QA Lead & Automation Engineer

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This review offers a professional perspective on the QA Lead & Automation Engineer role in Birmingham, designed to guide prospective candidates in their career journey.

QA Lead & Automation Engineer - Birmingham (Assistant Vice President)

This is an exceptional opportunity for a motivated and experienced Test Automation Engineer to significantly influence the strategic direction of test automation within a leading, award-winning department at the forefront of Bank Technology, Data & Innovation (TDI). As the QA Lead Automation Engineer for Archiving Technology, you will be instrumental in shaping a robust and consistent test automation approach across the domain, collaborating closely with Test Engineers and Product colleagues.

Advantages for Potential Candidates:

• Strategic Impact: You'll have the chance to define and drive the test automation strategy, directly impacting the quality and efficiency of cutting-edge technology.
• Leadership & Mentorship: This role offers leadership responsibilities, including coaching and mentoring junior Quality Engineers, fostering their growth and development in test automation.
• Continuous Improvement Focus: The position emphasizes continuous improvement, providing ample opportunities to analyze results, refine frameworks, and implement best practices.
• Comprehensive Benefits Package: Deutsche Bank offers a competitive salary, a generous non-contributory pension, 30 days of holiday plus bank holidays (with options to purchase more), Life Assurance, Private Healthcare, and a suite of flexible benefits including retail discounts, a Bike4Work scheme, and gym memberships.
• Work-Life Balance: The adoption of a hybrid working model acknowledges evolving employee expectations, allowing for a flexible working pattern that suits individual needs.
• Company Culture & Values: You'll be joining an organization that prioritizes employee development and wellbeing, with a strong commitment to CSR programmes and volunteering leave. Deutsche Bank also holds a distinguished reputation for gender equality and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
• Career Development: The bank invests in its employees through training, development programs, expert coaching, and a culture of continuous learning, supporting career progression.

Key Considerations for Your Career Path:

• Strategic Thinking: The role requires a proactive approach to defining and implementing test automation strategies in large-scale IT environments, ideally within Agile, CI/CD, and DevOps frameworks.
• Technical Depth: A strong understanding of TDD and BDD techniques (including Gerkin and Cucumber syntax) is essential, as are design patterns for automated testing (e.g., Page Object Model, Factory Design Pattern, Façade, Singleton).
• Tooling Expertise: Proven experience with a range of tools is critical, including Selenium & Serenity, TestNG, JUnit, LoadRunner/Performance Centre, JMeter, and integration with CI/CD tools like Jenkins & TeamCity.
• Non-Functional Testing: Demonstrable experience in defining Non-Functional Requirements and developing performance testing automation frameworks is a significant requirement.
• Collaboration & Communication: The ability to effectively communicate and share knowledge about approaches and solutions to test automation challenges with colleagues is vital.
• Process Standardization: A key aspect of the role involves standardizing test automation frameworks, coding guidelines, and approaches across different product layers (UI, API, Database), as well as defining Non-Financial Risk and performance testing standards.
• Familiarity with Project Management Tools: Good working knowledge of JIRA, Confluence, SharePoint Online, O365, and ServiceNow will be beneficial for day-to-day operations.

This role presents a significant opportunity for a seasoned QA professional to make a lasting impact on the technological landscape of a globally recognized financial institution, offering both challenging work and comprehensive support for your professional and personal growth.