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Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
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Information Technology
Quality
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About the job
Job summary
The Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) profession enable the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. They do this by designing, building, and running the services that help people apply for visas or passports, support policing and counter-terrorism operations, and protect the UKs borders.
Team members have specialised knowledge and a calling to build on it. We want the best people to come to the Home Office and work in the diverse roles and communities theyre passionate about. This is how we produce exceptional outcomes.
The Home Office has created a government-leading bespoke career framework that enables career planning, while ensuring our people can be the best they can be. The framework includes Heads of Role, who are industry specialists. They build communities, set standards for what good looks like, and ensure we have the right people in the right jobs at the right time.
We also have a profession management unit, which aims to provide the best professional experience to all our technical staff with a real passion for and focus on continuous professional development. We invest heavily in our people as part of growing our collective capability.
Job description
Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) is an important part of the Home Office mission. Everyone is responsible for quality, and we have a team of skilled people who make sure quality is delivered in the most effective way. This means getting fast feedback, understanding how a service performs, and helping the development team to make more informed decisions. We value automating as much of the test effort as possible allowing our team of specialists and domain experts to undertake better evaluations.
You can see more here Quality, Assurance and Testing – Home Office Careers
As a Lead Test Engineer based in the Police and Public Protection Technology (PPPT) portfolio, you will determine and drive the test engineering approach within your programme area. You will determine and implement approaches to assure, measure and build quality into every phase of the software development life cycle. You will define and implement product level test engineering strategies in large scale or complex projects while ensuring that these are aligned to portfolio level Test Engineering approaches and follow QAT Test Engineering principles. You will also be actively contributing to portfolio level Test Architecture.
PPPT is structured into several large-scale delivery portfolios, each portfolio delivering significant national scale capabilities to our customer base, including:
The National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP), which aims to build a modern and affordable Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS) to replace the Police National Computer (PNC) and the Police National Database (PND), LEDS is a unified, cloud-based system which will provide a joined-up view of Law Enforcement records and intelligence.
The National Data Systems Portfolio – encompasses 18 critical national systems that are vital to U.K. Policing and the wider Law Enforcement Community across areas such as automatic number plate recognition, child sexual exploitation, firearms and offender management. These include a mixture of legacy systems and new critical infrastructure currently being delivered.
Homeland Security IT – deliver capability to support counter terrorist operations applying DDaT governance. The use of technology underpins governments counter-terrorism strategy. We design, build, and deploy technology services, exploiting the opportunities presented by modern digital technologies, aimed at developing world-class counter-terror operational capabilities.
Home Office Biometric (HOB) capabilities and products. HOB is an existing programme delivering shared, central biometric capabilities for a range of Home Office stakeholders and users.
You will be responsible for solving engineering challenges of QAT approaches adopted in projects that you directly work with or are consulted for. This involves developing new frameworks, reviewing, and enhancing existing frameworks to help deliver scalable solutions. You will be expected to build relationships across other DDaT professions and work with senior business stakeholders, understanding their needs and translating them into a test engineering approach.
You will lead a team of engineers including coaching and mentorship to develop individuals and the wider Test Engineering community.
To help the QAT practice thrive, you will also keep up to date with emerging tools and approaches and work out how these could help the organisation to deliver better success. You will be an active contributor and a mentor within the QAT Test Engineering community. You will also promote the value of QAT within the larger DDaT community.
There is a link to how it feels to work in QAT on our GOV.UK site here: Day in the life of a QAT’er
Location:
QAT base locations are primarily in Croydon, with a small number of roles in Central London. All QAT roles require flexibility of location, including working from supplier sites and other business locations across the UK and occasionally abroad.
Please note: if you are currently an agency member of staff working within the Home Office, you can only apply for roles that are advertised externally, i.e., outside the civil service. If you are eligible to apply for a role, you are required to select yourself as an external applicant and not internal when submitting your application on Civil Service jobs. This will prevent any delays in pre-employment checks should you become successful in being made an offer of employment after the Interview stage.
Person specification
Your main day to day responsibilities will be (but not limited to):
- Ownership of existing test frameworks and actively reviewing them, identifying need for new frameworks, and delivering these at scale.
- Leading and coaching a team of test engineers and helping solve technical challenges that the team may require assistance with, evaluating efficacy of test engineering processes across projects and suggesting improvements. Promoting convergence, creating shared capabilities and data driven approaches within test engineering.
- Embracing innovation – evaluating tools and recommending approaches that can benefit testing. For instance ones used for virtualisation, data mocking, contract testing or other automated integration testing techniques, and determining tools and approaches for automated test data management, test results aggregation and release management. Enabling precise, real-time reports of automation test runs and also roll-up reports.
- Managing test infrastructure usage and determining approach to running distributed, parallel tests. Using container & cloud technology to orchestrate faster, scalable tests while optimising costs.
- Working with teams to promote use of code scan, code quality, accessibility testing and observability tools.
- Participating in the QAT Test Engineering community as well as QAT recruitment to help it grow.
Essential criteria
- Programming using Java, .NET, Python, Node.js or similar to write secure, reusable, and maintainable automated tests and test utilities. You should be able to use concepts like thread management, synchronisation, resource, and memory management to increase the efficiency of test engineering solutions. Using scripting languages like Bash or PowerShell.
- Using tools like Selenium or similar for front-end automation, RestAssured or similar for API testing, Serenity BDD, build tools like Maven or Gradle and using Git to manage branches and merge requests through distributed version control. A solid understanding of protocols and architectural styles involved in implementing UI and backend API for applications.
- Working with unit test frameworks like JUnit or similar, assertion libraries and data serialisation tools.
- Working with POM test design pattern and SOLID code design principle. Implementing coding guidelines and standards.
- Extensively using CI/CD tools for pipeline automation and a solid understanding of release pipeline concepts. Familiarity with containerization platforms like Docker and container orchestration platforms like Kubernetes.
- Ability to actively engage with performance testing engineers and work alongside them to identify performance bottlenecks. Ability to read, interpret and articulate performance reports.
The skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office DDaT Profession Skills and Competency Model (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Please see below for the relevant skills required for your role:
Strategy & Architecture:
- Information Strategy
- Strategic Planning (ITSP) Level 4
- Technical Strategy and Planning
- Domain Experience Level 4
Development and implementation:
- Systems Development
- Test, Analysis, Design and Execution Level 3
- Automation and Tooling Level 4
- Performance Testing Level 4
- Installation and Integration
- Integration and Assurance Level 3
Desirable Criteria
Ideally you will also have the following skills or some experience in:
Implementing architectural design principles in multiple test solutions.
Experience deploying and managing testing solutions on Cloud (AWS, GCP etc) and a good understanding of Cloud resources.
Using ML/AI in the context of test engineering.
You may also hold the following desirable qualifications or have equivalent experience:
Computer Science related degree
Associate or Professional level technical certification for programming languages or technologies like Cloud
ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level
BCS Agile Practitioner
ISQi Certified Agile Tester
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
Benefits
£16,470 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.
Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Youll also have access to the same benefits available to all civil servants in the Home Office:
You can find more information at Benefits – Home Office Careers.
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:
- A CV detailing job history/qualifications/skills
- A statement of suitability (personal statement) (maximum 1250 words)
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
The statement of suitability should be aligned to demonstrate your skills and experience for the role and how you meet the Essential criteria as detailed in the job advertisement.
The CV is for information purposes only and will not be marked.
The sift will be held on the statement of suitability (personal statement).
If successful at sift you will be invited to and interview using behaviour based questions and you will be required to participate in a technical assessment activity as part of the recruitment process.
This will help you to demonstrate your ability in a business context and you will receive an email with further details no later than 1 week before your interview.
Sift and Interview Date
Sift is expected to take place week commencing 11th September 2023.
Interviews are expected to take place from week commencing 25th September 2023.
We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.
Interviews will be carried out via video. Candidates will be required to have access to:
- A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam
- Good internet connection
- Microsoft Teams
PLEASE NOTE: Due to time constraints we may not be able to offer alternative interview date(s). It is therefore expected that candidates who are successful at sift stage will make themselves available during the above time frame given.
Further information
Please read the essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement.
If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application, please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.
For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV. A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role, or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills
UK residency and security requirements
You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years. This is because this post requires the successful candidate to have Security Check (SC) clearance, and you need to have been a resident in the UK long enough for sufficient checks to take place. These checks will only take place after the job offer has been accepted.
Visa sponsorship
We are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License.
This role can be based in any of the advertised location/regions, with an occasional travel required.
You will be located in a regional office and under Home Office hybrid working practices you will be required to attend a Home Office workplace on an average of 40% of your working hours.
Successful candidates will be able to obtain further information from their line manager.
Hybrid working enables employees to work partly in their workplace(s) and partly at home in line with the Home Office Hybrid Working policy. A hybrid working pattern may be available, where business needs allow for this role. Applicants can discuss what this means with the vacancy holder if they have specific questions on what this entails.
Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.
We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.
Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidates responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.
Transfer Terms: Voluntary.
If you are invited to an interview you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.
Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.
Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Reasonable Adjustments
If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
- Complete the Assistance Required section in the Additional Requirements page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a language service professional
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the Contact point for applicants section.
Feedback
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
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).
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Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Optimus AC Recruitment
- Email : OptimusACRecruitment@homeoffice.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Further information
