Lead Test Engineer - Inside IR35 - £600 to £640 per day via umbrella - 12-month contract - SC Clearance is essential (Experience in driving or supporting transformation from monolithic systems to distributed micro-services architectures in Java - is essential) Start date - 25/05/2026 is essential Leeds or Manchester based - in the office not home based Essential Skills & Experience: Technical Expertise: * Strong experience designing and implementing test strategies for microservices environments * Hands-on automation experience using: o Java, Selenium, Rest Assured o API, contract, and integration testing * ( Experience working with monolith and microservices systems is essential) Knowledge of: o CI/CD pipelines o Spring Boot-based applications o Performance testing fundamentals Modern Testing Practices: o Contract testing, API testing, and asynchronous messaging (e.g. Kafka) o Non-functional testing (performance, accessibility) * Experience with non-relational databases (e.g. MongoDB) * Automation-first mindset with ability to build reusable, maintainable frameworks Leadership: * Experience operating at Lead / Principal level * Ability to influence stakeholders without direct authority * Strong communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences ________________________________________ Tools & Technologies * Cloud: AWS * Test Frameworks: Selenium, Serenity BDD, Playwright * Contract Testing: Pactflow, Spring Cloud Contract * Messaging: Kafka * Databases: MongoDB * CI/CD & DevOps: GitHub, GitLab, Jenkins, Docker * Performance Testing: Gatling, K6 * Observability: Grafana, Prometheus, Splunk ________________________________________ What We're Looking For * A hands-on technical leader who can set direction and deliver * Someone comfortable working across multiple teams and scaling best practice * A proactive problem-solver with a strong quality-first mindset Please note you will receive an automated response advising you that we have received your CV. Morgan Philips Group is a global talent solutions business that disrupts conventional thinking in executive search, recruitment and talent consulting. We operate in over 18 markets in Europe, North & South America, Asia, and the Middle East & Africa. We understand that the future is digital and social, so we embrace the latest technology, including video ads and CVs, as well as social recruiting. Our innovative services are tailored to the new world of work yet we do not lose sight of the fact that employees be they existing and potential are ultimately human beings. We are committed to ensuring that all job applicants are treated equally, without discrimination because of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability or age.