Senior Quality Engineer

At Delta Technology Hub, the Virgin Atlantic team, we're looking for a Senior Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET). You will be a part of quality engineering efforts across our web platforms. This role goes beyond test execution; you will help improve test architecture, improve automation coverage, and influence product quality across both frontend and backend systems. You will be a part of a team playing a key role in building scalable automation frameworks, integrating quality practices into CI/CD pipelines, and ensuring the delivery of highly reliable, secure, and performant web applications.

The candidate will have responsibilities across the following functions:

Test Architecture and Automation:

• Evolve scalable, maintainable web automation frameworks.
• Share your expertise in automation strategy across UI, API, integration, and end-to-end testing layers.
• Build robust automated test suites for functional, regression, integration, and non-functional testing.
• Develop reusable automation components, utilities, and libraries.
• Ensure high automation coverage while optimising execution speed and reliability.
• Drive test automation standards, patterns, and engineering best practices.

Technical Leadership:

• Mentor junior QA Engineers and SDETs; establish coding and automation standards.
• Peer code reviews for automation solutions and contribute to overall engineering quality.
• Partner with development teams to improve application testability, observability, and diagnostics.
• Drive adoption of Shift-Left Testing and Quality Engineering practices.
• Champion quality throughout the software development lifecycle.

CI/CD and DevOps Integration:

• Maintain automated testing within CI/CD pipelines.
• Integrate automated tests into Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or equivalent platforms.
• Be a part of the quality gates and automated release validation.
• Optimise test execution pipelines for speed, stability, and scalability.
• Support continuous testing and continuous delivery initiatives.

Frontend and Backend Quality Assurance:

• Automate testing for responsive web applications across multiple browsers and devices.
• Validate frontend functionality, accessibility, usability, and cross-browser compatibility.
• Develop and execute API, service-layer, and backend integration tests.
• Verify microservices, REST APIs, event-driven systems, and database integrations.
• Ensure data integrity and system reliability across distributed architectures.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• Work closely with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and DevOps teams.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, technical design reviews, and release readiness activities.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand and measure quality objectives.

Requirements:

• 4+ years of experience in QA Automation / SDET roles with a strong focus on web applications.
• Bachelor's degree in engineering, Computer Science, Information Science, Business/Management, Mathematics/Statistics, Economics, or other relevant quantitative field.
• Expert-level programming skills in: C#, JavaScript, TypeScript.
• Strong experience with: NET /. NET Core, Selenium WebDriver, WebdriverIO, Cucumber BDD Framework, REST API Testing.
• Good understanding of software architecture, object-oriented programming, and design patterns.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Experience integrating automated testing into Azure DevOps pipelines.
• Proficiency with Git and modern source control workflows.
• Strong knowledge of SDLC, STLC, Agile, Kanban and Quality Engineering practices.

Behavioural Competencies:

• Lead initiatives with high accountability, create a collaborative environment with a solution-based approach.
• Serve as a trusted advisor and mentor for the team, offering technical advice.
• Ability to communicate with precision, engaging team and stakeholders to build trust and reliable working relationships across cross-functional teams and geographies, enabling organisational alignment.
• Ability to set priorities with the team by understanding interdependence, inspiring team members with consistent focus, quality output, and timelines.
• Constantly keep oneself updated on current technology and trends to drive innovative decisions through piloting forward-thinking approaches to complex problems in one's own area of work.
• Inquisitive to understand customer priorities and business challenges while creating value for technical solutions.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Selenium or Playwright.
• Experience with BDD frameworks such as SpecFlow or Cucumber.
• Exposure to performance testing tools such as JMeter.
• Experience testing microservices and distributed systems.
• Knowledge of accessibility testing standards (WCAG).
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure preferred).
• Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes environments.
• Exposure to contract testing and service virtualisation.
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools such as Application Insights and Datadog.

Key Competencies:

• Good understanding of system design and automation architecture.
• Good debugging and root-cause analysis skills.
• Strategic thinking with a continuous improvement mindset.
• Strong communication skills.
• Ability to influence engineering teams and drive quality initiatives.
• Passion for engineering excellence and modern quality practices.

What Success Looks Like:

• Highly stable, scalable, and maintainable automation frameworks adopted across teams.
• Significant reduction in manual regression effort and execution time.
• Increased automation coverage across UI, API, and integration layers.
• Faster, more reliable releases through CI/CD quality gates.
• Early defect detection and reduced production incidents.
• Clear visibility of quality metrics, automation coverage, and release readiness.
• Strong quality culture embedded within engineering teams.
• Improved customer experience through consistent delivery of high-quality web applications.