QA Tester

About Methods

Methods is a 100M IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based we apply our skills in transformation delivery and collaboration from across the Methods Group to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred safe and designed for the future.

Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies system integrators and software houses - with people technology and data at the heart of who we are we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients staff communities and the planet.

We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.

Predominantly focused on the public-sector Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio.

Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022. Alten is a global engineering firm with approximately 57000 employees specializing in engineering and IT services.

Key Responsibilities

• Hands-on Testing: Execute functional regression and exploratory testing across web and mobile applications.
• Automation: Build and maintain automated test scripts within existing frameworks to support CI/CD pipelines.
• Collaboration: Participate in Agile ceremonies (Stand ups Sprint Planning Refinement Retrospectives) to provide test effort estimations ensure requirements are testable and provide accurate reports of the testing activities.
• Defect Management: Identify document and track defects working closely with developers to ensure timely progression and resolution.
• Technical Advocacy: Help the team maintain high standards for code quality and test coverage.
• Continuous Learning: Use your dedicated development time to explore new tools (e.g. Playwright Cypress K6) and share knowledge with the wider QA community.

• Technical Mindset: Proven experience in software testing with a strong understanding of the SDLC and Agile methodologies.
• Test Planning: Writing and maintaining test plans including product quality risk coverage quality gates and test completion.
• Test Design: Ability to write clear concise test cases based on user stories and technical requirements.
• Cloud Platforms: Exposure to testing in cloud-native environments (AWS MS Azure or GCP). Experience with integrating testing as part of the Secure-SDLC and CI/CD tooling in an DevSecOps environment.
• Automation Skills: Practical experience with automation tools (e.g. Selenium Playwright or Cypress) and an understanding of TDD/BDD methodologies (Cucumber/Gherkin).
• Full testing lifecycle: Perform testing (unit system integration acceptance testing)
• API Testing: Experience testing RESTful APIs using tools like Postman SoapUI or ReadyAPI.
• Modern Tooling: Familiarity with version control and source code hosting platforms (Git/GitHub) and how testing integrates into CI/CD pipelines. Awareness of Application Lifecycle Management and IT Service Management using tools such as Splunk and ServiceNow.
• Analytics: Experience with analytics and interactive visualization tools such as Grafana or Kibana
• Problem Solving: A natural curiosity and the ability to troubleshoot complex technical issues.
• Communication: Ability to explain technical bugs to non-technical stakeholders clearly and effectively.

Desirable Requirements

• Accessibility: Experience with WCAG standards and accessibility testing tools (e.g. Axe Wave).
• Performance & Security: Basic knowledge of performance testing (JMeter/K6/Gatling) or security principles (OWASP Top 10).
• Infrastructure: Understanding of containerization (Docker) and how it affects the test environment.
• Public sector: Experience with testing Government citizen facing services.

Certifications

ISTQB Software Testing Foundation or Advanced Certification.

By joining us you can expect:

• Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience
• Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society
• Strong inspiring and thought-provoking leadership
• A supportive and collaborative environment.

As well as this we offer:

• Development access to LinkedIn Learning a management development programme and training
• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme
• Social Breakfast Tuesdays Thirsty Thursdays and Pizza on the last Thursday of each month as well as commitment to charitable causes
• Time off 25 days a year
• Pension Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Discretionary Company Bonus based on company and individual performance
• Life Assurance of 4 times base salary
• Private Medical Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Worldwide Travel Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)