Lead Quality and Assurance Testing Analyst

On behalf of the MOD, we are looking for a Lead Quality and Assurance Testing Analyst (Inside IR35) for a 5 Month contract based Hybrid in London or Corsham.

We are seeking a strategic and experienced Lead Quality and Assurance Testing Analyst to join our team and develop a robust QA function from the ground up. This role is pivotal in ensuring our platform and full-service offerings meet the highest standards of quality, security, and compliance.

The ideal candidate will have a well-rounded background in QA, with hands-on experience in Red Hat OpenShift and a strong understanding of DevSecOps principles.

D2S is a set of specialised products, services, and support provided to developers and development teams working on Defence-related outcomes. This includes access to specific tools, resources, guidelines, and expertise needed to develop bespoke software and applications for UK Defence to support operations.

As a Lead Quality and Assurance Testing Analyst your main responsibilities will be to:
. Develop and Implement QA Function: Establish and lead the QA function, ensuring integration with existing DevOps and platform services.
. Strategic Framework: Set and maintain the QA strategy to align with overall technology and business goals.
. Security Integration: Embed security within all QA and technology processes, adhering to DevSecOps principles.
. Collaboration: Work closely with DevOps teams to ensure smooth delivery and integration of QA processes.
. Leadership: Lead and mentor QA teams, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
. Database as a Service: Oversee QA strategies for database services, ensuring reliability and performance.
. Monitoring & Performance: Utilize tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and JMeter for monitoring and performance testing.
. Test Automation: Implement and manage test automation using tools such as Selenium, Cypress, and Postman.
. CI/CD Integration: Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab CI, and OpenShift Pipelines (Tekton).

Essential:
. SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be eligible and willing to undergo these checks.
. Experience with Red Hat OpenShift: Must have hands-on experience with Red Hat OpenShift, understanding its architecture, deployment models, and integration within QA processes.
. Experience testing containerised applications on OpenShift.
. Familiar with OpenShift architecture and deployment models (on-prem, hybrid, cloud).
. Deep understanding of Kubernetes as OpenShift is built on it.
. Experience testing container orchestration, scaling, and service reliability.
. CI/CD Pipeline Integration: Knowledge of integrating automated tests into OpenShift Pipelines (Tekton).
. Experience with continuous testing in CI/CD environments.
. Multi-Cluster Testing: Experience working with and testing in multi-cluster OpenShift environments.
. Security and Compliance in OpenShift: Knowledge of OpenShift's security features (RBAC, network policies) and secure container practices.
. Familiar with security testing in sensitive environments (Official and Secret levels).
. Monitoring & Performance Testing: Experience with Prometheus, Grafana, and other OpenShift monitoring tools for performance and scalability testing.
. Familiar with testing applications managed by OpenShift Operators.
. Proficiency with OpenShift logging and observability tools (Elasticsearch, Fluentd, Kibana).
. ISTQB Foundation (Desireable).

Relevant Tooling:
. Test Automation: Selenium/Cypress, Postman, JUnit/TestNG.
. Test Management: TestRail, Allure/Extent Reports.
. Cloud and Containerisation: Kubernetes, Docker, AWS/Azure/Google Cloud.
. Monitoring & Performance: Prometheus, Grafana, JMeter.
. Collaboration Tools: Jira, Confluence, Slack, Google Workspace.
. Security Testing: OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, Gauntlt, BDD-Security.
. Database Testing: SQL/NoSQL, Liquibase/Flyway.
. CI/CD & DevSecOps: Jenkins/GitLab CI, Nexus Repository, SonarQube, Snyk, Terraform/Ansible.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, the MOD guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply.

Armed Forces Covenant

MOD guarantees to interview veterans or spouses/partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates/military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.