Lead Test Engineer

🚀 Lead Test Engineer | Fully Remote (UK)

I’m working with a UK‐based digital healthcare platform who are making a foundational hire into their engineering team. They are looking for a Lead Test Engineer to own and evolve their automated testing capability.

This is not a process‐heavy test management role. It is a hands‐on, technical leadership position with real ownership and influence.

🧩 The Context

• Small but growing tech team of around 15 to 20 engineers
• Historically manual‐heavy QA, now shifting towards automation‐led quality
• A solid Playwright automation framework already in place
• Need a permanent senior engineer to shape the long‐term testing strategy

🎯 The Role

You will take ownership of automated testing and help define how quality is delivered across the platform.

• Own and evolve a Playwright‐based automation suite
• Expand coverage across critical user journeys and high‐risk areas
• Improve test reliability, speed, and diagnostics
• Shape testing approaches for APIs, services, and integrations, not just UI
• Embed testing into CI/CD pipelines
• Work closely with developers to ensure testability is built in from the start
• Mentor and coach a small team of manual QA engineers
• No formal line management responsibilities

The emphasis is on pragmatism. Deciding what not to test is as important as deciding what to test, particularly in a regulated environment where speed and confidence must be balanced.

✅ What They’re Looking For

Must haves

• Strong, hands‐on Playwright experience
• Experience owning or shaping automation frameworks
• Experience testing APIs, services, or integrations
• CI/CD experience and understanding of quality gates
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills

Nice to haves

• .NET based systems
• Azure or Azure DevOps
• Serverless or microservices environments
• Experience in regulated sectors such as healthcare or finance

💷 Package & Setup

• Salary around £65k with some flexibility for standout profiles
• Fully remote within the UK
• Small team, high impact, and plenty of autonomy