Hybrid working. Offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh. While many team activities and community events will take place in-person, we expect a flexible hybrid approach, with time spent in either office based on business needs., Testing & QA: Cypress, Playwright, React Testing Library, Axe-core, Postman
CI/CD & DevOps: GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, OpenShift, AWS CDK
Monitoring & Logging: Grafana, AWS OpenSearch. Elasticsearch
Code Quality: SonarQube
Data & Migrations: PostgreSQL, MongoDB
Secrets & Security: AWS Secrets Manager, Ansible Vault, Secret Server, As the Lead Test Engineer, you will own and drive the testing practice for the organisation, with strategic responsibility for test policy, capability, and delivery quality. You will define and implement the overall testing strategy, build a high-performing testing community, and ensure consistent, high-quality outcomes across digital services. This senior leadership role is accountable for embedding quality assurance at all levels, guiding teams throughout the delivery lifecycle, and shaping the future of testing and accessibility across the organisation.
What We're Looking For
+ A strategic thinker with deep expertise in testing, quality assurance, and test engineering leadership.
+ Confident decision-maker with experience operating at scale and in high-risk environments.
+ Able to lead change, resolve complex issues, and build consensus across departments.
+ Skilled communicator able to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders at all levels.
+ A visible leader and role model for quality, accessibility, and inclusive delivery practices.
On a typical day you will…
+ Define and continuously evolve the organisational test strategy, quality standards, and policy for all delivery teams.
+ Lead strategic planning of test and quality practices across the department; ensure test activities are risk-based and value-driven.
+ Champion early engagement of quality and test professionals throughout the product lifecycle.
+ Lead, manage, and grow a multidisciplinary test community, building technical capability and supporting career development across grades (EO to SEO).
+ Represent the test function at senior leadership level, internally and externally, and influence wider digital quality strategy.
+ Set standards for test types, techniques, frameworks, and tooling across delivery areas; promote continuous improvement.
+ Guide and assure delivery teams on test coverage, planning, execution, and defect management.
+ Lead cross-cutting quality concerns including accessibility, performance, security, and reliability.
+ Oversee recruitment, retention, and workforce planning of testers and test leaders across the function.
+ Own staffing plans and budget allocation for the test function, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and delivery needs.
+ Sponsor and embed accessibility into test policy, delivery standards, and test lifecycle activity.
+ Analyse and act on defect patterns and quality metrics to influence roadmap and delivery improvement.
+ Drive adoption of automation, continuous integration, and test engineering best practices.
+ Build strong relationships across product, engineering, and design to influence quality at scale.
+ Guide the strategic integration of testing into CI/CD pipelines, ensuring scalable and robust release processes.
+ Promote external engagement through communities of practice, public speaking, and open knowledge sharing., We will assess you against the following behaviours at assessment stage:
+ Seeing the Big Picture
+ Leadership
+ Managing a Quality Service, + Responses explaining how you meet the required experience aspects of the role (maximum 500 words per answer in the spaces provided).
+ After the deadline for applications, all applicants will be sent a short on-line test via the platform Hackerrank, which will assess your technical proficiency
Please note:
+ If we receive a high volume of applications, we may complete an initial sift on Technical Criteria and results of the technical proficiency test
+ We reserve the right to invite candidates to participate in a telephone interview prior to being further assessed.
+ Applications that are not accompanied by CVs or responses exceeding 300 words per experience will not be considered.
+ Applicants who do not complete the online assessment will not be considered.
+ We would strongly recommend that your statement is written in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action & Result) and preparing your answers using software such as MS Word or Google Docs, and then uploading the file.
+ We strongly advise you review our policy on responsible use of AI in the application process. RoS may check answers with an AI detection tool and will contact you for a pre-screening call to verify your responses.
+ Applications and appointments are subject to a strict merit-based assessment process, in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles.
Stage two - assessment
If successful at application stage, you will be invited to an in-person interview which will include the following (assessments will offered in both our Edinburgh and Glasgow locations):
+ An interview consisting of behaviour, technical and experience questions
+ Pre-prepared presentation exercise
Information on Success Profiles
For further information on success profiles, visit our Success Profiles., Feedback will only be provided if you progress to interview stage.
Reserve List
In the event that further posts are required, a reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for up to 12 months.
Nationality and immigration status
In general, only nationals from the following countries (and associations of countries) are eligible for employment in the Civil Service: the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Commonwealth. EU nationals (with settled or pre-settled status), certain EEA nationals, Swiss and Turkish nationals are also eligible for employment. Detailed provisions on determining eligibility on the grounds of nationality and, where relevant, immigration status can be reviewed here.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a Basic Disclosure Scotland check.
Individuals working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
As a proud member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we welcome applications from disabled candidates. RoS is a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of selection process is used. To learn more about diversity at RoS please see our EDI strategy.
As part of the application process, we would like to invite you to please complete our diversity monitoring form. This information is not shared with recruitment panels.
If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via talent@ros.gov.uk. Please see this page for more information on adjustments.
DDaT supplement
This post is part of the Digital, Data and Technology profession (DDAT) and attracts a pay supplement. This is a tool which RoS uses to benchmark our salaries against current market rates. A review of the benchmark is undertaken every two years, this means that the supplement may go up or down depending on market activity. Advance notice will be given of any changes.
Further information
For further information relating to RoS, including:
+ Additional details on pay & benefits
+ The Civil Service Code
+ Complaints process
+ Use of AI in the application/recruitment process,
+ Please view our additional information page online.
If you have any questions, please contact talent@ros.gov.uk
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
We will assess you against the following experience and technical skills during the application and assessment process:
Key Technical Skills
+ Expert-level knowledge of test design, execution, and quality planning strategies.
+ Proven ability to lead test analysis and defect management across multiple delivery teams.
+ Strong understanding of risk-based testing and its application to strategic decision-making.
+ Advanced knowledge of test automation strategies, frameworks, and continuous delivery integration.
+ Experience with a wide range of testing tools and techniques (manual, automated, exploratory, accessibility).
+ Familiarity with performance and non-functional testing, and their impact on user outcomes.
+ In-depth understanding of accessibility standards (e.g. WCAG) and integration into testing processes.
+ Data-driven approach to managing quality metrics and driving improvement through insights.
+ Familiarity with the latest developments in test engineering technologies and open-source tooling.
Experience
+ Extensive experience in test strategy and quality assurance at departmental or enterprise level.
+ Proven track record of building and leading high-performing, multidisciplinary testing teams.
+ Experience guiding testing across complex, distributed services within agile delivery models.
+ Demonstrable contribution to test or accessibility communities within government or the wider public sector.
+ Experience engaging with senior stakeholders and shaping organisational digital strategy.
+ Experience leading the technical evaluation of test tooling and supporting the adoption of emerging technologies (e.g. contract testing, containerised test environments).
+ Responsibility for defining technical quality metrics and tooling strategy (e.g. test coverage, static analysis integration).
+ Experience overseeing the design and evolution of shared test automation frameworks across teams.
Join an award-winning organisation recognised for its technology and innovation. Registers of Scotland is a world-leading pioneer in land and property registration. Our full-stack teams design, architect, and build all our registration products in-house. We work to create digital solutions for the people of Scotland. You will get an opportunity to nurture your creativity and develop with us through access to the latest data, software engineering and product delivery techniques., o Work with purpose: working for the people of Scotland to set the bar for land and property registration worldwide.
o Flexible and hybrid working: depending on the role and team requirements, work when and where it's best for you and your stakeholders.
o Benefits: enjoy pay progression, pension contributions of up to 28.97%, up to a year's parental leave, and 42 days annual holiday.
o Investment in professional development: we invest in all our people so that they have the right skills to be productive and confident in their job.
o Diversity and Inclusion: We are an 'Investor in People' and a 'Disability Confident' employer. We are inclusive, stronger together, and committed to putting our people first.
o Positive work culture: RoS is an agile, digital organisation using leading-edge technology. Colleagues understand their role in achieving our strategy and have the autonomy to deliver.
To learn more about RoS and what we offer visit our careers pages or watch this short video.
Hear from our colleagues about their experience of working within our Digital, Data and Technology teams on our website.
Alongside your salary of £62,321, Registers of Scotland contributes £18,054 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.