Lead Quality Engineer (Ref: 18641)

Job summary

This is a Nationally based role

Job description

Lead Quality Engineer

Location: National*

Interviews: w/c 6th July 2026

Grade: Grade 6

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary**: London: £75,674 – £87,875 (which may include an allowance up to £12,201)

National: £71,381 – £83,700 (which may include an allowance up to £12,319)

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 8

Vacancy number: 18641

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP
Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.

We’re recruiting for Lead Quality Engineers here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Probation and Legal Aid Agency (LAA) Digital teams.

This role aligns against Lead Test Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework

Probation Digital builds and supports digital services that probation practitioners rely on every day to manage risk, record accurate information, and deliver effective supervision. These services directly support better outcomes for individuals, communities and the justice system as a whole. The work we do is incredibly important to public safety and to the people under probation supervision.

LAA Digital seeks to provide swift access to legal aid for those who need it and ensure efficient payment to providers of those services. The work we do is incredibly important to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

As a Lead Quality Engineer, you will provide expert guidance, coaching, and mentorship to teams, ensuring that best practices are adopted and embedded.

Our Lead Quality Engineers are expected to bring deep expertise in one of the following specialisms:

• Non-Functional (Performance)
• Test Automation(frameworks, tooling, CI/CD integration)
• AI in Quality Engineering (use of AI to enhance quality practices, test generation, analysis and optimisation)
• Engineering Quality Practices (unit testing, TDD, code quality, testability)
• Test Management & Capability(governance, quality metrics, community driver)
• Data (consistency, accuracy, integrity, interoperability and integration)

Candidates must select one specialism and clearly demonstrate depth in this area within their personal statement.

You will operate both as a quality leader and as an expert in your chosen specialism, contributing to the continuous evolution of our organisational strategic quality practices, advocating for early testing involvement and a shift towards a proactive, quality-first culture. Your role will be instrumental in influencing quality metrics, governance, and continuous optimisation of strategies, test plans, methodologies and standards related to your specialism.

This role requires a combination of technical expertise, leadership and the ability to influence organisational change.

The Team

You will be part of a forward thinking and innovative community, working closely with the engineering community, product managers, user researchers, designers, business analysts, and delivery managers to embed quality and testing excellence.

We cultivate an inclusive, diverse, transparent and agile environment. We believe in building quality into our products, systems and services and that quality is everyone’s responsibility. We encourage collaboration, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities:

• Work with the Head of Test and Head of Engineering to ensure strategic, robust, scalable and secure testing methodologies are adopted.
• Collaborate with the Head of Test and other Lead Quality Engineers to ensure a cohesive and balanced quality strategy, enabling the department with your specialism.
• Act as a subject matter expert in your specialist domain, providing high level guidance, governance and direction across teams, professions and the wider department.
• Establish and oversee quality metrics and key performance indicators, ensuring continuous improvements in quality practices and processes across teams.
• Mentor and coach teams in holistic testing practices, integrating quality practices from the beginning and at every stage of the software development lifecycle.
• Influence and lead decisions on functional and non-functional testing methodologies, ensuring they are effectively implemented across various domains such as API, Web UI, ETL, Mobile, Desktop, SaaS, and Infrastructure testing.
• Set organisational-wide standards for quality approaches that foster best practices.
• Define and implement test engineering best practices such as source control, SOLID principles, object-oriented programming, and continuous testing strategies.
• Influence technology choices across the organisation, ensuring appropriate and scalable solutions are adopted for testing and quality assurance that leverage automation effectively.
• Advance the adoption of CI/CD pipeline testing, ensuring seamless integration of automated tests within software delivery workflows and provide visibility of quality status across the organisation.
• Highlight dependencies and testing risks at an organisational level, ensuring quality practices are aligned with business objectives.
• Foster a culture of learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement, ensuring that teams adopt industry-leading testing methodologies and innovations.
• Provide thought leadership on quality engineering best practices, driving the long-term quality vision for the organisation.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

Essential

• Proven experience defining and leading test strategies within large-scale digital projects, with an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches.
• Ability to collaborate and influence cultural change and around quality engineering.
• Experience in mentoring and coaching teams, embedding quality engineering best practices, including in your specialism.
• Proven experience of all areas of the testing lifecycle with a strong knowledge of testing methodologies (functional and non-functional), tools, best practices and continuous integration and delivery approaches.
• Experience with test automation, test tools and frameworks, including Playwright, Selenium, Cypress, Postman, Bruno, Pact and CI/CD tooling
• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts effectively.
• Experience working with cloud-based testing environments for example AWS, Kubernetes.
• Experience in implementing innovative quality solutions and sharing their skills with others.
• Strong problem-solving and risk management skills.

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Salary Information**

Base salary for this role is from £75,674 – £85,257 (London) or £71,381 - £80,419 (National)

• New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
• Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
• Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.
• Candidates may also be eligible for a non‑pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £12,201 per year (London) or £12,319(National).This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.

The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk

Person specification

Please refer to the attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £71,381, Ministry of Justice contributes £20,679 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

How to Apply

In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession CapabilityandSuccess Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.

Stage 1 - Application and sift:

To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:

• A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
• A Personal Statement(no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 2 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
• Proven experience defining and leading test strategies within large-scale digital projects, with an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches.
• Ability to collaborate and influence cultural change and best practice around quality engineering – please can this be related to your chosen specialism.

Candidates who do not adhere to the Personal Statement directions above may be rejected on this basis.

A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on:

• Proven experience defining and leading test strategies within large-scale digital projects, with an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches.
• Experience with test automation, test tools and frameworks, including Playwright, Selenium, Cypress, Postman, Bruno, Pact and CI/CD tooling
• Experience working with cloud-based testing environments for example AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Microsoft, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

will be conducted before the sift.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements - Experience, Technical and the following Behaviours:

• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

As part of your interview, you will be asked to take part in a task/presentation that assesses your technical capabilities and behaviours on the criteria below:

• Proven experience defining and leading test strategies within large-scale digital projects, with an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches
• Proven experience of all areas of the testing lifecycle with a strong knowledge of testing methodologies (functional and non-functional), tools, best practices and continuous integration and delivery approaches
• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical concepts effectively
• Strong problem-solving and risk management skills
• Behaviours - Managing a Quality Service
• Behaviours - Changing and Improving

Further details will be provided if successful at sift

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the “Proven experience defining and leading test strategies within large-scale digital projects, with an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches” will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://www.jobtrain.co.uk/justicedigital/Job/JobDetail?JobId=1092

Attachments

LQE JD - Jun 26 (1) Opens in new window (docx, 50kB)