at interview by only a few points, can be offered other roles, at the same band, for up to 12 months. You will be able to view your status via the application screen. If you have been added to the Reserve List, your status will show either Merit or Reserve list.

Introduction:

These are exciting times at HM Court and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). As an agency of the MoJ, we support the judiciary across England and Wales to deliver justice by running courts and tribunals and processing outcomes, and we are looking for talented people to help us achieve our ambitions. It will be challenging, important and rewarding.

HMCTS Digital and Technology Services (DTS) is a specialist technology directorate which provides support to HMCTS in the use of IT and Digital.

DTS is creating a place in which it is great to do work and part of our offer is brilliant training opportunities and support from expert colleagues. As well as that you’ll find flexible working, an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

Please follow the link below for further information about HMCTS. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service

The key purpose of the role:

As a Test Manager you will define the overall testing strategy, provide technical leadership and guidance to development teams, and have oversight of all testing activities. You will ensure that best practices are in place, and drive improvements by sharing knowledge and resources across teams. You will work closely with the Product Manager and Business Analyst to ensure testing activities are embedded within all Agile sprints.

The Test Manager provides quality assurance through the use of automated test suites, wherever possible, and ensures applications are robust and perform as expected.

You will be experienced in Testing within either an Agile or Waterfall environment and can advise your team on the appropriate levels of testing dependent on the project scenario. You will be given the opportunity to continue to grow your management capabilities as well as managing relationships with senior stakeholders as you progress to becoming a leading figure within the Test community.

This role will give you a fantastic opportunity to work with a wide range of stakeholders at the heart of the digital transformation in HMCTS as well as develop a broad range of effective business and technical skills.

Skills & Experience:

In this role, you will:

• Validate the application functionality configured and customised by developers and system administrators. 
• Define the overall testing strategy.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to test teams.
• Oversee all testing activities.
• Encourage and facilitate continuous improvement of the testing function.
• Coach and mentor team members and others to apply the most appropriate testing tools and techniques.

The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria:

• Experience of building productive relationships with internal and external Stakeholders such as Product Managers, Release Managers and Service Owners.
• Line management experience.
• A willingness to take ownership of problems and propose workable solutions.
• Strong attention to detail and disciplined approach to task management.
• Good awareness of Agile methodology and wider project management techniques (Waterfall, MSP etc).
• Ability to quality assure, validate and analyse data to assist in key management decisions.
• Understanding and focus on user needs in the context of the bigger picture.
• Willingness to learn new ways of working with modern tools i.e. Jira, Confluence, ServiceNow and Slack.

Key technical responsibilities:

Test Engineering

• Support the strategic direction for product teams and the Test Engineering community
• Lead multiple Test Engineering teams, providing technical leadership and guidance
• Lead delivery of testing activities, ensuring that quality, time and cost objectives are met
• Act as an escalation point for defects or issues preventing delivery of Test Engineering activities
• Define the approach for test infrastructure setup and use outputs to drive technical improvements
• Identify appropriate required technical test tools
• Monitor performance of the test suite and identify how this can be improved by reducing technical debt
• Drive standardisation by sharing reusable libraries and services, experience, and lessons learned with other teams
• Drive collaboration by aligning what teams are working on and highlighting the key dependencies, impacts and priorities
• Develop appropriate test approaches and reporting mechanisms to be agreed with senior stakeholders
• Ensure that usability, accessibility, security, stability and capacity are embedded in the development of citizen services

Methodology

• Collaborate and work together with other teams in the Software Development Lifecycle to align strategic goals
• Comprehensive knowledge of Agile and Waterfall delivery principles, methodology and tools
• Lead the setup and adoption of continuous integration, delivery and deployment practices

Development and Learning

• Lead reviews of test practices and provide guidance on improvements and lessons learned
• Lead community discussions around the latest technology trends, tools, and best practices within Test Engineering
• Commit to continuous personal development, learning and training
• Support the professional development of Test Engineering team members through coaching, mentoring and access to appropriate learning resources
• Play a significant role in recruitment & performance assessment activities within Digital and Technology Services

Test Analysis

• Able to think outside the box, ask the right questions and critically evaluate and communicate findings to a larger team
• Leads investigative work into problems and opportunities in existing processes, driving the collection of information and creation of recommendations for improvements
• Can absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to determine solutions

Testing

• Manages planning of system and / or acceptance tests, coordinating both functional and non-functional specifications. Able to provide authoritative advice and guidance on test planning and can identify the process improvements and contribute to definition of best practice

Non-functional Testing

• Able to design and execute a wide range of non-functional testing techniques and communicate non-functional test results to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Able to make decisions on running types of non-functional testing
• Able to coach and mentor others
• Able to raise defects with the business and help prioritise them based on defect severity

Methods and Tools

• Makes sure that teams are using the right tools and methodologies and promotes their use

Technical Breadth

• Has a deep understanding of the technical concepts required in their role and understands how these fit into the wider technical landscape
• Understands the limitations of digital technology

Agile and Lean Practices

• Able to identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes
• Able to recognise when something does not work and encourages a mind-set of experimentation
• Can adapt and reflect, is resilient and has the ability to see outside of the process
• Able to use a blended approach depending on the context
• Able to help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and work to agreed minimum viable product (MVP)

Essential Criteria:

• An in-depth understanding of Service Management Frameworks principles and processes and experience of working in a Service Management / ITIL environment.
• Experience of working collaboratively with Senior Heads of Departments and multi-disciplinary teams. 
• Experience of working in large, complex organisations.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills with experience of successfully influencing others, negotiating effectively, and winning over audiences with compelling and persuasive presentations.
• A track record of delivering significant change which improves business effectiveness in sustainable ways.
• Ability and experience of engaging with senior management and stakeholders and leading the representation of your work.
• Experience in identifying service / product gaps and managing these continual service improvements, issues, and risks to ensure stable and successful Operation of your Product/Service.
• Either a strong technical background with a high level of technical knowledge and experience with workplace products and/or infrastructure services or a strong business background with an understanding of HMCTS users and the technology used.
• Ability to work to tight timescales, managing your priorities and ensuring delivery of requests.

Other duties:

The post holder is required to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by line management which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Application process:

The following areas of Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and score your application during the sift, and interview.

• Experience – As demonstrated in your application form.
• GDD Assessment – During the interview, you will be assessed against the GDD framework
• Behaviours – You will be required to provide evidence of the following key behaviours at Level 3.
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Seeing the Bigger Picture

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, HM Courts and Tribunals Service contributes £10,804 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 and Experience.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

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.