Lead Test Engineer

Put your career on the map
Total Remuneration: Starting at £62,321 and rising to £77,490 with tenure
Pay Supplement: The base salary for this role is £57,705 - £71,750. This job qualifies for Digital, Data and Technology Annual Pay supplement 8% which is included in the total remuneration above.
Pension: 28.97% of base salary (RoS contribution)
Annual Leave: 42 days annual holiday
Duration: Permanent
Working Pattern: 35 hours per week. We are a flexible employer and will consider a variety of working patterns.
Location: 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.
Grade: C1

Closing date: 9 October at 11.59pm
Number of vacancies: 1

Registers of Scotland (RoS)
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.

This job is for you if you want

• Work with purpose: working for the people of Scotland to set the bar for land and property registration worldwide.
• Flexible and hybrid working: depending on the role and team requirements, work when and where it's best for you and your stakeholders.
• Benefits: enjoy pay progression, pension contributions of up to 28.97%, up to a year's parental leave, and 42 days annual holiday.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Our Tech stack

Languages & Frameworks: Java Spring Boot, Python Flask, TypeScript React
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

The Role

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.

Key Responsibilities
Essential Criteria - Skills and Attributes for Success

Experience/Technical:

• 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.

Behaviours

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service

Application Process

To apply, complete the online application form. You will need to submit: a CV outlining your career history and how you meet the technical criteria, and responses explaining how you meet the required experience aspects of the role.

Assessment Process

If successful at application stage, you will be invited to an in-person interview. Feedback will only be provided if you progress to interview stage.

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.

Further information

For further information relating to RoS, including additional details on pay & benefits, the Civil Service Code, complaints process, and use of AI in the application/recruitment process, please view our website.