Automation Architect

Business Unit / Team: Chief Operating Office
Salary range: £59,200 - £78,800 per annum DOE + red-hot benefits
Location: UK Flexible
Contract Type: Permanent

Get out of your comfort zone. Live a life more Virgin.

Our Team
We’re looking for a best in class Automation Architect that will report to the Quality Chapter Lead in the Quality Engineering Services team. As an automation architect you will be responsible for working with the rest of the testing team to embed the best practice of tool usage that you help define. We need someone who can bring a technical plan to life and help improve our efficiency and quality. This will include embedding of BDD/TDD best practice, Test Automation, CI/CD delivery approach and best in class testing solutions for the various technologies used by the bank.

What you’ll be doing
• Responsible for defining the Test Automation approach across the technologies used in the bank
• Responsible for establishing standards and best practice for the test automation and other enabling tools that are used in the bank
• Responsible for evaluation of new tools and technologies that can support the needs of the Quality Engineering Services team
• Responsible for ensuring tools selected integrate within the boundaries of the bank’s IT strategy
• Responsible for rolling out training for new tools, techniques, or standards across the relevant teams
• Inputting to the technical direction of the Quality Engineering Services team
• Providing technological leadership for enhancing test automation across the organisation, including defining processes for measuring code coverage and ROI of automation
• Supporting junior members of the team to enable them to upskill in various automation activities as required
• Documenting and enabling best practice for CI/CD integration with the solutions defined to ensure early feedback can be achieved
• Ensuring that everything you do focusses on how we achieve ‘shift left’ testing in the organisation

We need you to have
• Experience in implementing and embedding the Test Automation strategy across a large organisation
• In-depth knowledge of multiple open source/commercial tools to support the technologies operated by the bank
• Extensive hands-on test automation experience gained from designing, building, customising and maintaining test automation frameworks
• Experience is evaluating, deploying and rolling out new tooling across multiple teams
• The ability to understand complex change quickly, to assess test automation requirements and to communicate effectively with stakeholders
• Extensive knowledge and experience of working in agile, waterfall and DevOps methodologies
• Extensive experience of test automation and tooling
• Great presentation, oral and written communication skills with an ability to convey complex technical concepts and issues to non-technical colleagues

It’s a bonus if you have but not essential
• Experience Non-Functional Testing, how it can be shifted left and its integration with CI/CD pipelines.
• A real desire to get stuck in and help to develop and drive change in a team.

Red Hot Rewards
• Generous holidays - 38.5 days annual leave (including bank holidays and prorated if part-time) plus the option to buy more
• Up to five extra paid well-being days per year
• 20 weeks paid, gender-neutral family leave (52 weeks in total) for expectant parents and those looking to adopt
• Market-leading pension
• Free private medical cover, income protection and life assurance
• Flexible benefits include Cycle to Work, wellness and health assessments, and critical illness
• Ability to work anywhere in the UK (where the role allows)

And there's no waiting around, you'll enjoy these benefits from day one.

Feeling insatiably curious about this role? Apply as soon as you can. If we’re lucky to receive a lot of interest, we may close the advert early and would hate you to miss out.

We're all about helping you Live a Life More Virgin, so happy to talk flexible working with you.

Say hello to Virgin Money
We’re making great strides towards achieving our ambition of becoming the UK’s best digital bank. As a full-service digital bank with a heritage stretching back over 180 years, we`re a workforce to be reckoned with. We're putting the full power of our experience behind disruptive ideas that reinvent the role a bank plays in people's lives. We strive to create positive experiences for our millions of customers and our purpose, ‘Making You Happier About Money’, underpins everything we do. We believe in doing banking differently, innovating and working together to make a real difference. Join us and Live a Life More Virgin that empowers you with choice and flexibility in how you work.

Be yourself at Virgin Money
Our purpose is to make people happier about money, this means seeing and feeling the world as our customers do by creating a workforce that reflects the rich diversity of our customers and communities. We’re committed to creating an inclusive culture where colleagues feel safe and inspired to contribute, speak up and be heard.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we're committed to removing any obstacles to inclusion. If you need any reasonable adjustments or support making your application, contact our Talent Acquisition team careers@virginmoney.com

Now the legal bit
Living A Life More Virgin allows our colleagues to be based anywhere in the UK (if the role allows it), but we'll need you to confirm you have the right to work in the UK.

If you're successful in securing a role with us, there are some checks you need to complete before starting. These include credit and criminal record checks and three years' worth of satisfactory references. If the role is part of the Senior Manager Regime and Certification Regime, it requires enhanced pre-employment checks – we'll ask for six years of regulatory references, and once in the role, you'll be subject to periodic employment checks.