Lead Automation Engineer

Were Capital on Tap
Capital on Tap started because small businesses were underserved. Big banks were slow their products werent fit for purpose and small business owners often couldnt access what they needed. We set out to fix that.

Today were a financial platform - not just a credit card company. We offer a best-in-class business credit card SME-focused spend management platform a savings product that hit 1 billion in funds within its first year and a growing suite of tools and financial products that make running a small business easier.

1000 employees 20bn in annual card spend 200000 customers 17000 Trustpilot reviews averaging 4.7 stars and were profitable. Weve done a pretty good job so far but were just getting started!

Porto Matosinhos 2 Days in the Office

Quality Engineering at Capital on Tap

Quality Engineering is embedded across our mission teams partnering with Engineering Product and UX to champion quality at every stage of the software lifecycle. We build quality in from the start - not bolt it on at the end.

The Lead Automation Engineer is a critical hands-on role embedded within a Mission team. Reporting functionally to your mission teams Lead you will be the quality champion for your specific feature set. You will leverage standardised automation tooling to maximise test coverage accelerate delivery velocity and maintain the highest quality standards for our products.

What Youll Be Doing

Mission Team Quality Ownership & Strategy

• Define and own the comprehensive testing strategy for your domain (e.g. payments banking onboarding) ensuring end-to-end quality and compliance in partnership with the QA Team Lead.
• Act as the primary contributor for automation; design develop and maintain robust automated tests (API UI Mobile).
• Champion a Shift-Left mindset working with Product Owners and Developers from the refinement stage to ensure quality is engineered in from the start.
• Directly manage the mission teams automation targets and use data-driven insights (MTTD/MTTR defect escape rates) to predict high-risk areas.

Technical Leadership & Tooling Adoption

• Serve as the mission teams expert on central automation frameworks driving consistent adoption of CI/CD processes and quality gates.
• Identify team-specific gaps and collaborate with the central Tooling Team to develop custom helpers or data generators that enhance the core framework.
• Ensure automated test suites are fully integrated into CI/CD pipelines to enable rapid reliable deployment and a fail fast mechanism.
• Coordinate complex technical testing including microservices security (OWASP ZAP) and performance testing.

Collaboration Coaching & AI Innovation

• Coach and upskill developers and junior QA engineers on automation best practices and test design patterns.
• Champion the use of AI tools (Claude GitHub Copilot) for complex tasks like architecture exploration incident investigation and test generation.
• Leverage component testing service virtualization and contract testing to reduce dependencies and enable independent team testing.
• Define test data strategies and environment requirements to support both automated and exploratory testing.

Our Values & Culture

• Just Pilot: We never settle for good enough. We pilot new ideas fast ask questions to figure it out and scale quickly.
• Why Not Today Fast is as slow as we go - speed and simplicity gives us a competitive advantage.
• Be a Buddy: We tap in from day one to help the team we do the right thing even if its hard.
• Owners and Dates: We dont chase people. If you own a task and agree to a date the expectation is that it gets done.
• Feedback: We want our employees to flourish so we regularly provide direct and constructive feedback.

Were Looking For

• Experience: 5 years in QA Automation/SDET roles with proven success leading quality within an Agile team.
• Programming: Strong proficiency in modern languages essential for automation specifically C# or JavaScript/TypeScript.
• Fintech Expertise: Experience testing complex financial systems (card issuing transaction processing or credit risk).
• Automation Mastery: Hands-on experience with tools for UI (Playwright Cypress) and API (REST Assured Other API testing frameworks).
• Cloud & CI/CD: Familiarity with Azure Git and integrating automated testing into deployment workflows.
• Leadership: Ability to influence without authority encouraging developers and POs to prioritise automation and quality.

Even if you dont have all of the necessary skills we still encourage you to apply.

Interview Process

• First stage: 30-minute intro CV review and values with Talent Partner
• Second stage: 45-minute Tech Chat with Team Manager
• Final stage: 60-minute Code Pairing 30-minute Stakeholder Interview with Engineering & Product

Diversity & Inclusion
We welcome consider and encourage applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusivity. Join us in creating a space where authenticity thrives and everyone can do their best work.

Great Work Deserves Great Perks

Check out our benefits:

Private Healthcare through AdvanceCare
Anniversary Rewards (-week fully paid sabbatical)
Paid Car Parking
36 days holiday (inclusive of public holidays with public holidays carried over if they fall on a weekend)
Annual Learning and Wellbeing Budget
6 free therapy sessions per year
Free drinks and snacks in our offices

Other Info
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Excited to work here Apply!
If youd like to progress your career within our fast growing profitable fintech then click apply and we will aim to get back to you within 3 working days (during busy periods this could take up to 5 working days.)