Engineer - Lead Test Engineer

As Lead Engineer for test, you will provide technology leadership to set standards for test practices within the entire solution lifecycle. This role is part of the Chief Technology Office (CTO) team at Nationwide, reporting to our Chief Engineer.

We’re looking for engineering leaders with passion, creativity, determination and enthusiasm that will help us uncover the best ways of delivering value in the future. As an experienced engineer you will have the opportunity to call on your broad experience of testing and how it relates to other engineering aspects of technology delivery, including performance engineering, resilience, observability, security, etc.

We understand that learning is essential for us to grow as engineers, so we’ll provide access to learning resources, together with subscriptions to developer portals, regular training courses, and the time that you need to learn. We are also a Corporate Partner of the IET, offering the opportunity for industry recognised registration. There are plenty of opportunities for you to teach, too.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this job you'll spend at least two days per week, or if part time you'll spend 40% of your working time, at one of our offices. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. You can also find out more about our approach to hybrid working here.

This role can be based in either our Swindon offices or our London, Threadneedle Street office.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll work with colleagues within Nationwide test practices to set the standards for testing. This will include on-premise as well as cloud environments, applications as well as all aspects of infrastructure. It will cover the different types of testing, e.g. unit test, functional test, system test, integration test, as well as all aspects of non-functional test (performance, security, resilience, etc.).

Your responsibility will be to hold test practices to account for compliance to these standards. You will also work with the practices to seek opportunities for improving test effectiveness, e.g. through test automation or using life cycle paradigms such as test driven development. You can expect to work alongside experts in banking, security, risk and controls when setting standards or defining compliance processes.

Our senior engineers are player-coaches, so you’ll be comfortable setting goals and line managing the engineers within the team, be they on or offshore.

About you

• Strong experience of defining Test strategies, plans and providing engineering leadership for test execution.
• Strong experience of identifying appropriate test methods for different solution lifecyles, e.g. waterfall, agile, etc.
• Hands on experience of selecting and deploying test automation and management tools, e.g. Cucumber, Junit, Soucelabs, Selenium, Smartbear, etc.
• Demonstrable background of setting and enforcing test standards.
• Strong communication skills to engage stakeholders at a variety of levels
• Experience working in a regulated industry; financial services experience is desirable but not essential.

Our Customer First behaviours are all about putting customers and members at the heart of how we work together. You can strengthen your application by showing the behaviours that resonate with you, and how you might have already demonstrated these.

• Say it straight - This is about being honest and direct with good intent and saying what needs to be said in the room. It’s also about being clear, precise, and using language that we and, importantly, our customers and members can understand.
• Push for better - This is about aiming high and constantly looking for better in how we work together and serve our customers and members.
• Get it done - This is about prioritising what will have the greatest impact, being decisive and taking accountability for delivering on the end-to-end outcome.

We know applying for jobs can sometimes feel like you’re sending an application into a black hole. We review each application individually. So, it’s a good idea to call out your most relevant experience on your application to give yourself the best chance.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• A personal pension – if you put in 7% of your salary, we’ll top up by a further 16%
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year
• Life assurance worth 8x your salary
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Gympass – Access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness.
• Access to an annual performance related bonus
• Access to training to help you develop and progress your career
• 30 days holiday, pro rata
• Status car allowance 
• Individual healthcare cover 

What makes us different

Nationwide is the world’s largest building society. With over 15 million customers, we have a relationship with almost a quarter of the UK’s population. We’ve got the scale to compete with the big banks, but we’re not a bank.  

As a building society, we’re owned by our members – that’s our customers who have their current account, mortgage or savings with us. It means we can do things differently to deliver our Purpose – Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society.  

When you work at Nationwide, you can experience that difference for yourself. You’ll be part of a high-performing, purpose-driven organisation that offers rewarding career experiences and a highly competitive range of benefits to match. You’ll also be joining us at an important time as we seek to reach more and more people in the UK. We want everyone in the UK to know that they don’t have to bank with a bank. They can choose a modern mutual instead.  

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us. 

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application. 

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