QA Engineer

As a valued employee of the British Council you already help us deliver our mission to support peace and prosperity by building connections understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. For over 90 years we have shaped brighter futures through education arts culture language and creativity.

You are part of our organisation in over 200 countries and territories and where we are on the ground in more than 100 countries.

We connect. We inspire.

British Council Pay Band 8

Location: Krakw/Warsaw Poland

Department:Digital and Technology

Contract type: Indefinite Contract (permanent role)

Closing Date: 22nd May 2025 at 23:59 UK time

Interview Dates:To be confirmed later.

Salary: Starting at PLN 16300 gross per month if you are based in Warsaw. For other locations such as Krakw the starting salary is PLN 15150 gross per month. Additional benefits will be offered with details to be discussed at a later stage. We have two office locations in Poland: Krakw and Warsaw.

This role is open for applications from employees who are currently located and have the right to work in Poland. The successful candidate will remain in their current location/entity

You must have the legal right to work in Poland at the time of application as there is no relocation or sponsorship support.

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.

Role purpose

As a QA Engineer you will play a key role in ensuring quality within your team collaborating closely with engineers and designers. Embedded in the QA Engineering community you will actively contribute to best practices and knowledge sharing.

Guided by the Principal QA Engineer youll be involved throughout the software development lifecycle from understanding user needs to validating them through comprehensive testing. Youll work within multidisciplinary teams aligning with development processes and governance standards while implementing quality measures and advocating best practices in automated testing.

Your contributions will enhance the resilience efficiency and security of digital systems fostering collaboration with experts across Engineering Product Design and Operations shaping the organisations digital future.

Role context

The Digital and Technology Directorate leads the British Councils digital strategy and transformation. It creates and executes technology initiatives to fulfil the organisations mission and corporate priorities.

Key focus areas are:

• Creating digital products that attract and retain customers delivering business value through digital design and delivery expertise.
• Developing and optimising digital platforms that provide seamless customer interactions and use scalable and secure capabilities.
• Enhancing digital capability across the organisation.
• Enabling growth impact and efficiency through technology.

Digital and Technology is a global directorate structured into four divisions: Product Engineering Operations and Performance. Together they are responsible for creating maintaining and enhancing products services and platforms while driving performance optimisation.

Areas of responsibility include digital and technology strategy architecture infrastructure software development data innovation and cybersecurity. It ensures that technology initiatives are customer and value focused accessible efficient and secure.

This role is a senior role in the Engineering unit. The Engineering team brings together capabilities which include Architecture Software Engineering QA and Delivery expertise to ensure excellence in the development of our global products and services. Encompassing Reuse Buy and Build strategies it champions community of practices define solutions and corecapabilities and create amazing products.

Main accountabilities include but not limited to:

QA Engineering & Collaboration

• Maintain quality standards by collaborating with team members and the QA community.

• Share knowledge implement best practices and promote a culture of quality.
• Ensure adherence to coding and testing standards while contributing to team discussions.
• Collaborate with DevOps Team to utilise infrastructure knowledge during test design and ensure seamless system integrations.

Product/Programme/Service Delivery:

• Ensure quality in engineering stories by working with product leads and stakeholders.
• Perform automated and manual testing integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines.
• Maintain test scripts track defects in JIRA and support TDD practices.
• Create and refine test plans staying updated on industry best practices.

Risk & Compliance:

• Identify and mitigate system risks ensuring compliance with industry regulations and data privacy.
• Maintain monitoring and logging tools to detect potential security issues.

Analysis & Reporting:

• Understand product requirements report on quality metrics and inform stakeholders.

Efficiency & Optimisation:

• Identify costsaving opportunities while balancing business needs and quality standard

Role specific skills

• Technical Proficiency in Quality Assurance: Solid understanding of QA tools methodologies and practices with the aptitude to apply them effectively within teams.
• Collaboration and Peer Mentorship: Collaborate seamlessly with team members contributing to a culture of quality and sharing knowledge of best practices.
• Problem Solving Skills: Address quality challenges identify issues and collaborate with the team to find effective solutions ensuring product quality.
• QA Implementation: Ability to apply QA best practices and tools effectively aligning with team objectives and ensuring quality outcomes.

Role specific knowledge and experience

Minimum

• 4 years of experience in Quality Assurance specialising in both manual and automated testing within agile environments and proficiency in more than one programming language.
• Handson experience in analysing and optimising automated test performance.
• Proficiency in automation tools like Selenium or Appium and familiarity with scripting in Java Python or JavaScript.
• Understanding of standard testing methodologies (e.g. Blackbox Regression testing).
• Experience with testing frameworks or BDD tools such as Cucumber.
• Basic knowledge of RESTful APIs and testing API endpoints.
• Awareness of relational and NoSQL databases and basic query writing.
• Experience or familiarity with CI/CD tools for test integration and automation.
• Awareness of crossbrowser testing and mobile application testing tools.
• Understanding of the software development life cycle (SDLC) and the role of QA.
• Experience with defect tracking tools like JIRA and test management tools.
• Basic knowledge of web technologies (HTML CSS JavaScript) for debugging.
• Experience or exposure to performance testing tools to ensure system stability.
• Good written and oral communication skills to document tests and report defects

Desirable

• Previous experience in analysing infrastructure and resource utilisation with the ability to provide meaningful insights for improvement.
• Ability to modify and migrate existing tests between frameworks.
• An introduction to cloud platforms for testing (e.g. AWS Azure).
• A basic understanding of security testing and methodologies.
• Critical thinking and an eye for detail in the QA process.
• Exposure to security best practices in software testing.
• Familiarity with usability and user experience (UX) testing basics.
• Experience or awareness of Azure DevOps tools especially Azure Test Plans.
• Some exposure to automating web application tests using common tools or libraries.
• Familiarity with application monitoring tools such as Application Insights.
• Knowledge or experience with Azure SQL Database for application testing.

Education

Minimum

• Continuous learning through online courses workshops and industry conferences to stay updated with emerging technologies and best practices in Quality Assurance.

A connected and trusted UK in a more connected and trusted world.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion Statement

We are committed to equality diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from all sections of the community as we believe that a diverse workforce gives added depth to our work. The British Council is a Disability Confident Employer. The Disability Confident scheme helps challenge attitudes increase understanding of disability and ensure staff are drawn from the widest possible pool of talent. We guarantee an interview for disabled applicants who meet the minimum role requirements. We welcome discussions about specific requirements or adjustments to enable participation and engagement in our work and activities.

Safeguarding Statement

The British Council is committed to safeguarding children young people and adults who we work with. We believe that all children and adults everywhere in the world deserve to live in safe environments and have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse maltreatment and exploitation as set out in article 19 UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child) 1989. Appointment to positions where there is direct involvement with vulnerable groups will be dependent on thorough checks being completed in line with legal requirements and with the British Councils Safeguarding policies for Adults and Children.

If you experience any difficulties with submitting your application please email