Lead Automation Test Architect

Role Title: Lead Automation Test Architect
Location: Sheffield Hybrid Remote/Sheffield ; 3 days in office
Duration: 11-Dec-26
Rate £600

Role Description:

At the clients?we're?redefining Identity and Access Management (IAM) on a global scale?and launching a transformational programme?to?bridge?modern IAM technology?and solutions?with big bank scale and complexity. The IAM Transformation program is?forecast?to be 5 years plus with?significant change?to be designed, planned and implemented globally.?The?transformation encompasses all?aspects?of IAM from Authentication through to elevated access and will cover human and non-human identities.??
Key Responsibilities

• Create an overall testing strategy where the focus is Automation First with minimal manual effort required.
• Plan, develop, execute, maintain and improve Automated Test Framework and Automated Test Scripts for Web and Graph Database applications
• Jenkins pipeline creation and management for running automated tests, generating reports and notifying team about test results to streamline the CI/CD process.
• Lead, mentor, and manage other engineers within the team
• Able to develop and execute test plans, test cases, test data, test scenarios, and other testing related plans and documentation based on the requirements and technical specifications
• Test data generation
• Accurately report and track testing related defects and issues, by writing or automating, effective and thorough bug reports, attend triage meetings and verify bug fixes
• Identify process and application issues and provide suggestions to improve
• Learn new technologies and adapt to them as needed
• Communicate progress regularly to senior stakeholders and programme leads, understanding the level of information relevant to the recipient
• Generate regulatory evidence as needed
• FR / NFR traceability
• Identification and collating test entry and exit criteria
• Test case review/QA for coverage and traceability to requirements/design
• Liaison with business areas/technical leads re SIT/OAT/UAT scenario definitions as required
• Analysis of design and other documents for testability
• Testing functions and decision points ""As Code"", such as Policy as code
• Strong technical leadership and process improvement - Establish automation testing standards, best practices, and governance frameworks across the organization

Skills required:

• Extensive experience within Identity and Access Management
• Solid experience of at least 5 years in a lead automation role, skilled in creating frameworks with strong coding experience e.g Java, Playwright, Python, Typescript, Cypher, Scala and API tooling (such as Insomnia, Apidog or Postman)
• Deep IAM domain knowledge
• Testing functions and decision points ""As Code"", such as Policy as code
• Graph and event-driven validation
• Automation-first test experience
• Layered test architecture
• Risk-based test prioritisation
• RBAC / ABAC / ReBAC / PBAC
• OPA / Rego policy testing
• Policy explainability validation
• REST API automation, API Gateway testing, Batch ETL testing
• Consumer-driven contract testing
• Idempotency testing
• Replay and reprocessing testing
• Graph data validation (Neo4j)
• Containerised test execution
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills and stakeholder engagement at all levels
• Experience of using a range of automation tools and experience of test tool selection/recommendations based on assessment of the environment/landscape.
• Experience in creating an overall test strategy that fully defines the approach, environment, scope, risks and resources required.
• Experience of delivering within an Agile methodology.
• Cloud testing approaches and methodology, especially GCP, but also AWS, Azure, Entra, Ali Cloud and other systems such as ServiceNow, AD, ADLDS
• Some knowledge of JMeter, Gatling, LoadRunner, NeoLoad or similar tools for load, stress, and volume testing including any licensing requirements, configuration, dashboards and reporting
• Experience of testing graph database management systems (GDBMS) Graph platform engineering, Neo4j Basics
• GDBMS Performance Analysis
• Extensive experience using JIRA and Xephyr tooling
• Good experience of executing defined test plans including coordination, tracking and reporting
• Positive team player working as part of the overall test team,
• Any exposure to SailPoint IdentityIQ, Identity warehousing, and working with protocols and formats for data ingestion such as SCIM, REST API, LDAP, OIDC and CSV
• Team Leadership & Management - Proven ability to lead, mentor, and manage other engineers within the team
• DevOps & CI/CD Integration - Experience of GitOps Repos. Ability to integrate automation tests into GitLab CI/CD pipelines and implement shift-left testing practices
• Pub Sub and MQ